One Million Years B.C.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Entertaining!
Review: "One Million Years B.C" is actually a serious attempt to depict life in prehistory for cavemen and women. Many reviewers complain that human beings and dinosaurs NEVER occupied the same period in prehistory, but this is merely our best present-day educated guess. Who knows? Twenty years from now we may discover evidence that people existed at the same time as dinosaurs. The fact is that we DON'T KNOW precisely what it was like for people in prehistory and never truly will; all we can do is guess. This movie is simply a serious attempt to show what it may have been like for people IF they lived at the same time as dinosaurs. Capeesh?

I said this was a serious depiction, but there are admittedly some humerous aspects. For instance, the mullet-headed blonde men of the shell tribe and the indoor cave sets straight out of the original "Star Trek."

Other than that I can't think of anything bad to say. The location photography from the Canary Islands is awesome and Ray Harryhausen's dinosaur animation is excellent, holding up very well even to this day (he even throws in a couple of superimposed iguanas and a tarantula).

Oh yeah, most guys understandably rave about Raquel Welch and her infamous cavegirl bikini, and she is indeed stunningly ravishing, but -- believe it or not -- there are a few other female castmembers that are possibly even more beautiful(!). No kidding.

I must not forget to mention the outstanding musical score -- it's very fitting, very primal.

Lastly, there's no talking as we understand it; only grunting and primitive lingo. Highly enjoyable and highly recommended unless, of course, you have pompous hangups about historical chronology.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular Dinosaur epic with excellent Harryhausen effects
Review: "One Million Years B.C." is always simply dismissed as Raquel Welch in the world's first bikini and historically inaccurate in having cave men fighting dinosaurs when the two never shared the earth at anytime. This film is certainly more than that and while no acting masterpiece it is, as an earlier reviewer stated "a classic of sorts". Certainly the Dinosaur animation is top notch and some of the best of its kind and these sequences really make this film a great viewing experience.

The brilliant Ray Harryhausen, long a veteran of stop motion monster animation works his usual magic in this production and comes up with some of his greatest achievements. Produced by Hammer Studios in England here Harryhausen is allowed the full spectrum of dinosaur types and comes up with some creatures that have gone into dinosaur movie folklore. His Pterodactyl which carries Miss Welch off to its rocky nest, the giant turtle and best of all the savage killer Allosaurus and Triceratops are well known images of this production and really create the main interest in this film. Certainly they may not be a spectacular as those of Jurassic Park but in my opinion they are just as brilliant and show a genius's work at his most creative.Being a dinosaur fan I think this is a great film to introduce yourself to this period of evolution.

The storyline of "One Million Years B.C." is an extremely simple one. It depicts the harsh lives of two different types of tribes; the Rock people who are distinguished by their darker features and brutal manner, and the shell people who are fairer and very peaceful. John Richardson plays a member of the rock tribe who is cast out and seeks protection with the shell people who spend their days collecting fruit and fish and growing vegetables. A romance develops between Richardson and Raquel Welch who is the beautiful member of the shell people. The film chronicles their struggles to survive, fight off savage dinosaurs and win acceptance of the tribes. Don't look for detailed character development or insightful dialogue here as the verbal exchanges are made up of assorted grunts and gestures but somehow in this film it works well and the action moves along at a great pace so the attention doesn't lag at all. Certainly this appearance, whatever its acting merits, was the star making role for Raquel Welch and the image of her in the famous fur two piece bikini is one of the visual icons of the 1960's in much the same way as Jane Fonda's outfit in the cult film "Barberella".

"One Million years B.C." benefits greatly from its superb visual qualities first and foremost being the wonderful location photography which was done on the Canary Islands. The sparse, bare landscapes, Volcanic mountain ranges and picturesque ocean vistas really add to the atmosphere of the film and give an eerie feeling of actually being back in a stone age setting. The studio work based around the shell peoples campsite is excellently integrated into this footage and indeed is one of the film's standout points.

Put aside any qualms you have about historical chronology and enjoy some of the best dinosaur animation from the 1960's. I am still amazed today (even in this time of computer generated special effects) by the superbly presented fight sequences between some of the warring dinosaurs so expert is the animation employed. For a beautiful looking film that doesn't pretend to be an academic look at our planet's early life "One Million Years B.C." will be an enjoyable couple of hours viewing.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure
Review: "One Million Years B.C" is the ultimate guilty pleasure of a movie. There is not a shred of scientific accuracy to it, but the movie is so fun thanks to Ray Harryhausen's dinosaur FX and Raquel Welch in a fur bikini that you don't care.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular Dinosaur epic with excellent Harryhausen effects
Review: "One Million Years B.C." is always simply dismissed as Raquel Welch in the world's first bikini and historically inaccurate in having cave men fighting dinosaurs when the two never shared the earth at anytime. This film is certainly more than that and while no acting masterpiece it is, as an earlier reviewer stated "a classic of sorts". Certainly the Dinosaur animation is top notch and some of the best of its kind and these sequences really make this film a great viewing experience.

