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One Million Years B.C. (1966) More at IMDbPro »

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14 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
She'll never live it down..., 21 July 2002

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Raquel Welch's later, more solid acting performances will never erase our memories of this dinosaur-epic wherein she runs around in full cavegirl regalia. Then again, she may not want them to. Time has been surprisingly kind to this reworking of 1940's "One Million B.C." The special effects are very good, the wilds of prehistoric nature are often excitingly, colorfully captured, and handsome John Richardson is charismatic as a caveman who, along with Welch, ditches his tribe to set out on a personal journey. Yes, it's Raquel in a fur-bikini that most people will remember, but a good time is had by all. **1/2 from ****

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15 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Classic prehistoric hokum!, 24 December 2001
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

Watching 1970s TV screenings of 'One Million Years BC', the Connery Bond movies, the original 'Planet Of The Apes' and 'The Omega Man' made an enormous impact on my childhood that I don't think I've ever truly recovered from! Looking at it now as an adult you can see how laughably stupid it all is, but you can't help but still love it! The vision of Raquel Welch in her animal skin bikini nearly brought puberty on five years early for me. She's still a sight to see but the charms of Martine Beswick ('Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde', 'A Bullet For The General') are now more to my taste. She's sensational!

The plot, such that it is, concerns Tumak (John Richardson of 'She'), one of the "rock people" who look like spaghetti western refugees and like nothing better than grunting, wearing fur, and beating the crap out of each other. Tumak falls out with his old man and brother, is banished and after some aimless wandering around avoiding dinosaurs (and in one surreal moment a giant tarantula!), he stumbles across the hitherto unknown "shell people". They are blonde surfer types who introduce him to such innovations as improved spears, hot water, painting, crying and feminism. And also to the babelicious Loana (Welch) who takes a shine to him. Tumak still has "attitude problems" and ends up getting banished from their tribe too, but with Loana and a new and improved spear what more can the guy want? Of course he heads straight back to his homies and yes, there's trouble ahead including fraternal friction, a jealous ex (Nupondi, the stunning Beswick), lots of Harryhausen dinosaurs, and exploding volcanos. Does mindless entertainment get any better than this? Hardly ever. Add a cool score from Mario Nascimbene and what you have is a classic piece of unforgettably trashy exploitation.

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11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Stop motion animation and the Lady Schick., 16 October 2000
Author: yenlo from Auburn, Me

Ray Harryhausens work is unparalleled and is once again to be admired in this film. I was intrigued that the first thing hygiene wise that humans (at least women) must have come up with was shaving. The females in this movie are all clean shaven in places where women traditionally have kept themselves clean shaven. The men obviously weren't going to learn this art until some time later. Nonetheless this motion picture is one of those that never gets tired with repeated viewings.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Caveman allegory with Raquel Welch, John Richardson, and some really great Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs., 31 July 2005

Author: stanhyde from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie came out in 1967, a year before 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY . . . but they've always been related in my mind. Maybe it was just the time, maybe you had to be there . . . but back in the late 60's there weren't many big "science fiction" productions . . . or in this case sweeping epics about the past or the future.

One thing the two films share is a lack of dialog . . . in both cases the director's sit back and the actions tell the story. As well both films are happy to display their special effects moments as set pieces . . . "hey, we spent a lot of money on this?!"

Don Chaffey's long cuts and static landscape shots at the beginning of the film are very much like Kubrick's shots of Africa at the start of 2001 . . . and both films are literal and allegorical treatments of evolution as a theme.

Of course, that went with the times. The late 60's were a point where the evolution of society was a focal point of culture in general . . . both the Star Child and Miss Welch in her iconic bearskin bikini became the late 60's poster children for mankind's evolution.

Interestingly, though Ray Harryhausen did the special effects for ONE MILLION YEARS BC, the film isn't at all like a Harryhausen film, nor is it much like the films of it's production company Hammer Films (except perhaps for the two sequels WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH, and CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT.)

Hammer - with Harryhausen's involvement - had been interested in remaking KING KONG, but in the late 1960's RKO's rights to the Kong character were shared among Universal and Toho (KING KONG VS GODZILLA) and Rankin- Bass (the cartoon Kong which served as a basis for the Toho film KING KONG ESCAPES.)

