MovieChat Forums > La guerre du feu (1982) Discussion > WHY ISNT CAVEMAN ADVENTURES A REAL LIVIN...

WHY ISNT CAVEMAN ADVENTURES A REAL LIVING GENRE?


Why is this not a living genre? Why don´t they make more movies or TV series of caveman adventures? I would never get bored eating a grilled chicken while watching our ancestors walking around free and easy in Mother Nature ..eehhrmm. ..maybe not so easy, as they had to stay alive against cold, drought and famine, lethal fires, vulcano eruptions and earth quakes, dangerous animals like cave bears, cave lions and mad mammoths. Cavepeople looking for food, cavepeople finding medicine, cavepeople prepare food...How they met other branches of Homo like Neander, early homo, more modern homo, Homo Erectus, Egaster...meeting, fighting, sexing, exchanging tools...I see no limits! It wouldn´t be so difficult or expensive either, as the themes would HAVE to stay simple and natural settings are still available. And wouldn´t it be wonderful watching a film with NO cars, NO mobile telephones, NO houses or NO CLOTHES! Just the humans relationship to each other and to the animals and the natural environment! How interesting wouldn´t it be!

I have always been into prehistory, reading and studying old books about it since I was six and Evolution has been my religion. Also, in the second half of the 1960´s, prehistory was pretty hip. Many popular science books about prehistoric life came out, not seldom written in a quite poetic style, (and not ONLY about dinosaurs like now!). In the comic books between 1968 and 1971 Tarzan always met a dinosaur or visited Pal-ul-don for some reason. You could also buy Auroras model kits that you could build (I have an Allosaur and two horned dinosaurs on top of my video shelf!), and the fact that paleontologists had found numerous proof of early ancestors in and from Asia that created a quite confusing theory that we might actually have evolved in Asia instead of Africa! I think, what paved the way of all this was Hammers magnificent ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. from 1966 which threw in dinosaurs just for the fun of it! Raquel Welch in the clutches of a giant flying reptile was almost iconic for the 60´s kids!

When I went to see the wonderful Quest For Fire with my dad in 1981, I was 18, I thought "at last they are making serious prehistoric dramas and adventures, bold and sexy naturalistically!". I was so happy, but what happened after? OK, there was this author who wrote the Clan of the Cave Bear books which made it into one single film, but I didn´t figure that the prehistoric and stoneage popculture was a disappearing "fad". I thought that this potentially strong "genre" could not only give us a great time of entertainment, but also help of spreading knowledge about the past and even help us figure out things of today! Are the film makers not missing an opportunity here?

But what happened? Oh 10 000 B.C.! Ok, digital effects, that could be pretty fine, but..That was it?

I want some response, people! Stand Up For Our Ancestors! Hallelujah!

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Have you seen this?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285441/

I'd be curious to get your reaction to it.

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Thank YOU! Very very interesting!

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You're welcome. As I said, I'd be happy to get your thoughts on it after you've had a chance to see it.

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Another very good prehistoric movie is Ten Canoes (2006). It does not have mammoths, cave bears or any of the typical prehistoric beasts, but otherwise it is highly realistic, which is its strength.

But I agree that movies about primitive humans are hard to come by. Yes, Hollywood recently made an attempt in that genre with 10,000 BC (2008). But that came out rather ridiculous. I would gladly watch something as realistic as Quest For Fire. It does not necessarily have to have mammoths and such stuff, although with CGI these should be relatively easy to generate today.

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Because it is not interesting drama. First, it cannot have dialogue, or at least proper dialogue in a modern language, without it being parody. Second, what did cavemen did that was so interesting apart from fighting and hunting for food?


"You keep him in here, and make sure HE dosen't leave!"

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As in most films about contemporary people doing usual things (drama, feel good films, comedies), cave man movies could show similar ordinary things which in any sense is more interesting than what people do nowadays, because its a matter of survival, survival for the day, against the elements, animals, partnership etc. I see no limits....

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A film about primitive humans can easily have dialogue. The more developed humans in Quest for Fire had a sophisticated language, if they had been the center of this film, then we would have had quite a lot of dialogue. Only the primitive Neanderthals didn't have much of a language.

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They didn't show any coordinated hunts in this one - that would have been possible with the mammoths and the deer-like animals. That alone would be interesting - watching people learn how to hunt as a group. Also, they painted cave paintings, often to commemorate these hunts. They probably had rituals as well surrounding the hunt.

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Jesus you're dense

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You could also buy Auroras model kits that you could build (I have an Allosaur and two horned dinosaurs on top of my video shelf!)


Were they called "Prehistoric Scenes"? If so, I, too, had an Allosaur...also a mammoth, sabre tooth tiger, cave bear and Neanderthal man. I sooo wanted a T rex, but it never came to pass...

**these go to eleven **

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Yes they were! My wooly mammoth has one crooked tusk but stands between my speakers! No actually, and seeing it all from this Tyrannosaur fixed age, The Tyrannosaur was never represented in this modelkit series. They were very much inspired by the success of the film One Million Years B.C. from 1966, which featured an Allosaur.

I also have the Styracosaurus, Triceratops and the Pteranodión, the flying reptile that took Raquel Welch for a ride in the air. Seen it?

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There was a short-lived series in 1974 called Korg: 70,000 B.C. I don't know if it's available anywhere, but I've seen some clips on YouTube.



I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart

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Never heard of Korg: 70 000 B.C. before. Must check it out on youtube!

Many thanks, xenophile2002!

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