Movie remakes are dodgy business, yet every now and then a remake works artistically—and finds a new audience. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) belongs on the short list of recent successes. Of course, a sequel to the remake was inevitable.
In this summer’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the apes are well on their way to dominance—at least in the San Francisco Bay area. The music from the film, by Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino (released on CD by Sony Classical), quotes from the scary strings of Gyorgy Ligeti (heard on 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the anvil choruses of Richard Wagner. It shoots for bucolic moments of rest in between the heart-pounding urgency of apes scrambling to battle with the remaining bands of hard-pressed humans.
As in many contemporary world conflicts, reasonable minds could find compromise, but in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, humans and simians number hard-liners in their ranks. The music helps tell the tale.