In fact, right at the time that Hammer would have been inquiring, Toho would have been working on preproduction of a film in which King Kong met Mothra and battled a giant shrimp (Ebirah) in the South Seas. (That film mutated, Godzilla replaced KING KONG, and it became GODZILLA VS EBIRAH aka GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER.)

So Hammer moved on to a remake of the Hal Roach 1(no YEARS) MILLION BC.

With it's lingering shots of vast landscapes, and the very Italian score by Mario Nascembe(with the percussion and use of a chorus it could almost be Ennio Morricone . . .), the film is pretty much unique in Hammer's oeuvre . . . and with it's focus on sex (well, possession at least) and violence in a harsh landscape of sharp desert light or fire lit darkness, it's pretty unique as a Harryhausen picture too.

Opinions about the film really depend on the point-of-view you adopt (again like 2001). Those who like their acting to be dialog driven complain about the acting, but actually everyone puts in a good performance here and I have no doubt that beautiful Napondi (Martine Beswicke) wouldn't think twice about impaling Luana (Raquel Welch) with that antelope horn she wields.

It's been speculated that the schedule was tough for Harryhausen, resulting in a scene with a photo-optically enlarged Iguana and Tarantula . . . although Harryhausen says the producers wanted those sequences added. (If you look closely you'll see a giant cricket in the scene with the Tarantula, probably the first giant cricket until 2005's KING KONG with it's herd of killer wetas, and doubtlessly in their to excite the Tarantual into a "performance.)

The fact that publicity photos show a battle between cavemen and a brontosaurus that never happens in the film probably backs up the story that the schedule was too short for Harryhausen.

Nevertheless, the stop motion on view is excellent . . . except for the Brontosaurus who looks about the size of Godzilla. The pacing and animation in the battle with the giant turtle Archelon is excellent, and most people just accept the turtle as real. The Allosaurus attack . . .possibly one of Harryhausen's most exciting sequences ever . . . is terrific. In many ways it holds up even today as a model of the integration of live action and special effects The classic Triceratops battle is interesting for utilizing a Ceratosaurus instead of Tyrannosaurus . . . but with our two heroes in the classic "trapped in a cave" position it's a bit static. However the Pterodactyl scenes, and the big volcano and earthquake finish are pretty riveting.

All in all, ONE MILLION YEARS BC is still a lot of fun if your in the right mood. Again, like 2001, the message seems to be that we can evolve and get better . . . but ultimately just as the monolith transforming Dave makes the standoff between Russians and Americans on the moon a non-issue, the battle between the Rock and the Sand tribe becomes . . . well . . . pretty irrelevant when the forces of nature - Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes - make mankind's aspirations tiny in comparison.

The film has been restored twice in the last decade, and the recent 20th Century Fox DVD has comparisons of the work done (the original negative was lost). The European version clocks in at 100 minutes . . . and most people say that it is an improvement, with more character scenes and a different order of sequences at the beginning of the film. The Fox version is the North American release version that is 91 minutes long. Spanish and English trailers on the DVD seem to be identical, with the narrator simply translated into Spanish.

Ultimately, any dinosaur or monster fan, fan of Ray Harryhausen's work, or fan of "Hammer glamor" is going to want to own this film.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
B(e)C(ause) of various factors, 6 August 2006

Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

OK, having seen many movies about the Stone Age, we should know that the men were all buff dudes, and the women were all buxom babes. That's certainly the case here. Obviously, no part of "One Million Years B.C." really makes sense - humans and dinosaurs never existed contemporaneously - but that doesn't matter. The movie was intended as entertainment, and it's very enjoyable. Maybe that's just because we get to see Raquel Welch in a bikini, but the dinosaurs are also pretty cool. The movie makes us nostalgic for the era, even though we never experienced it.

So, it's brain candy to the max, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. You're sure to like it, if only for the thought of Raquel Welch dressed like that.

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Still holds up, 17 June 2005
Author: jlon from Dublin

Hammer's biggest grossing movie. DVD review.

Two tribes fight each other long, long ago.

What I liked most about this movie was the long silent sequences. There's plenty of special effects including lots of dinosaurs, a giant turtle (when Welch first appears), a volcanic eruption, and lots of beautiful women (wearing makeup). That scene where the old man gets pushed into a pit was shocking. Probably Welch's most famous role. Best scene: that flying dinosaur catching up Welch. A funnier alternative to this movie is Caveman.

