MovieChat Forums > The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) Discussion > ARGH!!!

ARGH!!!

posted 19 years ago by Tebok73509
29 replies | jump to latest

The real character was sopposed to be 13 years old.
OF COURSE hollywood has the 'young girls are helpless worthless cowards' mentality and AGED the character just for eye candy. I am *&*(^(& sick and (*^*(& tired of this crap. When in gods name are they going to make heroins my age? (Im 14) They can use guys and boys but for females, they dont want to use young girls, instead they just want sexy models. It pisses mee off. This is like the hundredth time they aged the character or even changed the girl to a boy for a movie.

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[–] the_costumed_socialist 19 years ago

Sounds interesting, Xenophile!!

Hey: what other books dealing with ancient cultures have u lot read??

I like: 1) ALL the Jean Auel novels!!

2) Wolf Brother, by Michelle Paver. The beginning of a series set in Europe a couple of tens of thousands years later, after the Ice Ages. More for younger readers but a great crossover read.

Any more, anyone?? In this genre???

G:I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
H:..But will they come when you do call for them?

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[–] the_costumed_socialist 19 years ago

True. Auel is a lot more up to date! I love her "feminist" angle on the pre-historic days! (And the info it has given me on Goddess worship.)

I have read and enjoyed Burroughs, though.

G:I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
H:..But will they come when you do call for them?

[–] sigh470 19 years ago

its not really ur point. he/shes right. a 13 yr old was a woman then.
i mean an 8 yr old was basically a woman, so of course they didnt cast a 10 yr old 2 play a 10 yr old, or a 26 yr old to play iza, who was basically a grandma lookalike in the book. so come on, think about it b4 u go and post some weird attack on hollywood. they did nuthin wrong in terms of casting actors in this film.

[–] laranadtony 19 years ago

I am not understanding where you get 13 but ok!

You're gonna die in prison and I don't feel a thing about it!!Janice

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[–] fairyfootsteps123 19 years ago

also if youve read the book ... this may come out the wrong way but its not exactly a rape scene by the culture ayla is used 2 - her first clan just have sex and it means nothing like today. But thats in the book i havent seen the film yet. but in a new film it could be done that way. later, jondalar is shocked but 4 ayla shes fine. a clever script could make it that way? im not saying it is right but the way the book potrays it its different. but i may be wrong and i really dont want 2 offend anyone - feel free to disagree, it was just my interpretation of that part of the book - it was used as a way to hurt ayla but in the book for that clan the concept of rape does not really exist.
also, perhaps im contradicting myself but basically the actress does not have to BE an age she has to LOOK an age. if they could find a seventeen yr old that REALLY looks 12/13, a la coronation street that wud b just as gud.

[–] tallpall 19 years ago

the life expectancy was only 30 years in those days so 13 was considered middle-aged. they had to have kids at an early age to keep the human species alive. they didnt live too long

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[–] gwydno 19 years ago

The way humans (especially females) grow up has been subject to radical changes along History. Even today, in certain countries, you would be amazed to discover how young girls look like adults. Remember the National Geographic cover showing a green-eyed afgan refugee? Well, that girl was 12 years old!!! A few years ago the same photographer found her again in her early 30's, and she looks like an old woman.
So, if this happens today, a few hours' flight from us, imagine how people developed 30,000 years ago

[–] ArkadyRenko 19 years ago

"When in gods name are they going to make heroins my age? (Im 14)"

Hermione of the Harry Potter movies, perchance?

"A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes" Howard Hawks

[–] johnny_english_xyz 19 years ago

hey, moses lived way longer than those people. does that mean he's what people back then would call "great elderly one of wisdom" or something.
forget what i just said.

more actors my age. i'm also 14. everyone on the forum could be 14 in a way.

the R rate is unneccasary. it should be atleast a 14+.

14,14,14,14.....

damn hollywood directors and their ol crap, why can't they just make things like LoTR? make them a lot more accurate to books?

this is like plagerism or something. like they just take an idea from a book and make it their own but it's not exactly like the book. it's like harry potter being insparationalized from larry potter(who's also a magic kid with glasses)

they really got to redo all them movies out there that they get outo books.

