Ratna Assan in Papillon

Ratna Assan

as

Zoraima in Papillon

Steve McQueen stars as Henri Charriere, called Papillon because of a butterfly tattoo on his chest, who is sentenced to serve his time in French Guiana. Opon arriving, he quickly forms a partnership with frail forger Louis Dega, played by Dustin Hoffman. Papillon continuously makes escape attempts, only to fail and  end up in solitary confinement. He then ....... wait a minute, I thought this blog was about jungle girls, cave girls and native girls. Correct it is. In one of Papillon's later escape attempts, while running away he jumps into a river. When he wakes up, he's at a native village. The name of the tribe and the exact location of were this tribe is located in relationship to were the prison is is never stated. The chief has one of the women go to Papillon and bring him food, she is called Zoraima in the credits. Next follows a montage of them doing various things: eating, swimming, fishing. I'm not all sure what they did but it is obvious who he did. The chief has Papillon give him a butterfly tattoo like the one that Papillon has on his chest. Papillon does this and the following day he wakes up and finds that the village is now deserted.

Movie scholars often say that the 1960s and the 1970s were the second Golden Age of movies. This is the first time that film makers who grew up watching movies on TV started to make their own movies. There was a lot of experimentation with characters and how movies were made. Papillon is a good example. It is a two and a half hour movie were the main character is sent to prison, escapes, gets captured, is sent to solitary confinement, escapes, gets captured and is sent to solitary confinement over and over again. Then at the two hour mark there is a seven minute sequence were there is no dialog, just music and sound effects. Not only that but the sequence contains a completely separate group of characters, that aren't even in the rest of the movie, and the sequence even has a mini story line and it all works. It is hard to imagine any modern movie being made in 2019 that would do this.

The only bad thing about the movie is that Ratna Assan's screen time is barely over two minutes. Lets be honest there's not much to do in two minutes. But she is able to convey a lot of emotion and intent with out a single line of dialog.

Zoriama has long black hair that goes just below her shoulders. The entire time she is topless except for  what looks like a bandoleer made out of either shells or beads. She wears a loin cloth in the front and back, a thin strap goes over her hips leaving her legs bare. Not sure what the material is made of. Zoriama also goes barefoot.

Movie: Papillon

Year: 1973

Name: Zoraimi

Actress: Ratna Assan

Age of actress: 19

Ethnicit/ Nationality: Java and ? - American

Languages the character speaks: Native language (never seen speaking)

Hair color: Black

Hair length: comes to just below her shoulders

Footwear: Barefoot

Nudity: Yes (topless the whole time)

Category: Native

Location: unnamed island in the French Guiana

Screen Time: 2 minutes 13 seconds

Length of segment: 7 minutes 30 seconds

Media: Movie

Country: USA

Available on: DVD - Blu-Ray

Screens caps are from the DVD.

Copyright is owned by the respective copyright owners. Not by me.

Bonnie Ann Coronado in The Leftovers

Bonnie Ann Coronado

as

an unnamed cavewoman in Axis Mundi

This is kind of a supplement to the Sara Tomko as the woman in The Leftovers' episode "Axis Mundi" blog post. Read that post for a better(?) story summary. SPOILER ALERT. At the end of the segment, after Sara Tomko's character has died, another woman comes along and takes the baby. Presumably to safety. She's not listed in the credits. After diligently searching the internet for many minutes I was able to find out that she was played by Bonnie Ann Coronado. Her total screen time is 38 seconds so it goes with out saying that she isn't able to do too much. I am listing her here because I want this blog to be very thorough in expanding your knowledge of cavewomen on screen. You can thank me latter.

Appearance wise, she seems to be similar to Sara Tomko's cavewoman. Dark skinned, black hair and a dirty body with some scars. Coronado has a rather large one just above her belly button. She is topless and barefoot. It looks like she has a piece of animal skin wrapped around her waist. However, it is difficult to see if it is one piece or in fact two pieces. She also has a bracelet on her left hand made out of animal fur.

Television Series: The Leftovers

Episode Number: season 2 episode 1
Episode Title: Axis Mundi
Year: 2015

Name: unnamed cavewoman

Actress: Bonnie Ann Coronado

Age of actress: unknown

Languages she speaks: native language (does not speak on camera)

Hair Color: black

Hair Length: just above her belly button

Nudity: Yes (topless the whole time)

Category: cavewoman

Location of scenes: prehistoric Texas

Screen time: 38 seconds

Length of segment: 9 minutes 10 seconds

Media: television show

Country: USA

Available on: DVD

Screen caps are from the DVD.

