Man's Genesis

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Man's Genesis
Scene from Man's Genesis
Directed byD. W. Griffith
StarringMae Marsh
Robert Harron
W. Chrystie Miller
Wilfred Lucas
Charles Hill Mailes
Production
company
Release date
  • July 11, 1912 (1912-July-11) (United States)

Man's Genesis is a short 1912 silent American film[1] starring Robert Harron and Mae Marsh. It was directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company and survives from an era from which many films are now lost. The movie's plot involves a grandfather recounting a story about cavemen fighting over a woman to his squabbling grandchildren.[2] The work was described as being the first "primitive man" film ever made[3] and, at the time, as the "greatest photoplay of its kind ever made".[4] It is credited as being responsible for creating the pre-historic film boom that occurred in the following years.[5] The film was re-issued alongside other Biograph films on July 23, 1915.[6]

Cast

Plot

The film begins with two children in a disagreement that they decide to fix by physically harming each other. The fight is stopped by their grandfather and, as a method to teach them that physical violence is wrong, he tells them a story about Early Man and the conflicts and murders that occurred when strong young cavemen became involved in fistfights. The character Weakhands is, in accordance with his name, unable to win any fights involving his fists and thus is not popular and is unable to win any of the

suitor battles. The cavewoman he is attracted to, Lilywhite, is required to go and find a husband after the death of her mother and she finds herself in love with Weakhands because of his nice and gentle nature. However Bruteforce, a violent bully of the tribe, fights off Weakhands and kidnaps Lilywhite to be his wife. After repeated attempts and failures by Weakhands to rescue her, he accidentally comes across the idea of combining a stick and stone into a club-like weapon, thus creating the first true weapon ever made. With this weapon, he is able to defeat Bruteforce and the other men of the tribe and regain Lilywhite as his wife.[7]

Critical reception

A review in

theory of evolution.[10] Including a description of the plot, The Moving Picture World concluded that the film "enthralls" and that the "illusion is complete" in presenting a realistic world of Early Man.[11] In a review on the 1915 re-issue in The Moving Picture World, the educational content of the film and the use of accurate location filming were praised, with the conclusion that the film had a "tone of individuality which stamps it as a credit to any program".[12] Vachel Lindsay in his 1915 book The Art of the Moving Picture said the film was a "Griffith masterpiece" and considered how the American fascination with automobile tinkering and other mechanical activities reflects on the film's initial creation of tools.[13]

Large amounts of commentary were made, both positive and negative, after a showing of the film in Fresno, California on August 29, 1912, with some audience members criticizing the idea that humans came from ape-like origins as shown in the film.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Man's Genesis (1912)". BFI. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017.
  2. OCLC 173697053
    – via Open WorldCat.
  3. Newspapers.com
    .
  4. Newspapers.com
    .
  5. ^ "Biograph Re-Issues Six More Griffith Pictures". Motion Picture News. Vol. 11, no. 25. June 26, 1915. p. 63. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  6. Newspapers.com
    .
  7. Newspapers.com
    .
  8. Newspapers.com
    .
  9. Newspapers.com
    .
  10. ^ "Comments On The Films". The Moving Picture World. July–September 1912. p. 343. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  11. ^ ""Man's Genesis": Unusual One-Reel Biograph Re-Issue Directed by D.W. Griffith". The Moving Picture World. July 17, 1915. p. 514. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  12. ^ Lindsay, Vachel (1915). The Art of the Moving Picture. Macmillan Inc. pp. 9–10.
  13. Newspapers.com
    .
  14. ^
    Moving Picture World
    . p. 2110. Retrieved December 25, 2021.

External links

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