_________________
john
"i'm a gangster. i'm a straight up G."

[–] AnimalMother84 19 years ago

A rape scene involving a fourteen year old? I doubt we'll be seeing that in hollywood movies anytime soon.

[–] andrea-45 19 years ago

A rape scene involving a fourteen year old? I doubt we'll be seeing that in hollywood movies anytime soon.

My thoughts EXACTLY. I was waiting for someone to say something along this line. While any rape is dastardly, a child rape scene in a movie would have altered the tone perhaps too far to get the rating the makers wished.

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[–] andrea-45 19 years ago

Hmmm...I remember that about Pretty Baby, although I never saw it. And I certainly didn't know that about Peyton Place. However, in COTCB, they more or less showed the rape, while I suspect in the earlier two, it was more implied or whispered about than demonstrated. Big difference without a visual.

[–] paulineyweeny 19 years ago

Someone said something that touched upon this, but when you think about how the life expectancy was so much shorter in the period of the movie/books it kind of makes sense that they used an older person to portray Ayla. It makes it easier for a contemporary audience to understand that an 11-year-old then is closer to what a 17-year-old is now, in terms of life stages.

The characters that are in their 30s or close to it (been a while since I've read them) are elderly, and it makes more sense to simply have older actors play them rather than have 30-year-olds with makeup on to age them.

Now if they had changed Ayla into a boy, it would be an entirely different story. Literally and figuratively. It never could have happened b/c a lot ofwhat she stood for would have been lost, and would have warranted a major uproar for sure. Ditching female leads for males is definitely lame.

[–] inklingatthetradingposts 19 years ago

I haven't seen the movie, but if she is raped and beaten by Broud I think it would be somewhat less disturbing to an audience to see an older girl than a preteen being abused.

s'all for now
inkl

[–] paulineyweeny 19 years ago

Yeah, that goes along with what I was trying to say. In the book and film, the abuse was only tolerated because Ayla was a mature woman of childbirthing capabilities at the time. He would not have been allowed to have sex with a child, let alone to force it.

[–] Unicorndream1988 19 years ago

I was disappointed that they didnt make her look younger in the movie (or get a younger actress) but i understand why. Doesnt mean you have to like it.

[–] moonprincess7070 18 years ago

unfortunatly society has issues with stuff like that but remember ayla had durc when she was 11 and that goes way over alot of people's heads and the whole rape scene when she's like 10 the only thing i don't like about EC is the fact that Ayla seems to invent EVERYTHING!!!! The needle, domistcation, firestones...She's just tooo..... superhuman might be the word...

[–] drbriggs3 17 years ago

Hey people, we are talking about Apples and Oranges here, litterally. There are TWO separate species of humans seen in the movie, Neanderthal and Cro-Mangon (Ayla being the Cro-Mangon). According to Auel's book, Neanderthal's aged quicker then did Cro-Mangon, reaching puberty at around the age of eight, and having a life expectancy of around 35 years, whereas Cro-Mangon are more like Modern Homo Sapiens Sapiens, hitting puberty in the early teens, and having a life expectancy of late 40's-early 50's. And that Life Expectancy does not mean that everyone will hit that age, and die, rather it means (at least in Auel's usage) that an adult of say 10 (for a Neanderthal) could expect to live, on average, for another 25 years, but some could live well beyond that, to perhaps an age of around the late 40's or early 50's. This is much the same as today, with our life expectancy in the late 70's, but with numerous people living into their 90's, and even over 100 years old. That is why Ayla thinks of herself as old. Personally, I think that this movie would be best with an actress playing Ayla who was OVER the age of 20, but who looked like she was actually a teenager.

[–] smerd_70 16 years ago

"only thing i don't like about EC is the fact that Ayla seems to invent EVERYTHING!!!! The needle, domistcation, firestones...She's just tooo..... superhuman might be the word."

This is because of what happened to her at the Clan-gathering in 'Clan of the Cave Bear', something was opened up inside her that gives her the ability.

I collect dead pigeons then I press them between the pages of a book.

[–] her_majesty_zoe 16 years ago

Calm down...not get angry like one of the Neanderthals in the movie lol.

I think it wasn't an "eye candy" issue so much as it was an issue of trying not to offend certain venues of audiances...at least at the time.