Leofwine_draca Yay! THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (forget that sappy cartoon THE LAND BEFORE TIME with which it is often confused) is an ALL-TIME favourite of mine which I first saw on TV when I was a kid. After that, I always made a point of watching it whenever it was on, and now, some twenty years since I last watched it, I got hold of the DVD to find out whether it would live up to my memories of it – or whether my enjoyment of this film was simply a matter of nostalgia! I'm delighted to report that this excellent fantasy flick from Britain's Amicus studios is every bit as good as I remember it: a surprisingly strong movie that can be enjoyed by adults as well as kids.Of course, this film and those that came after it were the JURASSIC PARKs of their day: fun-filled spectacles of humans fighting dinosaurs in a prehistoric landscape. Comparing the two, I think this film has the EDGE over Spielberg's effort any day: there's no sentimentality here getting in the way of the danger and death. Had Spielberg directed, good old Ahm would have escaped that evil pterodactyl and there would have been a couple of annoyingly cute kids along for the ride, so yes, I think this movie has the edge.Watching it brings back all kinds of great memories and I realise now how much influence it's had on my life. The creepy fog-enshrouded setting is atmospheric in the extreme and has given me a life-long love of fog, I still get a shiver whenever I see it. The early fight scene on top of the submarine is a masterful set-piece of two-fisted action and I'm sure this scene alone is responsible for the huge enjoyment I get from seeing guys slugging it out on screen. Then, of course, there are the dinosaurs. The first sight of that Pleisosaur through the periscope is still chilling and I've loved these mammoth-sized beasts ever since. Yes, the prop and model effects are poor in the extreme – Harryhausen would have done a good job, but he would have taken too long and cost too much – but as a kid you don't notice stuff like that. As an adult, I actually enjoy the craftsmanship that's gone into these creatures, much more appealing than a computer-created leviathan.What I loved most about this film was Michael Moorcock's script, taken from the original Edgar Rice Burroughs story. There's no pandering to the kiddie audience here, but instead a surprisingly intelligent story with engaging, fleshed-out characters. The first half of the film has no dinosaurs at all, instead showing the power struggle between the Allies and the Germans and very good it is too: taut and suspenseful, like a claustrophobic sea-bound thriller should be. When the gang arrive at the titular 'land', intricacies are forgotten in favour of all-out dinosaur action and adventure, but it's a fine, worthy pay off. The truly downbeat conclusion is still chilling to this day and the intercutting of the volcano footage is done superbly – kudos to the editor for his fine abilities. Meanwhile, director Kevin Connor clearly has the right sensibilities and works hard to achieve his aims in this, his best film.Then there's the cast: hammy Doug McClure, excellent as the lantern-jawed hero who fights first and thinks later; this cemented his reputation as a B-movie hero and he's still one of the best. He went on to appear in many other fun flicks, although none are quite as good as this. Susan Penhaligon is the damsel in distress, and lovely with it, but Moorcock is careful to make sure we know she's an intelligent, capable scientist in her own right. John McEnergy is my favourite character in the film – he could have been a sneering German villain, but instead he's an articulate, sensitive scholar caught up the horrors of a world war. Anthony Ainley, later to play The Master in DR WHO, does well with the 'sneering German villain' duties and it's worth noting that every actor in the supporting cast was established in his own right. Steve James, an American action star who appeared in the likes of THE EXTERMINATOR, is unrecognisable under cave-man makeup.Anyway, this is a lovely little film with great attention to detail. If you've never seen it before, you'll probably find it cheap and twee, but compare it to the other kinds of movies released during the 1970s and you'll realise what a gem it is. Long live Doug!

