Prehistory in the cinema

Abstract

Revealing how people lived in prehistory has always been one of the constant unknowns of man. For this reason, since the origins of the Seventh Art and throughout its long history, the filming of films has been frequent that take the viewer back to past times and remote times. The treatment of this type of subject is usually not very successful and quite far from what the investigations on Paleolithic periods are bringing to light. The constant anachronisms make the vision always "imaginative", the most repeated error being that of making men and dinosaurs coincide in the same period. Hunter-gatherer groups are represented without the origins of agriculture and livestock receiving any treatment, and the Metal Age is abandoned to "mythological" recreations, except in the very little use by horror films. of the most gloomy aspects of Celticism. The intention of this article is to carry out a chronological study, without going into details, of the films that have prehistoric man as the main character. The characteristics of most of this type of film are summarized in brutality as a basic norm of behavior and in that the characters carry out their activities in a very hostile environment.