Walking with Cavemen (BBC)
The BBC has a rich history of quality documentaries that involve science and history. From the creators of the popular Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts come the 2003 television documentary Walking with Cavemen. This series focused on human evolution and attempted to put the viewer in the shoes of our most ancient ancestors.
It’s first worth noting that I’m a huge science geek. Studying evolution is a hobby of mind and I usually soak up anything that can be found on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, or the new Science Channel that are related to evolution.
The documentary tries to sum up human evolution in the course of two hours. From chronicling the beginning as Australopithecus to our direct relatives, Homo sapiens. You’ll meet a slew of others along the evolutionary path that include Paranthropus boisei (nutcracker man), Homo habilis, Homo ergaster (working man), Homo heidelbergensis, and neanderthals. Others such as Homo erectus and Homo rudolfensis make brief appearances.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this documentary is the actual portrayals of these early species. They depict their behaivors in life-like fashion (many of the species are played by actual actors) and tell a story. Much of this was filmed in Africa and they effectively show how the climate would have changed during that time.
But as fascinating as it is to see someone depict an early simian, it was also part of the film that bugged me the most. Much of the behaivors of these species were passed off as fact, while many scientists vigorously debate exactly how they may have behaived. In fact, some of the material from this documentary are simply laughable from the perspective of most anthropologists. It its riddled with minor errors that have been pointed out ad naseum on some science related sites.
Another aspect to the documentary that was disturbing was the focus on hypothetical dramatic storylines to compliment the characters. This allowed for less focus on the actual science behind these species and more on a useless subplot I could careless about. It was as if the filmmakers couldn’t decide whether they wanted to have a movie or a scientific documentary. While this storytelling seems to be more prevelant in scientific documentaries these days, it comes across to someone who is actually interested in the topic as a way of dumbing down the actual science.
Overall, Walking with Cavemen doesn’t live up to its predecessors. While watching the actors portrayal of these early human species is interesting, it doesn’t overcome the multitude of factual errors and useless storylines. For someone watching it from a pure informational perspective (myself), it just didn’t live up to my expectations. Someone just looking for some entertainment though with a mild interest in evolution may enjoy this more.
My recommendation for those science geeks is to stick with something more detailed such as PBS Evolution series. If you need some more flair with it, National Geographic’s Search for the Ultimate Survivor was a bit more interesting and informative (as well as up-to-date). Otherwise, I’d probably skip this documentary as it is just too outdated to be worth your time.
For more information on Walking with Cavement, visit their official site.
Parental Warning: Whether this is important or not to you, it’s worth noting. There is a lot of nudity in this film. That includes a lot of full frontal male nudity by the actors. It is part of the documentary and not explicit in nature, but worth pointing out to some parents who do not want their young children to be exposed to it.
2 out of 5 stars
Bonus: Interesting behind the scenes looks at how they brought these species to life. Including some English actors playing some of our oldest ancestors and trying to function in their outfits. There is also a small “facts” section that details all the species in the documentary. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to read and you’re better off writing down the names and doing some research online.