sddavis63 A lot of people seem to criticize this movie for what they call its "poor" special effects. I think if that becomes the basis on which you're going to judge the movie, you have to keep in mind that it was made 40 years ago, long before the computer generated stuff that dominates today's movies came about. Personally, I found the special effects to be fine - especially considering when it was made, and in any event I don't think the quality of a movie depends on the special effects. Much more important, to me, are the storyline and the performances. "The Land That Time Forgot" certainly gets a passing grade on those.The story begins with a German U-boat sinking a British civilian liner. A few of the passengers make it on to the u-boat and manage to take control of it for a while. To me, far more than the special effects, the idea that a rag-tag group of survivors from a sunken vessel could take control of a German u-boat was probably the most problematic part of the story. Having said that, though, there's an ongoing struggle to control the sub which was mildly interesting to watch. I wondered why the American who had taken command (Tyler, played by Doug McClure) needed seven days to figure out that the Germans had sabotaged the compass so that they were heading south rather than west. Somehow, that seemed to me to be something that probably should have been noticed earlier. In any event, out of fuel and other supplies, the u-boat suddenly encounters Caprona - what had been thought to be a mythical island in the South Atlantic, populated by dinosaurs and primitive humans, all of whom exist together. The struggle for survival in a hostile environment is on!This was fun. It['s not a masterpiece of movie making, but it's a fun adventure, and it even includes a little bit of ethical thinking about the morality of warfare - especially as Captain Von Shoenvorts (John McEnery) and Lisa (Susan Penhaligon) talk about why the Germans would have sunk a civilian vessel with women and children aboard. As the captain replied - the way the ship exploded made it clear that there were arms in the hold; arms that would have been used to kill German women and children. Not everything is as clear cut as we want it to be!The performances were fine. Nothing outstanding, but nothing that detracted from the movie either. It comes from a story written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who's better known as the author who created Tarzan. Frankly, I enjoyed this more than any Tarzan movie I've ever seen. (7/10)

Claudio Carvalho In 1916, during the World War II, a British passenger ship is torpedoed by the German U-boat commanded by Captain Von Schoenvorts (John McEnery) and sinks. The survivors Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) and Lisa Clayton (Susan Penhaligon) join a few crew members that has also survived and Bowen convinces them to take over the submarine that has come to the surface. They sail together but they end lost in the middle of the ocean. After many incidents between Germans and British, the two groups team-up to survive and arrive in Caprona, a land that is not charted in the maps. Soon they realize that the land has dinosaurs, pterodactyls and Neanderthals. They capture a native, Ahm (Bobby Parr), and they learn that there is oil on the land. They see the chance to refine it and leave Caprona. Will they succeed in their intent? "The Land That Time Forgot" is an unforgettable adventure based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel with the same title. The plot is delightfully naive and is funny to see how we could buy a story of a land forgotten by time forty years ago. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Terra Que o Tempo Esqueceu" ("The Land That Time Forgot")

mgruebel "The Land That Time Forgot" is arguably the most underrated dinosaur action movie of the 1970s. Good B-movie fun for the kids (and adults) in the family that can't resist dinosaur fare.This Doug McClure vehicle about British sailors who capture a German U-Boat that sunk their ship, then get stranded on a prehistoric island (think King Kong's Skull Island), only to be picked off one-by-one by ravenous dinosaurs and cave men, has pretty high value special effects for a 1970s flick. It is an instant classic, like "Logan's Run," which also featured some of the top special effects the time could muster - until Star Wars changed the whole game. (Of course, I am excluding 1968's "2001" here, a Kubrick film so far ahead of its time that it stands in a special category of its own.)Caprona actually has a plot (unlike the Jurassic Park sequels, for instance), good actors in a fabulous ensemble cast, character development, and a great set-up (Germans and British who want to kill one another, instead have to band together to survive ravaging dinosaurs).The special effects of course are not up to modern CGI, but they are awesome in their palpable physicality: glider planes disguised as pterodactyls that pick up a real actor in their teeth by swooping down; ichthyosaurs that shoot out of the water next to the U-Boat to feed on human prey; prehistoric men that will bash your head in with an ax, but also make dearest friends and love the Edison phonograph music; tar pits bubbling and shooting natural gas flames. We must forgive a scene where two allosaurs (still standing upright and tails down as was the posing custom in 1970s paleontology) have strings attached. Puppetry still beats stop motion, but take the kids to "Dark Crystal" if you want to see it done really well.The band of men and women is eventually defeated by their own infighting. The simple moral is that Nature will get us if we don't work together and get over our differences. As the U- Boat goes down in flames, the viewer actually feels sorry for the doomed characters, and equally sorry for the lone couple that was left on shore to deal with the prehistoric mayhem.This film is good enough to deserve a remake, but also good enough that it doesn't really need one. One the other hand, many modern remakes were made from movies NOT good enough to need a remake, or even to have been made in the first place.