Posted on 02/26/2009 10:50:05 AM PST by AJKauf
From yesterday’s New York Times:
The film director Tim Burton yesterday apologized for the closing scene in his 2001 film Planet of the Apes, which imagines a future America in which the Lincoln Memorial statue is replaced with a statue of a warlike gorilla.
In a statement Burton said:
Given the controversy surrounding the recent New York Post cartoon, which featured a chimp that many people took to represent President Obama, I now realize that many Americans are likely to find the portrayal of an ape president offensive. Although it is no defense, I would point out that when I made the film few would have imagined that our country would elect a black president so soon afterwards. The scene was not intended to allude in any fashion to a future black president, and I deeply regret any offense I may have caused to African-Americans, and indeed to Americans in general.
The distributor of Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox, has announced that all DVD copies of the movie are being recalled from retailers and will be destroyed. A new ending is being shot, which does not feature the statue, for the DVD release of the film and for future TV broadcast.
After Burton made his statement, a support group for the parents of children born with bladed implements instead of hands demanded that Burton also apologize for his 1990 movie Edward Scissorhands.
As you probably guessed from that last line, I made the above story up. Think it’s far-fetched? Then check out this all-too-real editor’s note from Sunday’s Washington Post...
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
This is satire, right?
Yes.
Getting out there before he gets accused.
The director should apologize for remaking “The Planet of the Apes.”
No, just for botching the job.
Good point.
Absolutely not. We have had eight years of portrayals of the President of the United States as an ape, a chimp, a monkey*.
I have grown used to it, it has become the cultural norm, I expect it.
I expect the current President of the United States, who never once complained of the previous president's portrayal as an ape, to accept the treatment just like the previous one did.
*and I'm not even considering the bushitler cartoons and websites..
Has to be. . .
For the next four years at least the word monkey is verboten!!
Uh, Tim? The ape in the cartoon was played by Nancy Pelosi.
Amen to that. The 1968 original was a classic. Everything Burton touches (Sleepy Hollow, Batman, In Hell, Planet of the Apes, etc) is substandard.
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