Most of the time Hollywood on the screen has depicted prehistoric times with a total abandon for accuracy. Even with carefully unearthed and researched historical facts at their fingertips, filmmakers have always opted to present the times as total romantic fantasy. Keaton’s THE THREE AGES (1923), being a semi-burlesque cinematic rendition of Griffith’s INTOLERANCE (1916), featured one third of it’s story as daily shenanigans among comic troglodytes and an occasional tame dinosaur. Other comedians to tackle similar subject matter are Charlie Chaplin in HIS PRE-JISTORIC PAST (1914) and Laurel and Hardy in FLYING ELEPHANTS. In more recent times was offered CAVEMAN (1981) with Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach which seemed to pay homage to these silent pioneers right down to the element of wrongly depicting these primitive humans co-existing with these prehistoric beasts. ‘Serious’ attempts at portraying life in the primeval age include Griffith’s MAN’S GENESIS (1912) and a remake (with Griffith himself involved in production); ONE MILLION BC (1940). Here we are presented the extremely rough daily routine of cave denizens Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney Jr and real life lizards photographed in extreme closeup to appear gigantic. A later still remake boasted Raquel Welch (complete with a Stone Age bikini and shaved legs), John Richardson and expertly rendered animated dinosaurs by master special effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Again, people and prehistoric beast co-exist.
Other big-screen jaunts into mankind’s remote past reached the screen. TEENAGE CAVEMAN (1958) ultimately turned out to be set in humanity’s not-too-distant future, YOUNG APHRODITES (1964) concerned itself with the legend of Daphnis and Chloe (no dinosaurs) and QUEST FOR FIRE (1982) was a serious attempt to depict life about 85,000 years ago. QUEST FOR FIRE involved a tribe of Cro-Magnons searching for and eventually discovering how to ‘create’ fire. The story depicted the first major breakthrough, which in turn starts the then existent human race (erroneously shown co-existing with various sub-human races) on the road to civilization. This was all before the next major development-the wheel.
Both elements, fire and the wheel, were essential in the development of cinematography thousands of years later.
The need for communication, especially to distant areas, can truly be the primary step in the history of the motion picture in the broadest sense. When close enough, one could simply shout or gesture to another. When out of audible range, a more physical visual signal was needed. When waving the arms could not suffice, objects like tree branches and skins (presumably) were used. At night, fire was the only way to signal, and then it could be effective over a larger distance. One could easily imagine a cave dweller standing on a hill or climbing a tree and waving a primitive lit beacon in some way. This would create a definite pattern that would have a definite meaning to someone observing. The person observing would observe what would appear to be a momentary solid horizontal or vertical line of fire in the distant darkness. Circles, ovals or figure ‘8s’ could even have been created. The phenomenon of the Persistence of Vision, identified and described much later in mankind’s history, aided the observer in this sense. Even today, viewing a lit moving flashlight in the dark can produce transitory ‘light illustrations.’ Other than an occasional glimpse at the sun (which although dangerous would retain an image in the eye) these primitive men and women had no other connection with this optical phenomenon, a physical ocular trait that they could hardly have recognized or understood. They were aware that it worked, in a very rudimentary way. It occupied an important phase of their existence.
The next crucial step, which wold be impossible to place before or after events such as fire signaling, is with man’s need to observe the world around him and render what he sees in drawings. Living beings embellished with movement were studied and reflected upon. Illustrations such as cave drawings mirrored events important to daily survival, ie, hunting, fishing, building and warfare with hostile neighbors. If movement was to be rendered, these earliest of artists endeavored to show this...in the most unique of ways.
In 1868 a man names Modesto Cubillas accidentally discovered, or more accurately re-discovered, a network of caves on the northern central coast of Spain near the town of Santillana. However, it wasn’t until seven years later that a man named D Marcellino Sanz De Sautuola, exploring the caves with his daughter, discovered the illustrations that decorated the low ceilings. This antediluvian art freely expressed the respect, fear and admiration of the animals that these cave dwellers co-existed with and depended upon for their survival. These depictions ranged from realistic to expressionistic. One unique fact about these illustrations is that one of the bison was represented with a double set of hind and fore legs. In these pre-historic times it is interesting to note that a tribal artist, or artists, was able to analyze motion and represent it by simply showing that the animal’s legs moved from one position to another while it was running. Utilizing a medium of bull’s blood, native oils, ochre and ash residue, this was truly man’s earliest attempt to somehow synthesize movement through the use of a two-dimensional still image. These ancient preserved images are the furthest ancestors to the motion picture.