Dawn of man movie with no dialogue
February 28, 2011 2:43 AM   Subscribe

Help me think of the name of a film I'm not clear about because I didn't see it: I think it came out in the 70s or 80s, and contained no dialogue because it was set around the dawn of humanity before speech developed.
posted by strangeguitars to Media & Arts (15 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Quest for Fire.
posted by so_gracefully at 2:48 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Clan of the Cave Bear?
posted by segatakai at 3:07 AM on February 28, 2011


You're not thinking of the first scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey by any chance?
posted by humpy at 3:29 AM on February 28, 2011


Second Clan of the Cave Bear with Daryl Hannah.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:51 AM on February 28, 2011


Response by poster: I almost wrote "something along the lines of the first scene in 2001". :)

I think it was Quest for Fire (the title in my head was Chariots of Fire, but obviously that was wrong), but I'll watch both of them! Maybe I got them mixed together because I remember that it got bad reviews, and that (by the IMDB description) would describe Clan of the Cave Bear.

If folks know of other good treatments of dawn-of-man life, feel free to give more recommendations. (My kids were asking me questions about people from this time.)
posted by strangeguitars at 4:42 AM on February 28, 2011


would your kids be too bored with nova specials? because hulu has a bunch:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/181079/nova-becoming-human-first-steps#s-p3-so-i0
posted by timory at 5:07 AM on February 28, 2011


If you're watching with young kids, be forewarned that both Quest for Fire and Clan of the Cave Bear both have fairly explicit rape scenes.
posted by davey_darling at 5:24 AM on February 28, 2011


One Million Years BC does have dialogue unfortunately, worth a mention for kitsch value?
posted by ceri richard at 5:30 AM on February 28, 2011


Quest for Fire has a scene in it with cannibals that haunted me for years. AskMeFi identified it for me so I could keep from accidentally watching it again. Just a small part of the movie but definitely don't let your kids watch it till you've watched in first.
posted by BoscosMom at 5:43 AM on February 28, 2011


I believe you're looking for Caveman, with Ringo Starr and Shelley Long, among others. Hilariously awful movie.
posted by aimedwander at 7:25 AM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]


I recently watched Quest for Fire with my kids for the same purposes you mention. After previewing it, I determined that there were about 15 or 20 minutes of the movie that I felt comfortable showing them. As Davey and BoscosMom mention, there was rather a lot of rape, some consensual sex, and some very scary violent fight scenes.
posted by richyoung at 7:50 AM on February 28, 2011


Poster it is Quest for Fire

They Chariots of Fire theme is probably coming from 2001 once the apes find the black oblusk - that song plays.

Quest for Fire is the movie your looking for - its my fathers favorite movie....
posted by TeachTheDead at 7:51 AM on February 28, 2011


Yeah, Quest For Fire. I seem to recall Anthony Burgess was responsible for the proto-language the characters spoke.
posted by Decani at 8:07 AM on February 28, 2011


Quest for Fire is about the best of the lot when it comes to fiction and is probably the movie you are remembering, yes, but has the drawbacks richyoung mentions and its historical "accuracy" has been questioned.

One of the things you might want to show the kids would be the reconstructed past bits without dialogue about humans in early North America of the history channel documentary called Journey to 10,000 BC . This is later than the "cave man" stuff of course but still may be of interest. Depending on how old the kids are the talking head bits interspersed may bore them (and it has a bit about the Solutrean hypothesis that is questionable), but if you just show the bits on things like hunting, flintknapping and the like, you should be ok.
posted by gudrun at 8:49 AM on February 28, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks to everyone for your answers and advice!
posted by strangeguitars at 10:16 PM on March 2, 2011


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