First Man (2017) - Screens 133

First Man (2017) is a “documentary” with an interesting relationship to scientific facts and a disturbing view of human nature. It follows human evolution through four reconstructed ancestors: an early beta cuck ape from Spain; a Tate stan basal hominin from Chad; an ancestral alpha mogger from South Africa; and a brainmaxxing sigma arsonist from China. Join us as we break down the silly walks, unnecessarily blurred monkey genitals, and (content warning!) graphic sexual assault.

Links

• Pierolapithecus
• Sahelanthropus
• Gigantopithecus
• Sivapithecus/Ramapithecus
• Paranthropus
• Graecopithecus
• Peking Man (Homo erectus)
• Harbin/Dragon Man
• Our episode on Skullduggery (1970)
• Our episode on Sasquatch Sunset (2024)
• Grieving chimpanzee carries dead baby for months
• Zhoukoudian
• The myth of the alpha wolf
• Parsimony
• Boma predator deterrent
• Gao et al. (2017) Evidence of hominin use and maintenance of fire at Zhoukoudian
• Laughter in animals
• Pusceddu et al. (2025) Animal medical systems from Apis to apes: history, recent advances and future perspectives
• Ventro-ventro position (doggy is not the only style)
• Man vs. horse races (horses have won)
• Persistence hunting
• Aiello and Wheeler (1995) The Expensive-tissue hypothesis: The brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution
• Wrangham (2009) Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human

Contact

• Website
• Bluesky
• Facebook
• Letterboxd
• Email

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