Conquest of the Planet of the Apes: What Should have Been the most radical sci-fi movie

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia, talking about Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Most sci-fi fans do not realize that Conquest was a direct allegory on the Watts race riots of 1965. The film's original ending would have daringly had the Apes killing all their human oppressors, but the studio forced the filmmakers to tone down the script, for fear of offending people. Even still, Conquest is the most politically radical of a fairly radical series of movies. In my opinion, film sci-fi experienced its pinnacle in the late 60's and early 70's, with radical films like Punishment Park, Privilege, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and A Clockwork Orange breaking new ground in what could be told through science fiction narrative. Even relatively minor fair, from this era, such as Soylent Green and Silent Running, tried to be politically relevant. Then Star Wars came along and ruined everything. Far from being the zenith of the genre, Star Wars represented its utter debasement to "kiddie" interests: ray guns, droids, and the like. It is only now, with films like District 9 and Gattaca, that we are seeing a return to politically relevant sci-fi. Rumors are that the new Apes movie will be a take on the Conquest mythology. Here's hoping. It couldn't come at a more auspicious time.

"Caesar has Breck marched out to be executed. MacDonald appeals to Caesar's humanity to show mercy to his former persecutor. Caesar ignores him, and declares henceforth apes everywhere will repeat the revolt that happened in the Ape Management complex. The revolution will lead inevitably to mankind's fall after which the apes will dominate the Earth and enslave the few remaining humans. Breck and all the other humans are then beaten to death as the film abruptly ends.

Test audiences reacted badly to the original ending. The studio re-edited the ending with existing footage. The plot twist of the chimpanzee Lisa saying the word "No" was added to the film via dubbing a new voice-over and Roddy McDowall was brought back to record new dialogue. The new ending allowed Caesar to show some degree of mercy and to leave the audience with the hope of peaceful co-existence between apes and humans. This ending was also changed in hopes of getting a G rating from the MPAA as the previous films had, however the film was given a PG rating.

In 2008, a 5-disc Blu-ray Disc set was released, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the movies, with all five films with new extras. This set release contains the original and theatrical cut of Conquest. It contains more footage of graphic violence during the climatic battle scenes and the original dark ending. This version is also released on a separate Blu-ray Disc, but it has yet to be released on regular DVD. This version also shows on the Fox Movie Channel often. Fans also cite that "Conquest", even with all the changes, was the most daring and most unique of all the "Apes" sequels."