10,000 (film)

Box office

Country	Box Office	Number of weeks	Dated
Global box office 1	$ 269,052,025	6	to April 13, 2008
Box office United States / Canada 1	$ 94,770,548	6	to April 13, 2008
Box office France 2	833 476 entries	4	at 8 April 2008

Filming Locations

• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Namibia

Historical Reliability

The story is supposed to take place at the end of the Pleistocene ^{[ref. necessary]} , but should take place at Younger Dryas , according to the basics of the story. However, it is a fantasy Pleistocene, according to Kloser’s own admission: “neither Roland nor I have ever had the idea that 10 000 can be a documentary film” ³ . Thus, the film presents many anachronisms and other historical falsehoods.

“We have no written sources about the peoples of Europe during the Ice Age , so the names of the main characters like Tic’Tic, Evolet or Ka’Ren are pure products of the imagination. As for the name D’leh, it is simply an anagramof the German word Held ( hero ) ” ^{[ref. necessary]} .

The evocation of the Egyptians is also not faithful to the historical reality, although this civilization is not quoted as such in the film. The pseudo-Egyptians of the film, who might as well evoke the mythical Atlantean civilization , build high pyramids taking into account the constellation Orion ^{[ref. necessary]} : the pharaoh evoked is comparable to Cheops . However, from this assumption, the pyramid of Cheops was built between 2551 and 2472 BC, about, and not in -10 000.

The mammoths disappeared only during the last ice age , as the film does not show, they are represented, however, with a very large size (about 6 m ) and scared by the man, in hunting group. There were gigantic species, such as the imperial mammoth and the mammoth of North America , but the common mammoth was not much larger than the current Asian elephant , with a height of only 3.50 m at the withers. . There is no hard evidence that mammoths have ever lived in the Nile Valleynor have they been domesticated; however, there is an alleged representation of mammoths in an Egyptian tomb ⁴ .

The Phorusrhacos lived, especially in North America and the South . There is no evidence that 10,000 years before our era, he found himself in Europe. Gastornis was a European species, but she lived 40 million years ago, and here she is represented 3 times too big.

The saber-tooth lived primarily in South America. In Europe, too, there have been, but they have died out to – 30 000. Moreover, their size, exaggerated in the film, is multiplied by 7.

The corn is an imported species of America by Europeans in the xvi ^th century, gold at the end of the film, the men cultivate this plant.

The belligerent horde rides horses harnessed. The domestication of the horse only dates back to -7,000 (3,000 years later), in the Arabian Peninsula , but possibly 2,000 years before the reported facts ⁵ (ie -12,000), this making plausible the riding of riders towards – 1,600, by the Assyrians , but the guide system (reins and bit) and saddle is not proven before Antiquity ⁶ , the horse being then only a source of meat or skin.

Other anachronisms or approximations, such as the elaboration of nets, lifting cranes against weight, handcuffs rimmed with riveted iron bands, sandals, evolved language (contemporary), the character imposed as an interpreter, start the the credibility of history, in a prehistoric mix of the Iron Age , the Bronze Age and the pyramid builders who master sailing sailing to windward ( Christopher Columbus still could not do it at his time).

It must nevertheless be remembered that it is an adaptation of heroic fantasy, a fiction, the film can therefore allow these many excesses in historical reliability.

Themes

The film is inspired by the theories of the British journalist Graham Hancock developed in his essay The Footprint of the Gods . According to this author, a civilization of a very high scientific and cultural level would have been wiped out thousands of years before the construction of the pyramids of Egypt ⁷ .

In the film, this civilization would be Atlantis . This continent is also mentioned in the film when a slave says that his gods arrived by the stars or the waters, after their land had been swallowed by the waters. The film also refers to the pyramids of Egypt , including the great pyramid of Cheops in Giza , but also the Sphinx or the mystery of the Orion constellation , whose design is taken by the scars of Evolet.

We find the theme of the mystic god enslaving the desert peoples in Stargate ( The Gate of Stars ), another film by Roland Emmerich:

• The pyramids of Giza are here built in – 10,000: Jack O’Neill confirms this date in Stargate .
• The revolt against Pharaoh may be closer to the rebellion that overthrew Ra on the planet Abydos.
• Pharaoh is said to be a god. D’Leh contradicts this fact. In Stargate , the SG-1 team strives to show people that Goa’uld lords are not gods, but only use advanced technology ( Daniel Jackson uses his ballpoint pen as an example to show that he also masters writing).

Notes and references