10,000 BC

10,000 BC, directed by Roland Emmerich, in 2008.


This film is often called “First Cinema,” which is the film that entertaining spectators rather than showing the artwork or sending a political message. And it is what Hollywood Cinemas can do really well, entertaining spectators. 10,000 BC is has very simple narrative that D’Leh pursues the trace exotic hunters who take this tribe people as slaves for saving his people, and his lover, Evolet. Even though we can expect all the story and even the ending, spectators are overwhelmed with the graphic. Especially, the first hunting for the Mammoths, it attracts the spectators into its film. Also, keep introducing the new African American tribes helps to remain the interests in the film, too.

The most interest thing from this film is that the narrator’s voice over with a lot of the establishing, extremely long shot which reminds me a documentary. The narrator’s voice sounds like very intellectual and modernize while all the scenes in the film shows that the primeval environment and lifestyle. Also, this narrator’s voice over also keeps the narrative time and space information to the spectator. From many African’s tribes, they have the traditional way of keeping their history, story-telling. So, keep the narrator’s voice understands the audience how the character’s feel, what character sees, where the characters are, what kind of situation that the characters are in. All the information is given by the oral like the traditional African tribe used to. Since this voice-over gives the idea that it is traditional way to keep information, audience keep feels that the characters in the very primeval time and space.

I really enjoyed this film until the ending. It was really good uses of the voice-over narration, the overwhelmed computer graphics, simple narrators, and keep adding new tribes in order not to lose the spectator’s interest. However, the ending is too random, the Evolet’s sudden revival. There could be many other choices for the ending, but I do not think spectators really satisfied within the ending that the director chooses. However, overall very impressive use of documentary style, I would give A- to this First cinema!