ONE MILLION YEARS BC

UK, 1966, 100 minutes, Colour.
Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Percy Herbert, Martine Besiwick.
Directed by Don Chaffey.

One Million Years BC is probably more famous for its poster of Raquel Welch in the prehistoric times than for the film itself. It featured very strongly, along with posters of Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe, in The Shawshank Redemption.

This was one of the earliest of Raquel Welch’s films. It was in the vein of a lot of films about prehistoric times that were popular in that period: Creatures That The World Forgot, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. It is an engaging concoction – with special effects and an invitation for the imagination to wonder what it was like one million years BC.

1. How enjoyable was this film? For what audience was it made?

2. What are audience expectations of this kind of science-fiction? The expectations of science fantasy? Audience fascination with the atmosphere of the world primitive man and woman, primitive ways of life, a mysterious era?

3. How well done was the re-creation of primitive world, men and women? The nature of the special effects and their impact?

4. How plausible was the story? How much parallel to modern sensibility? The importance of the introduction and its explanation: the picture of an evolving world? The reliance on audience response to human nature? The plausibilities of the monsters and the earthquakes?

5. How skilfully produced were the sequences with the monsters and the earthquake? Why do audiences respond so well to these? Imagination and thrill, fear?

6. How plausible was the way of life of the tribe? Primitive humans, the violent interactions, the threats to life, the presence of the hero? Audience response to these basic elements?

7. How well could the audience identify with the hero, his journey and quest? His adventures, any characterization in the hero?

8. The heroine (the reliance on Raquel Welch's screen presence)? her way of life, her life in the tribe, supporting the outcast and following him, sharing his perils? Was there any characterization in the portrait of the heroine?

9. Comment on the value of such primitive storytelling.

10. The excitement of the earthquake and the ending? The resolution for the tribes and their unity? How worthwhile was this film of its kind?