slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
written and directed by
Carl Gottlieb
Carl Gottlieb (born March 18, 1938) is an American screenwriter, actor, comedian, and executive. He is best known for co-writing the screenplay for ''Jaws'' (1975) and its first two sequels, as well as directing the 1981 film ''Caveman''.
Early ...
and starring
Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
Shelley Long
Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. Long portrayed Diane Chambers on the hit sitcom ''Cheers'' and received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Serie ...
Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
) is a bullied and scrawny caveman living in "One Zillion BC – October 9th". He lusts after the beautiful but shallow Lana ( Barbara Bach), who is the mate of Tonda (
John Matuszak
John Daniel Matuszak (October 25, 1950 – June 17, 1989) was an American football defensive end in the National Football League who later became an actor.
Matuszak was the first overall pick in the 1973 NFL Draft and played most of his career ...
), their
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
's physically imposing bullying leader and brutish instigator. After being banished along with his friend Lar ( Dennis Quaid), Atouk falls in with a band of assorted misfits, among them the comely Tala (
Shelley Long
Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. Long portrayed Diane Chambers on the hit sitcom ''Cheers'' and received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Serie ...
) and the elderly blind man Gog (
Jack Gilford
Jack Gilford (born Jacob Aaron Gellman; July 25, 1908 – June 4, 1990) was an American Broadway, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Save the Tiger'' (1973).
Early life
Gilfor ...
). The group has ongoing encounters with hungry
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s, and rescues Lar from a "nearby
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
Shelley Long
Shelley Lee Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. Long portrayed Diane Chambers on the hit sitcom ''Cheers'' and received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Serie ...
as Tala
*
Jack Gilford
Jack Gilford (born Jacob Aaron Gellman; July 25, 1908 – June 4, 1990) was an American Broadway, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Save the Tiger'' (1973).
Early life
Gilfor ...
as Gog
*
Cork Hubbert
Cork Hubbert (July 3, 1952 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and television actor.
Biography
Hubbert was born Carl Hubbert in Pendleton, Oregon. He is best known for the roles of Luther on the American television show ''The Charmings ...
as Ta
* Mark King as Ruck
* Paco Morayta as Flok
*
Evan C. Kim
Evan C. Kim (born February 17, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Harry Callahan's partner Inspector Al Quan in the fifth, and final, "Dirty Harry" film ''The Dead Pool'' (1988).
Early and personal life
Kim was born in New ...
as Nook
* Ed Greenberg as Kalta
* Carl Lumbly as Bork
* Jack Scalici as Folg
* Erika Carlsson as Folg's Mate
*
Gigi Vorgan
Gigi Vorgan (born August 3, 1958) is an American writer and producer who appeared in numerous feature films and television projects before joining her husband Dr. Gary Small to cowrite ''iBrain'', ''The Memory Prescription'', ''The Longevity Bi ...
as Folg's Daughter
* Sara López Sierra as Folg's Younger Daughter
* Esteban Valdez as Folg's Son
* Juan Ancona Figueroa as Folg's Younger Son
* Juan Omar Ortiz as Folg's Youngest Son
* Anaís de Melo as Meeka
*
John Matuszak
John Daniel Matuszak (October 25, 1950 – June 17, 1989) was an American football defensive end in the National Football League who later became an actor.
Matuszak was the first overall pick in the 1973 NFL Draft and played most of his career ...
as Tonda
* Avery Schreiber as Ock
* Tere Álvarez as Ock's Mate
* Miguel Ángel Fuentes as Grot
* Ana De Sade as Grot's Mate
* Gerardo Zepeda as Boola
* Hector Moreno as Noota
* Pamela Gual as Noota's Mate
* Richard Moll as
Sierra de Órganos National Park
Sierra de Órganos National Park (Spanish: ''Parque Nacional Sierra de Órganos'') is a national park in Mexico, located in the northwest corner of the municipality of Sombrerete in the state of Zacatecas, near the border with Durango. The par ...
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. The river and fishing lake scene was shot in the Mexican state of
Durango
Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...
, and some scenes were filmed at the
Churubusco Studios
Estudios Churubusco is one of the oldest and largest movie studios in Mexico. It is located in the Churubusco neighborhood of Mexico City.
History
It was inaugurated in 1945 after a 1943 agreement between RKO and Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta (of ...
in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s constructed by
Jim Danforth
James Danforth (born July 13, 1940) is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on ''When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'' (1970), a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's ''One Million Years B.C.'' (1 ...
, including a '' Tyrannosaurus Rex'' which in one scene becomes intoxicated by a
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...
-type drug, animated by Randall W. Cook. Danforth was a major participant in the special effects sequences, but left the film "about two-thirds of the way" (his words) through the work because the
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...
prohibited his contracted on-screen credit, co-direction with Carl Gottlieb. Consequently, Danforth's name does not appear on the film.
The film's dialog is almost entirely in "caveman" language, such as:
* "alunda" – love
* "bobo" – friend
* "haraka" – fire
* "macha" – monster
* "aiyee" – help
* "ya" – yes
* "nya" – no/not
* "ool" – food
* "pooka" – broken/pain
* "ugh" – like
* "zug zug" – sex/mate
* "kuda" – come
* "caca" – shit
* "guwi" – out to get
* "gluglug" – drowned
At some showings audiences were issued a translation
pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...
for 30 "caveman words." The only English dialog present is used for comedic effect, when it is spoken by a caveman played by Evan Kim who speaks modern English but is understood by none of the other characters. Being a Korean caveman, by speaking English, he appears to be more advanced than the rest. At her audition, Long said she did not speak any English, but responded to everything with grunts.
Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr first met on the set of ''Caveman'', and they married just over a year later.
Home media
The film was released on Region 1 DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on June 4, 2002. It was then released on February 17, 2015 on
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
by Olive Films.
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 35% based on reviews from 20 critics, with an average rating of 4.7/10. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 55% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film 1.5 stars out of a possible 4. The cast was "interesting", he wrote, but the main failing of ''Caveman'' was it being a spoof with "no popular original material for it to satirize. There has never been a really successful movie set in prehistoric times." Ebert and
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
both gave the film a negative "don't see it" review on their TV show but softened their criticism somewhat by noting that its dinosaur-related sequences were amusing.
Janet Maslin of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote that the film was "dopey, but it's also lots of fun", and that the real star was the special-effects dinosaur. Pauline Kael of
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
gave it a positive review, calling it "a funky, buoyant farce."
Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' gave it a mixed review. He was critical with the lack of originality but suggests younger audiences who have not seen it before may enjoy it. Arnold compares the film unfavorably to '' The Three Ages'', where
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
was able to bring his genius, ''Caveman'' struggles to overcome Starr's limits and director Gottlieb fails to make use of other talented actors such as Quaid, Schreiber, or Gilford.