Copyright is owned by the respective copyright owners. Not by me.

Sara Tomko in The Leftovers

      

Sara Tomko

as

The Woman in Axis Mundi

     Just a heads up. The following description does contain SPOILERS. Late one night, a tribe of prehistoric people are sleeping in a cave. One of the women, who is pregnant, goes outside to relieve herself. While she is doing this, there is an earthquake and the cave entrance collapses. As the woman tries to free her tribe, her water breaks and she starts to give birth. Some time later the woman sees a column of smoke in the distance and begins to trek towards it. One day the woman is raiding a bird's nest and a snake attacks the baby. After the woman defends the baby by killing the snake, she realizes that she has been bitten. As the woman slowly dies form the snake bite, she continues to go towards the smoke. Eventually the woman dies on the banks of a river. Soon after another woman comes along and takes the baby. Presumably to safety. The scene changes to modern times, to show modern day teenagers now playing in that same river.

     This is the opening 10 minutes of the first episode of the second season of the television show The Leftovers. The episode is called Axis Mundi. Despite pretty much featuring only one person, the end credits list her as the woman, this is a fantastic piece of television. Even with no dialogue, after all she is alone and no one to talk to, Sara Tomko does a superb job conveying the woman's pain, joy, and loneliness. The cinematography also helps to show her loneliness. If you can't tell, she is in the bottom left of the above picture. I would love to see this as a whole movie by itself.

     As for how this sequence fits into the rest of The Leftovers. I have no idea. This was the first episode that I ever watched. Now I have to go watch the first season and work up to this episode.

     

     Tomko's look as the woman is different than how we usually see cavewomen depicted. First off she is very dirty and either has dark skin or a deep suntan. She also has a lot of scars. I can't tell if they are ceremonial or from animal attacks. The woman who shows up at the end also has a scar, her's is over her belly button.

     The woman's only piece of clothing is what looks like two pieces of animal skin tide together over her hips, one in front and one in back. She is topless and goes barefoot and has no weapons. In the beginning she wears a necklace, probably made of animal skin. Just before she dies it looks like a feather has been added to the necklace.

Television Show: The Leftovers

Episode Number: Season 2 Episode 1
Episode Name: Axis Mundi
Year: 2015

Name: credited as The Woman (never stated on screen)

Actress: Sara Tomko

Actress Race/Nationality: Cherokee/Blackfoot, Slovak, Polish - American

Age: Unknown

Episode Location: Prehistoric Texas

Languages she speaks: native language (never speaks on screen)

Hair Color: black

Hair Length: waist length

Nudity: Yes (topless the whole time)

Category: cavewoman

Screen Time: 7 minutes 40 seconds

Segment Length: 9 minutes 10 seconds

Media: television show
Country: USA
Available on: DVD

Screen caps are from the DVD.

Tanya Roberts in Sheena

Tanya Roberts

as

Sheena

For my first real blog entry I thought I should feature the quintessential jungle girl, Sheena. Although there have been two television shows about Sheena, this is the only movie (so far) that she has appeared in.

After assassinating his brother the King Jabalani, Prince Otwani sets out to kill Sheena and sports reporter Vic Casey. Both who know that the Prince was behind the assassination. At the same time he is also trying to destroy the Zambuli tribe, who's land is around a mountain that contains minerals worth millions.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. I have always thought that Tanya Roberts was perfect as Sheena. Although I didn't see the movie when it first came out, I did read the two part Marvel Comics comic book adaptation many times. I also read the magazine sized comic book version too. However, the movie was not well received at the time and bombed at the box office. It's a shame because I would have loved to see more movies with Roberts as Sheena.

Name: Sheena

Real Name: Janet

Actress: Tanya Roberts

Race/Nationality: White - American

Age: 29

Location: Africa (location not stated)

Languages: English and native language

Hair Color: blond

Hair Length: chest length

Outfit: 2 piece outfit. Top is sleeveless and has a bare midriff. Bottom is a bikini loincloth.

Footwear: barefoot

Accessories: none

Relationship with animals: talks and commands

Nudity: Yes

Category: Jungle Girl

First Appears: 13 minutes

Screen Time: 45 minutes

Movie Length: 117 minutes
Available on: VHS - DVD

Screen caps are from the DVD.

     Hello. Thanks for coming over to this little island in the sea of the internet. Since this is the very first entry for this blog, I should let you know what this blog is about. This blog will be about jungle girls, cavewomen and other women who have found themselves scantly clad in a jungle or a forest or wherever. I want to cover not only movies and television shows but also comic books, novels and video games. Thanks for stopping by. See you soon.