The brilliant Ray Harryhausen, long a veteran of stop motion monster animation works his usual magic in this production and comes up with some of his greatest achievements. Produced by Hammer Studios in England here Harryhausen is allowed the full spectrum of dinosaur types and comes up with some creatures that have gone into dinosaur movie folklore. His Pterodactyl which carries Miss Welch off to its rocky nest, the giant turtle and best of all the savage killer Allosaurus and Triceratops are well known images of this production and really create the main interest in this film. Certainly they may not be a spectacular as those of Jurassic Park but in my opinion they are just as brilliant and show a genius's work at his most creative.Being a dinosaur fan I think this is a great film to introduce yourself to this period of evolution.

The storyline of "One Million Years B.C." is an extremely simple one. It depicts the harsh lives of two different types of tribes; the Rock people who are distinguished by their darker features and brutal manner, and the shell people who are fairer and very peaceful. John Richardson plays a member of the rock tribe who is cast out and seeks protection with the shell people who spend their days collecting fruit and fish and growing vegetables. A romance develops between Richardson and Raquel Welch who is the beautiful member of the shell people. The film chronicles their struggles to survive, fight off savage dinosaurs and win acceptance of the tribes. Don't look for detailed character development or insightful dialogue here as the verbal exchanges are made up of assorted grunts and gestures but somehow in this film it works well and the action moves along at a great pace so the attention doesn't lag at all. Certainly this appearance, whatever its acting merits, was the star making role for Raquel Welch and the image of her in the famous fur two piece bikini is one of the visual icons of the 1960's in much the same way as Jane Fonda's outfit in the cult film "Barberella".

"One Million years B.C." benefits greatly from its superb visual qualities first and foremost being the wonderful location photography which was done on the Canary Islands. The sparse, bare landscapes, Volcanic mountain ranges and picturesque ocean vistas really add to the atmosphere of the film and give an eerie feeling of actually being back in a stone age setting. The studio work based around the shell peoples campsite is excellently integrated into this footage and indeed is one of the film's standout points.

Put aside any qualms you have about historical chronology and enjoy some of the best dinosaur animation from the 1960's. I am still amazed today (even in this time of computer generated special effects) by the superbly presented fight sequences between some of the warring dinosaurs so expert is the animation employed. For a beautiful looking film that doesn't pretend to be an academic look at our planet's early life "One Million Years B.C." will be an enjoyable couple of hours viewing.

Rating:
Summary: 1966 HAMMER REMAKE HAS EXCELLENT DINOSAURS AND RAQUEL
Review: After the commercial failure of FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, Ray Harryhausen and Charles Schneer briefly parted ways. Schneer made HALF A SIXPENCE; Harryhausen was hired by Hammer Films to do the effects in a proposed remake of the film that inspired his career, KING KONG. Unfortunately, this feature was never made because the rights could not be secured at that time from the estate of Merian C. Cooper. So Ray suggested they remake a 1940 movie that starred Carole Landis and Victor Mature, and included a multitude of lizards that were photographically enlarged to stand-in as the prehistoric fauna. He felt he could do better here.

The saurians of ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. are expertly crafted in this picture. He collaborated with Arthur Hayward, a preparator at the British Museum of Natural History to design these monsters. Indeed, they are a quantum leap over the previous dinosaurs he animated in the film ANIMAL WORLD ( which has never been released on video ). Oddly enough, Ray did include an iguana optically blown-up as one of the prehistorics; many criticized this move but now it seems more like an homage to the original offering.

Included in the Mesozoic menagerie is a large sea turtle called an Archelon that lumbers its way to the sea in a torpid manner; a battle between a gigantic Ceratosaurus ( scaled to T. Rex proportions ) and a huge Triceratops, and a fight between Pterosaurs while Ms. Welch is clutched in one's talons. The highlight of the stop-motion ensemble is the small Allosaurus that reeks havoc in the Shell Tribe's camp. This creature is almost a carbon copy of a carnosaur he did many years earlier in 16mm footage. It is killed in an excellent coup de grace, impaled on a pole that is a marvel of miniature rear-projection work.

