'The bridge on the river Kwai' and 'Planet of the apes'

Both "The Bridge on the river Kwai" and "Planet of the apes" are based each on a novel by french writer Pierre Boule. This is surprising at a first glance, for both movies don´t seem to have a lot in common; one is a war movie based on real facts, the other one is science-fiction about evolved apes and degenerated humans.

However, rethinking both movies I´ve come to realize that they have a pretty good deal in common. Just consider:

1. They both deal with war; in BOTRK it´s WWII, in POTA it´s a would-be nuclear WWIII, followed by a war between apes and humans.

2. In both movies the hero falls prisoner to the villain and has to fight to defend, not just his life, but also his dignity and by extension, the dignity of the group to which he feels he belongs - british soldiers in BOTRK, humans in POTA -.

3. In both movies the hero suffers under a delusion; Nicholson forgets that he is in a war and becomes obsessed with the building of the bridge, unaware that he is helping the enemy. Taylor thinks he is in another planet far away from earth; in both cases the delusion disappears by the end of the movie.

4. The villains of both movies adhere with strict fanatism to the code of their group; Saito boasts the supperiority of the Bushido code; Zaius follows blindly the rules of the apes.

5. The similarity of both ending scenes is very striking; a character is crying over a scene of death and destruction caused by war.

6. All of the previous lead me to consider that in fact both movies deal pretty much with the same ideas; they both share a very pessimistic view about human nature, because under a thin layer of civility there is an animal whose morality is not really much better than the one from the other animals and whose behaviour conforms to gregarious rules that invariably lead to conflict and ultimately to war and destruction. The insanity of mankind caused WWII, Boulle is telling us, and it will also cause WWIII unless a real moral progress happens.