Man's Genesis

{{Short description|Historic extant D. W. Griffith film from 1912}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Man's Genesis | image = Scene from Man's Genesis.png | alt = Black and white film still showing prehistoric scene | caption = Scene from ''Man's Genesis'' | native_name =  | director = D. W. Griffith | writer = | screenplay = | story = | based_on =  | producer = | starring = {{Plainlist| * Mae Marsh * Robert Harron * W. Chrystie Miller * Wilfred Lucas * Charles Hill Mailes }} | narrator = | cinematography = G. W. Bitzer | editing = | music = | studio = Biograph Company | distributor = Biograph Company | released = {{Film date|1912|7|11|United States}} | runtime = 17 minutes | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) | budget = | gross = }}

'''''Man's Genesis''''' is a 1912 American short silent drama film<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bbb04c2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722081109/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bbb04c2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 22, 2017 |title=Man's Genesis (1912) |website=BFI}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Man's genesis |date=November 16, 1912 |publisher=Blackhawk Films |oclc=173697053 }}</ref> The work was described as being the first "primitive man" film ever made<ref>{{cite news |date=August 27, 1916 |title=Robert Harron and Mae Marsh, Isis Tomorrow |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91148300/robert-harron-and-mae-marsh-isis/ |work=Pensacola News Journal |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and, at the time, as the "greatest photoplay of its kind ever made".<ref>{{cite news |date=August 30, 1915 |title=Amusements - The Penn |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91148467/amusements-the-penn/ |work=Intelligencer Journal |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> It is credited as being responsible for creating the pre-historic film boom that occurred in the following years.<ref name="Denig">{{cite news |last=Denig |first=Lynde |date=June 26, 1915 |title="Man's Genesis" and "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch" Included in Second Installment of Notable Biograph Re-issues |url=https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor24newy/page/2110/mode/2up |work=Moving Picture World |pages=2110 |access-date=December 25, 2021}}</ref> The film was re-issued alongside other Biograph films on July 23, 1915.<ref>{{cite news |date=June 26, 1915 |title=Biograph Re-Issues Six More Griffith Pictures |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew112unse/page/n1353/mode/2up |work=Motion Picture News |volume=11 |issue=25 |pages=63 |access-date=December 25, 2021}}</ref>

==Cast== {{Cast listing| * Mae Marsh as Lilywhite<ref name="Denig" /> * Robert Harron as Weakhands<ref name="Denig" /> * W. Chrystie Miller as Grandfather<ref name="Denig" /> * Wilfred Lucas as Bruteforce<ref name="Denig" /> * Charles Hill Mailes as Tribe Member * Claire McDowell as Tribe Member * W.C. Robinson as Tribe Member }}

==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.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 12, 1915 |title=Man's Genesis Is Based on the Darwinian Theory of Evolution |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91149822/mans-genesis-is-based-on-the-darwinian/ |work=The Montgomery Advertiser |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Critical reception== A review in ''The Nebraska State Journal'' described the film as "marvelous" for being able to combine the themes of "love and hate" and the conflict between weakness and intelligence against brutish strength. It also criticized the "lamentable lack of vision and imagination" of other filmmakers, in a comparison between their works and ''Man's Genesis''.<ref>{{cite news |date=August 11, 1912 |title=At The Theatre |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91148889/at-the-theatre-mans-genesis/ |work=The Nebraska State Journal |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> ''The Fresno Morning Republican'' called the film a "powerful conception - a real Darwinian thought" and said that it was "marvelously executed".<ref>{{cite news |date=September 26, 1912 |title="Rip Van Winkle" and "Man's Genesis" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91149285/rip-van-winkle-and-mans-genesis/ |work=The Fresno Morning Republican |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Detailed as "splendidly portrayed" in the ''Harrisburg Daily Independent'', the film was considered to be a "distinct departure" from the other usual films produced in the era, and the newspaper said that it dealt with a "theory of grave importance", Darwin's theory of evolution.<ref>{{cite news |date=July 31, 1912 |title=Man's Genesis |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91150249/mans-genesis/ |work=Harrisburg Daily Independent |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=July–September 1912 |title=Comments On The Films |url=https://archive.org/details/moviwor13chal/page/n345/mode/2up |work=The Moving Picture World |pages=343 |access-date=December 25, 2021}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite news |date=July 17, 1915 |title="Man's Genesis": Unusual One-Reel Biograph Re-Issue Directed by D.W. Griffith |url=https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor25newy/page/514/mode/2up?view=theater |work=The Moving Picture World |pages=514 |access-date=December 25, 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lindsay |first=Vachel |author-link=Vachel Lindsay |date=1915 |title=The Art of the Moving Picture |url=https://archive.org/details/artmovingpictur00lindgoog/page/n18/mode/2up?q=%22man%27s+genesis%22 |publisher=Macmillan Inc. |pages=9–10}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news |date=August 30, 1912 |title=Were Men Ape-Like In The Dark Ages? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91156984/were-men-ape-link-in-the-dark-ages/ |work=The Fresno Morning Republican |access-date=December 25, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2n6tlo The film on Dailymotion]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man's Genesis}} Category:1912 films Category:1912 drama films Category:1912 short films Category:1910s action drama films Category:1912 American films Category:1912 English-language films Category:American black-and-white films Category:Biograph Company films Category:Films about cavemen Category:Short films directed by D. W. Griffith Category:American silent drama short films Category:Surviving American silent films Category:English-language drama short films Category:English-language action drama films