Starring Raquel Welch ( not her first movie role ) and John Richardson as the lovers Loana and Tumak, they represent the "beautiful people" of eons past. The storyline is almost nonexistent here: Tumak is ostracized from the Rock Tribe and wanders the wilderness until he is taken in by the Shell Tribe. Booted out after nearly killing one of its members, he wanders again with Loana in tow. After many encounters with human and animal perils they arrive at the Rock Tribe's camp to attack Tumak's evil brother ( who deposed his dad in a brutal manner ). As the attack is underway, a nearby volcano violently erupts and utterly destroys the landscape.

Martine Beswick and Percy Herbert co-star in this feature. Directed by Don Chaffy, who worked with Harryhausen earlier on JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. The movie was shot on the Canary Island of Lanzarote and on sets back in England. In spite of the superficial story and the use of contrived "words" as a pigeon language, ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. is an exciting film with plenty of Mesozoic menances and Raquel to please the eyes. Only unsuitable for very young children ( < 5 yrs. of age ).

Rating:
Summary: Superb Harryhausen effects, and the rest ain't bad either!
Review: Although Fox uses the famous picture of Raquel Welch in her fur bikini on the cover of this DVD, the reason most people will want to watch and this 1966 movie today is because of the dinosaur stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. The film, a remake of a very clunky 1940 movie, "One Million B.C.," starring Victor Mature and Carol Landis, combined Harryhausen's terrific dinosaur effects with a caveman plot heavy with sexual titillation. The combination made the film a big worldwide hit (and without any dialogue in any intelligible language, it translated easily to other countries), but today the sex elements seem tame and often a bit silly. The dinosaurs still amaze; Harryhausen's effects have a sense of wonder to them that never ages. Even away from the animated effects sequences, the film still works remarkably well due to effective performances from the cast and the filmmakers' attempts to keep the story simple but serious (when possible).

"One Million Years B.C." was the brainchild of Michael Carreras, son of James Carreras, the head of Hammer Film Productions in England. Hammer had made its name with its Technicolor gothic horror films, but Michael Carreras wanted the studio to stretch in different directions, and "One Million Years B.C." was one of his most successful experiments. He asked Harryhausen to provide the effects, and the effects man was loaned from his own production company, Morningside, to do the movie. This makes it one of the few films from the period that Harryhausen worked on where he was not one of the producers or involved in developing the project.

The movie was shot on the Canary Islands, a perfect setting for a prehistoric wilderness. In a fictional time where men and dinosaurs lived side-by-side (even six-year-olds know this is ridiculous), Tumak of the primitive Rock Tribe (John Richardson) is exiled from the tribe after a conflict with his brother. He travels through the wastelands until his finds the peaceful (and beautiful and blonde) Shell Tribe by the ocean. He romances the alluring Loana the Fair One (Raquel Welch, in the role that made her star), who eventually leaves with him when the Shell Tribe exiles him as well.

The story is quite simple, following our heroes across the wastes and encountering multiple deadly animals, ape men, plus getting involved in fights and tribal warfare and facing natural disasters like a volcano. There is no intelligible dialogue, only a simplistic, guttural language. A narrator at the beginning lays out the situation, then vanishes, leaving us with the pantomime story. (Strangely, the DVD is dubbed in Spanish, with a subtitle option! Since this only covers the first five minutes, you have to wonder why they bothered.) Welch and Richardson are both very good at the difficult roles, which require heavily physical acting and facial expressions. Also excellent are Robert Brown as Tumak's violent father (the same actor who played M in the 1980s James Bond movies!) and the sexy Martine Beswick (who also appeared in two James Bond films) as Tumak's first love. Yes Raquel and Martine do get into a girl fight -- the filmmakers were not going to turn THAT opportunity down.

Plenty goes on in the human scenes, with many battles and tussles, and Raquel Welch does light up the screen. Mario Nascimbene's bizarre music contributes to the drama. But when the dinosaurs are on the screen is when the film really shines.

Oddly, the first monster we see isn't a stop-motion effect at all, but blown-up footage of an iguana. Harryhausen admits this was his choice, and that it was a mistake. That said, the iguana is well matted into the footage of John Richardson. A giant spider shows up briefly, but the rest of the animals are all stop-motion: an archelon (giant sea-turtle), a briefly sited brontosaurus (originally meant to take part in a full sequence), a juvenile allosaurus that attacks the Shell People camp, a triceratops and a ceratosaurus battling each other, a pteranodon and a pteradactyl and the pteranodon's babies. All the sequences are great, but the allosaurus fights especially stands out. The nine-foot tall dinosaur moves quickly and interacts seamlessly with the human actors, and the result is an incredibly dynamic and exciting scene; the finale is a great stand up and cheer moment.

