Caveman (film)

Infobox Film
name = Caveman

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caption = Movie Poster
director = Carl Gottlieb
producer = David Foster
Lawrence Turman
writer = Rudy De Luca
Carl Gottlieb
starring = Ringo Starr
Barbara Bach
Dennis Quaid
Shelley Long
Jack Gilford
Evan C. Kim
Carl Lumbly
John Matuszak
Avery Schreiber
Richard Moll
music = Lalo Schifrin
cinematography = Alan Hume
editing = Gene Fowler Jr.
distributor = United Artists
released = 1981
runtime = 91 min.
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:8693
imdb_id = 0082146

"Caveman" is a 1981 slapstick comedy film financed by George Harrison, written and directed by Carl Gottlieb and starring Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Shelley Long and Dennis Quaid.

Cast

* Ringo Starr as Atouk
* Dennis Quaid as Lar
* Shelley Long as Tala
* Jack Gilford as Gog
* Barbara Bach as Lana
* Evan C. Kim as Nook
* Carl Lumbly as Bork
* John Matuszak as Tonda
* Avery Schreiber as Ock
* Richard Moll as Abominable Snowman

Plot

Atouk is a bullied and scrawny caveman living in "One Zillion BC - October 9th" (apparently in memory of John Lennon, Ringo Starr's friend and bandmate with The Beatles, whose birthday was October 9th). He lusts after the beautiful but shallow Lana, who is the mate of Tonda, their tribe's physically imposing leader. After being banished along with his friend Lar, Atouk falls in with a band of assorted misfits, among them the comely Tala and the elderly blind man Gog. The group has ongoing encounters with hungry dinosaurs, and rescues Lar from a "nearby ice age", where they encounter an abominable snowman. In the course of these adventures they discover drugs, fire, cooking, music, and learn how to walk fully upright. Atouk uses these advancements to lead an attack on Tonda, overthrowing him and becoming the tribe's new leader. He discards Lana and takes Tala as his mate, and they live happily ever after.

Production

The movie was filmed in the Sierra De Organos near Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico, and features stop-motion animated dinosaurs constructed by David W. Allen, including one memorable scene where a "Tyrannosaurus rex" becomes intoxicated by a Cannabis-type drug.

The film's dialog is almost entirely in "caveman" language:

*"ool" - food
*"zug zug" - sex
*"haraka" - fire
*"pooka" - broken
*"macha" - monster

...and so on, and at some showings audiences were issued a (quite unnecessary) translation pamphlet for 30 "caveman words." [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082146/trivia/ imdb.com] ] 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. At her audition Shelley Long says she did not speak any English, but responded to everything with grunts. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082146/trivia/ imdb.com] ]

Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr first met on the set of "Caveman", and married just over a year later. [ [http://www.barbara-bach.com/barbarabio.htm/ barbara-bach.com] ]

External links

*imdb title|id=0082146|title=Caveman
* [http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/cavespeak.html Cavespeak: A Dictionary Of Cavese]

References