Caveman (film)

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

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.

In the course of these adventures, they discover sedative drugs and fire, invent cooking, music, and weapons, and learn how to walk fully upright.

[6] Danforth was a major participant in the special effects sequences, but left the film "about two-thirds of the way" (his words) through the work because the Directors Guild of America prohibited his contracted on-screen credit, co-direction with Carl Gottlieb.

"[13] Ebert and Gene Siskel both gave the film a negative "don't see it" review on their TV show but softened their criticism somewhat by noting that its dinosaur-related sequences were amusing.

[14] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film was "dopey, but it's also lots of fun", and that the real star was the special-effects dinosaur.

Arnold compares the film unfavorably to Three Ages: where Buster Keaton was able to bring his genius to that picture, Caveman struggles to overcome Starr's limits, and director Gottlieb fails to make use of other talented actors such as Quaid, Schreiber, or Gilford.