The DVD is an adequate presentation. The film has been carefully restored from poor sources (the negative is lost), so it looks fairly good, but with noticeable flaws in places. The sound is an adequate stereo. There are barely any extras: the trailers, and a brief split screen comparison of the film before and after the restoration. Considering that the DVDs of Harryhausen films released by Columbia feature interviews with him, the lack of any other special features is disappointing but sadly fairly typical of the way Fox releases its back-catalog films on DVD.

Despite some of those DVD problems, I still recommend "One Millions Years B.C." to any effects and fantasy film fan. It has aged much better than you would think based on those old cheesecake Raquel Welch posters. Raquel looks good, the story holds together, and man those dinosaurs will still make they day of kids of all ages, from six to one million!

Rating:
Summary: How to stuff a fur bikini
Review: and indeed it was stuffed well with Raquel Welch (this movie is the one that propelled her to stardom). The movie is unintentionally funny. There is the tribe of evil Brunettes who leave their injured members in holes in the ground to be scarfed up by whatever prehistoric monster happens by; then there are the peace-loving Blonds who spend their time picking fruit from trees and running from Ray Harryhausen monsters. I saw this movie when it first came out. I always wondered where Welch got a two-piece fur bikini. And the monsters didn't scare me. But overall, hey, it's definitely worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty and the Beasts
Review: Anyone who complains about the scientific inaccuracy of this fim really needs to lighten up. Ray's dinosaurs put even JURASSIC PARK to shame (and I don't say that lightly). Mario Nascimbene's score evokes a true feeling of awe --- as does Raquel, admittedly. The plot utilizes an early version of Cain and Abel, the return of the prodigal, some nicely Freudian father-son antagonisms, and a final mix of the coarse, brutal Rock Tribe (definitely survivor types) with the more evolved and cultured Shell People. The bleak, sepia-toned landscape after the final cataclysm, with scared cavefolk climbing out of holes in the steaming ground, creates a real feeling of the precarious life our ancestors faced. Even if they didn't have to fight dinosaurs, this film makes it clear that they should have! Great fun and mesmerizing to watch. (and for all those "scientific accuracy" cavilers out there, the last laugh is Harryhausen's, since he depicts a Brontosaurus as a land-animal instead of the old-fashioned swamp-dweller we all thought he was when he was still called Brontosaurus!)

Rating:
Summary: Beware! DVD Is Edited!
Review: Before you order this DVD, make sure you are aware that this is the shortened, U.S. release version! Fox issued the complete film several years ago on laserdisc in a gorgeous widescreen transfer, so naturally everyone expected that they would do the same for the DVD. No such luck -- Fox has decided this time out to go with the notorious truncated version, which runs a full nine minutes shorter than the original British release. Ray Harryhausen fans should be particularly outraged, as the edited film snips away some of his special effects footage. This has to rank as the first major DVD disappointment of 2004.

I love this movie, but I won't be purchasing the U.S. DVD. Immediately upon finding out the bad news, I placed an order through Amazon.co.uk for the complete film on R2 DVD, which, in addition to being uncensored, also features some extras (including reportedly lengthy interviews with Raquel Welch and Ray Harryhausen) that will not be included on the R1 disc. If you are a fan of this richly atmospheric, goofily entertaining dinosaur epic, I recommend you do the same.

Rating:
Summary: Beware! DVD Is Edited!
Review: Before you order this DVD, make sure you are aware that this is the shortened, U.S. release version! Fox issued the complete film several years ago on laserdisc in a gorgeous widescreen transfer, so naturally everyone expected that they would do the same for the DVD. No such luck -- Fox has decided this time out to go with the notorious truncated version, which runs a full nine minutes shorter than the original British release. Ray Harryhausen fans should be particularly outraged, as the edited film snips away some of his special effects footage. This has to rank as the first major DVD disappointment of 2004.

I love this movie, but I won't be purchasing the U.S. DVD. Immediately upon finding out the bad news, I placed an order through Amazon.co.uk for the complete film on R2 DVD, which, in addition to being uncensored, also features some extras (including reportedly lengthy interviews with Raquel Welch and Ray Harryhausen) that will not be included on the R1 disc. If you are a fan of this richly atmospheric, goofily entertaining dinosaur epic, I recommend you do the same.