# Uneasy with **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 31, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uneasy-with/74310 "2001-07-31T05:11:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uneasy-with/74310/1 "2001-07-31T05:11:06Z")
I’ve read “Bridge on the River Kwai,” and at least one other novel by Pierre Boulee, but not “Planet of the Apes.” While I see “Bridge…” as a rather prescient description of what would later be known as the Stockholm Syndrome, I don’t think Boulle was creative enough to come up with “Planet of the Apes” out of his raw imagination. It seems to possible to have come from his wartime experience as a prisoner of the Japanese (one who escapes, just as did his novel’s hero). The shock to the Colonial Europeans at their defeat by Asians could easily find a metaphor in the Astronaut’s suprise on the new planet with ape masters (when we defeated the British at Yorktown the song they played was “The World Turned Upside-Down”). And the Japanese have been slurred as monkeys at least since their 1905 war with Russia. I can’t begrudge Boulle his resentment toward his former captors - James Clavel suffered it as well and then wrote “King Rat,” and described in interviews his visceral hatred toward anyone Asian he felt for years afterwards. I can only hope each man eventually exorcised his demons through the creative process. But every time someone like Rod Serling or Tim Burton takes POTA, or any film-maker appropriates any original work to suit a entirely laudable view (race relations, humanity towards other species, etc,) can it wash out the possible bad intentions of the original? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2001, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uneasy-with/74310/2 "2001-07-31T05:29:21Z")
Yes, unless you go looking for bad intentions. ---
**Author:** ![Sultan\_Kinkari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7bcc69/32.png) [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2001, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uneasy-with/74310/3 "2001-07-31T05:40:14Z")
The last full movie my mother saw in the theatre was _Back to the Future_ in 1985, and after that _Gremlins_, which she walked out of halfway through. Today, much to my surprise, she invited me to see POTA with her. I don’t care if Tim Burton removed any sense of a plot from the new POTA, but I trust his judgement since the last movie of his I saw, _Sleepy Hollow_ was very enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2001, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uneasy-with/74310/4 "2001-07-31T05:51:38Z")
Thanks kniz. I’ve placed a hold at the library for the novel Planet of the Apes, so I can offer Boulee the benefit of the doubt. But you’re damn right I’ll go looking for intentions - bad, good or simply potboiler - it’s called “analytical thought,” and for the record, “Gone With the Wind” didn’t stand up to it. ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2001, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uneasy-with/74310/5 "2001-07-31T13:40:59Z")
_I don’t think Boulle was creative enough to come up with “Planet of the Apes” out of his raw imagination._ If you begin your investigation with derision of the creator, then I doubt you will find much of value in the creation.