Back in 1923, Buster Keaton , co-authored with Edward F. Klein, created the film "Three Erases", where he subjected to a detailed analysis of the phenomenon of jealousy in primitive, antique and modern couples in love. Since then, primitive man has not been able to make an enviable career in the film business. In various projects, he was present only as a model of primitive instincts or a living exhibit of the Kunstkamera. With his naive simplicity, sometimes he became the object of evil ridicule or condescending irony. In rare cases - fleeting love, but more erotic than platonic. In films about the Stone Age, Sir Ringo Starr, Italian porno-actors, Renata Litvinova and pretty lizards managed to light up, that is, the best cinema forces were involved in the study of the phenomenon.
Primeval fantasy
Among the feature films about the Stone Age, the project of Roland Emmerich “10,000 years BC” (2008) stands out. The director in cinematic circles became famous for his addiction to the destruction of civilization by the forces of chaos, weather disasters, the invasion of aliens or other circumstances.
At the center of the story is a mammoth hunter tribe suffering from raids by carnivorous ostriches. Their seer foresees the threat of killing mammoths, so they need to select a different ecological niche. At the same time, the tribe is being persecuted by representatives of ancient civilization, cruel slave owners, building pyramids and incredibly bloodthirsty. The picture is characterized by a huge budget, impressive battle scenes, computer graphics and countless anachronisms. This is an impressive primitive fantasy abruptly than Mel Gibson's Apocalypse, with a very strange moral message. Critics did not appreciate the scope of Emmerich’s creative imagination, claiming that in the animated “Ice Age” historical credibility is many times greater. Such cinematic fantasies include many films about the Stone Age, for example, The Last Neanderthal by Jacques Malatier.
Almost anthropological research
Unlike the dreamer Emmerich, Jean-Jacques Annotte in his masterpiece “The Battle for Fire” (1981) recreated the primitive era in detail and accurately, the picture can be regarded as a kind of anthropological study.
The film takes place 80 thousand years ago, when not all primitive tribes were subject to fire. By chance, the peace-loving Ulamras lost their fire after an attack by a pack of wild animals. Three daredevils go in search of him, in the process of wandering, one of them meets a girl from the Vakhov tribe and falls in love with her. After going through many dangerous trials, the elect return to their homelands with triumph.
A creative team of professionals worked on the creation of the film, considered one of the best examples of films about people of the Stone Age. The special character language was invented by the English writer Anthony Burges, the scientist Desmond Morris worked on the development of sign symbols. The filming process took place in Canada, Scotland, Kenya and Iceland. Going out, the tape caused an unprecedented resonance, at times surpassed the initial budget, received a number of prestigious film awards and became the start for the development of the career of actress Ray Don Chung (Commando, Purple Color, etc.). The director Jean-Jacques Annot once again confirmed his status as a “pioneer” of the genres, increasing his fame.
Three variations
In the list of films about the Stone Age there are three paintings with the same name, "A Million Years BC," which were released in 1940, 1966 and 2004. These projects contain many fascinating details, useful for those who are looking for general development.
The brainchild of Hal Roach Jr. and Hal Roach of the 40s is regarded as the first cinematic attempt to depict in detail the life of a primitive man. But unlike historical genres, mainly preserving the elements of authenticity, the primitive cinema, which this film confirms, immediately abandoned scientific data, and its creators acted more intuitively. The authors of the first "Million Years BC" even introduced a lecture by the scientist on the primitive communal system, but the details of the life of the heroes still turned out to be too small.
At the same time, the author’s fantasy of a family director’s duet became the main cliche that roamed the films about the Stone Age: a primitive man was presented as the owner of an enviable model appearance, with well-developed speech, healthy teeth and an obsession with primitive instincts.
The claimed theme was truly developed in a remake of Don Chaffey of 1966. Impressed by the sight of the beautiful Rackel Welch in a swimsuit, the viewer refused to take the ancestors differently.
Bizarre comedy
The 2004 French comedy film Alain Shaba is called “RRRrrrr!” In the original, but thanks to the efforts of domestic adapters, the picture got the name “Million Years BC,” although it is already explained in the credits that events develop 35 thousand years before Christ. An eccentric historical and adventure comedy is created in the manner of animal humor. Sometimes a rude and vulgar, truly primitive style of Hochma, with which the narrative is saturated, attracts attention, although in general this project cannot be described as a film about primitive people and the Stone Age.
Secret erotic fantasies and ancient fears
Many films about the Stone Age at the heart of the plot contain many erotic fantasies and subconscious fears of their creators. For example, Greg Tallas’s tape “Prehistoric Women” (1950), which can be regarded as a hymn to matriarchy. At the height of the sexual revolution in 1968, this theme was rather eccentricly developed in the film Journey to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which in fact is a re-sounded and edited version of the Soviet film Planet of the Storms (1962).
From the second half of the 60s until the end of the 70s, the plot of most prehistoric films selflessly exploited the theme of the struggle of the sexes and the primitive libido, as, for example, in Pascual Fest Campanile's “When Women Were Tails” (1970).
In "Caveman" (1981) Karl Gottlieb already touched on social issues, and in subsequent tapes, the inhabitants of the caves began to be subjected to economic, class and other discrimination.
Films about the Stone Age were also shot in the USSR, despite the tacit prohibition of censorship. The most striking example among domestic paintings is the tape “Two arrows. Stone Age Detective. " Among the impressive acting ensemble of the film are N. Gundareva, A. Dzhigarkhanyan, O. Kabo, N. Karachentsov, S. Sadalsky, L. Yarmolnik and the unforgettable Renata Litvinova.