The Purple Plain the three men struggle to survive in the hostile environment, the self-destructive Bill finally realises that he can depend on support from others and that he may have someone to live for. Blore, however, abandons them to attempt to return to the crash site and commits suicide. "The Purple Plain" is regarded generally as historically accurate with good production values and attention to detail, and depicts the native Burmese in a respectful manner. The film is based on the 1947 novel "The Purple Plain" by H. E. Bates, one of three novels he wrote after his travels to Burma and
Harry Bates (author) be a market for a well-written magazine on the "Amazing" themes." Bates wrote that the "science fiction of the early writers had little relation to science of the scientists." What science fiction writers did was to "extrapolate" and not "relate" because "almost all of what is called science fiction is fantasy and nothing else but." In 1964, Bates recalled his editorship of "Astounding": "Long ago I was a party to the genesis of a magazine which persisted through thirty years and thirty millions of words. ... "Astounding" was a living being. I served it in its infancy and childhood, Orlin