10,000 BC

by Linda Winsh-Bolard


D'Leh {Steven Strait} was born is isolated mountain village of the mammoth hunting tribe Yagahl. During his childhood a blue-eyed girl came to live in the village after hers was destroyed by four legged demons and his father left, in secret, to find new land for his people because he believed that the time of mammoth hunt was coming to its end.

D’Leh grows with the stigma of father who left his people and a promise of eternal love to the girl Evola {Camilla Belle}. He becomes tribal hero after the last mammoth hunt when he seems to be the one who single handedly killed the mammoth. For that he receives the White Spear and the most desirable girl Evola. It was really just an accident and D’Leh intends to return both, but in the night after the hunt the four-legged demons come to his village, pillage, kill and take captives. Among the later is Evola. In the morning D’Leh decides to follow the “demons”. His friend and endowed hunter TicTic (Cliff Curtis) joins him, as does the boy Baku (Nathanael Baring). The wisdom keeper of the matriarchal society the Old Mother (Mona Hammond) spits on them for good luck.
The moment they leave the snowy mountains, they step into the sweaty jungle where flesh-eating ostriches attack them. Among falling waters and raging rivers D’Leh meets and frees the single saber toothed tiger.

The tiger is very personable and intelligent kitty and soon returns the favor by saving D’Leh’s life. In the jungle lives the African tribe Naku, whose leader surprisingly matches D’Leh knowledge of English, so they can come to an agreement to attack he evil horsemen together. Naku also suffered from their attacks and have learned that the captives become slaves. Other African tribes join them in their endeavor.

From the jungle it is just few steps to the desert divided by river. The slavers, who look remarkably like a Hollywood version of Vikings, reach the river and board ships adorned with purple sails. D’Leh and his warriors are left to tread the sea of sand that nobody had ever crossed before. Finally they reach the city of pyramids-and god. The city priests are familiarly effeminate in long robes, shaved skulls, human sacrifice oriented and –novelty-adorned by lengthy fingernails.

If it all appears to be some watered down version of Apocalypto than you have missed other films that added to the mix; say Dances with Wolves, Androcles and the Lion, King Solomon's Mines and She.

The mammoth hunt so much resembles buffalo-Indian hunts that it is ridiculous. D’Leh experiences a moment with Yorick’s skull; all right it was not Yorick’s, just the same idea in the desert. There is resurrection. Brotherhood. And endless prophesies, marks and the “last” of everything.

Omar Sharif opens the film with a narration that reads: "only time can teach us what is truth and what is legend." I thought about it and realized how ridiculous that is: time provides opportunities to change what has happened bending it to the will of governing powers. The rest of the explanatory narration did not seem to be any more realistic.

The music does not help. It’s the sort you might have heard in number of forgotten television westerns of the fifties. Perhaps that’s a clue: do not think, just get lost in the action and picture. It might even work because it is not badly shot, the effects, while not breathtaking, are perfectly acceptable and it’s very nicely and speedily edited. Too bad it only has one saber toothed kitty, but there are the mammoths in a number, the sands are as you would expect, the mountains snowy and the actors, battling the shallow, unnatural dialogs, try their best despite director’s prescribed accents.

The demise of civilization by horde of primitives can be, and was, used quite effectively. So is a determined young hero romantically linked to strange beauty. In both cases it requires a degree of realistic development and division. With destruction of civilization a reminder that what comes next is never any better would also serve well. When the tribes part ways at the end of the film, the unanswered question really is who will start the killing first.

Director Roland Emmerich said that he did not want to make a documentary film. He didn’t. He shot a tepid brew of yesterday’s ideas, dressed in odd costumes and sweetened by pictures of non-existent prehistoric societies.


Warner Bros. presents in association with Legendary Pictures a Centropolis production

Credits:
Director: Roland Emmerich
Screenwriters: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
Producers: Michael Wimer, Roland Emmerich, Mark Gordon
Executive producers: Harald Kloser, Sarah Bradshaw, Tom Karnowski, Thomas Tull, William Fay, Scott Mednick
Director of photography: Ueli Steiger
Production designer: Jean-Vincentn Puzos
Music: Harald Kloser, Thomas Wander
Co-producer: Ossie Von Richthofen
Costume designers: Odile Dicks-Mireaux, Renee April
Editor: Alexander Berner
Cast:
Evolet: Camilla Belle
D'Leh: Steven Strait
Tic Tic: Cliff Curtis
Nakudu: Joel Virgel
Warlord: Ben Badra
Ka'ren: Mo Zinal
Baku: Nathanael Baring
Old Mother: Mona Hammond
Narrator: Omar Sharif
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13