One million years BC is an enjoyable though inaccurate historical movie.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Never a dull moment, 1 June 2005

Author: drmality-1 (drmality@sbcglobal.net) from Illinoize

This movie is everything a prehistoric adventure should be. Forget the fact that dinosaurs and man did not co-exist...this is just as much a fantasy as "Jason and the Argonauts" or "Star Wars".

The world of "One Million Years B.C." is insanely brutal, where man is the weakest creature in a harsh landscape of volcanoes and giant monsters. The Rock People have lives that are "nasty, brutish and short", where only the strongest survive. They are dominated by the rugged chief Akoba, whose two sons Tumak and Sakana are in a constant battle to see who will gain his favor. Sakana gains the upper hand and Tumak is banished into the wastelands. After dodging monsters, he finally arrives at the seaside domain of the Shell People, who are more cultured and civilized. He captures the eye of the beautiful Loana and the two have a non-stop series of adventures.

The narrative is direct and primitive, befitting the primeval setting. John Richardson is quite good as Tumak...he is decent but still has a lot of barbarism in him. As for young Raquel Welch, not even the special effects of Ray Harryhausen could outshine her incredible beauty in this film. Even in our own time, gorgeous babes like these are rare...they would be totally impossible in the prehistoric world. The stunning Raquel is pure eye candy and succeeds better in this regard than any other actress in film history. Especially noteworthy is her cat-fight with sultry Martine Beswick, no slouch in the looks department herself.

Ray Harryhausen outdoes himself again with brilliant stop motion dinosaurs. Look at the realistic movements of these creatures, which have not been surpassed by CGI. The ravenous Allosaurus who duels with Tumak is a particular stand-out, but the battling Triceratops and Ceratosaur are also pretty cool. The movie also features the more standard giant lizard dressed up and made huge, but even this scene is better than most of its ilk. An eerie scene featuring ape-men and some colossal earthquake and erupting volcanoes round out an exciting picture.

Don't look for anything really deep in this one. Just expect primitive action with plenty of monsters, battling cavemen and the awesome Raquel Welch. This movie does everything it sets out to do.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Hammer, Harryhausen and Dinos, A Great Combination!, 8 April 2006

Author: ClassixFan from USA

How can fans of sci-fi/fantasy not enjoy this 1966 effort from Hammer Studios? You have the wonderful effects of the master, Ray Harryhausen and a decent enough story, oh and dinos! The Region 2 DVD is definitely the disc to get, as it is the complete version of the film and it has a couple of nice interviews with Raquel Welch and Ray Harryhausen. I love what Harryhausen had to say about complaints about inaccuracy with putting man and dinos together on the screen. It's not meant to be a scientific story, it's meant to entertain and entertain it does! Watch as Tumak (of the Rock People) and Loana (of the Shell People) forge a shaky relationship and possibly bring their two tribes of people together. Along the way they battle a huge sea turtle, Allosaurus, Pteradon and other wild beasties of the day. If you love dinos and films meant to be nothing more than fun entertainment, chances are, you'll enjoy this Hammer Studios effort.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Ray Harryhausen at his very best., 1 February 2002
Author: Chris Gaskin from Derby, England

One Million Years B.C. is the best Ray Harryhausen movie and one of the best dinosaur movies ever made. Ray's dinosaurs are magnificent. He didn't animate the giant lizard or giant spider though, but these still look impressive.

The other star of this movie is of course Raquel Welch. She looks well groomed, despite being in prehistoric times. One of the best scenes of the movie is where she gets picked up by a Pteranodon, as a potential meal for its young. At least she survives.

This movie also has a great, thunderous score throughout and is atmospheric.

This is the best of Hammer's prehistoric adventures and is a must for all dinosaur movie lovers.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly good caveman epic, 10 January 2000

Author: John Seal from Oakland CA

One Million Years BC (soon to be retitled One Million Years BCE) features some terrific cinematography by Wilkie Cooper, some fairly scary dinosaurs courtesy of Ray Harryhausen, and a decidedly dark atmosphere that at times is quite disturbing. Raquel Welch is the reason most people (well, most men) cite for watching this film, but she's really only icing on the cake. Besides, Martine Beswick looks even better than Raquel does!

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