User Reviews

Jean-Jacques Annaud's French caveman epic has gained an almost mythic status in certain circles, mainly due to its one-of-a-kind nature and its relative obscurity here in Britain. Expecting another man-vs-monsters adventure yarn in the style of ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., I instead found myself watching a powerful and deeply moving film concentrating on the triumph of the human spirit, the struggle for life, and the calamity of death. Despite there being no recognisable language spoken in the film, the story is very easy to follow and basically consists of the quest undertaken by three cavemen to capture and bring back fire for their tribe, who will be wiped out without it. Along the way they face many dangers, from wildlife to aggressive rival tribes, to treacherous bogs and even cannibals. QUEST FOR FIRE is a film that pulls no punches in its depiction of the brutality and violence of stone-age life, and the explicit violence and gore is kept realistic which makes it all the more shocking.

Most, if not all, of the elements in this film are spot-on. Annaud's direction helps keep things interesting throughout, and his style helps the viewer to identify with the central characters despite us being separated from them by thousands of years. The music is stirring and the camera-work often spectacular, often when taking in the breathtaking unspoilt locations that the film uses - from the wilds of Canada to the plains of Kenya and the mountains of Scotland and the Cairngorns, the landscape is used in such an evocative way that it almost becomes a character in the film itself. The special effects that transform lions into sabre-tooths and elephants into mammoths are simplistic but highly effective, as is the subtle makeup used on the actors to give them that prehistoric look.

Speaking of acting, it is generally of a very high level in what are difficult performances to give - acting must be done here through actions rather than words, but the actors successfully manage to pull it off. Each of the central trio (comprised of Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, and Nameer El-Kadi) have strong, distinctive appearances which are accentuated to good use in the movie. Rae Dawn Chong also puts in her breakthrough performance as the cannibal prisoner who is freed by our heroes and joins them on their journey. The various action is handled adeptly with fine camera-work and the film is very moving at times, especially towards the end, without being sentimental in any way. QUEST FOR FIRE is definitely the most realistic caveman film of all time and also perhaps the best. Incidentally, the film's success was proved by the arrival of two Italian rip-offs which followed the year after: Alberto Cavallone's gruesomely graphic MASTER OF THE WORLD, and Umberto Lenzi's silly but endearing IRON MASTER.

If you are someone who is interested in the origin of man, you will watch this movie and be intrigued. If you are someone with an anthropological background, you will watch this movie and either laugh hysterically or groan tremendously. Apart from being riddled with inaccuracies as far as science is concerned (such as the tiny fact that these four types of early hominids did *not* exist at the same time, nor in the same areas of the world), the Australopithecus afarensis look like extras from "Plant of the Apes", the Homo erectus are big, oafish cannibals, and, naturally, the archaic Homo sapiens are sophisticates with a well-developed fertility culture.

The protagonists of "Quest for Fire" are three Neandertals who go searching for fire after being attacked by the troll-like A. afarensis and losing the ember with which they always begin their blazes. Whilst the film does a good job of telling the story without a single word of any recognizable language, the storyline is disturbing (and disturbingly inaccurate) at times, particularly when our heroes stumble upon H. erectus gnawing on the arm of a (still-living) H. sapiens, or when the Neandertals had the urge for a little coital action. Still, when one considers what was known by paleoanthropologists in the 80's (when this movie was made), some allowance can be made—a tiny, miniscule fraction of allowance. Altogether not a *bad* movie, just don't watch it and expect to ace your Physical Anthropology final.

Quest for Fire (French: La Guerre du feu) is a 1981 film adaptation of the 1911 Belgian novel by J.-H. Rosny,and is probably the greatest pre-historic epic ever filmed, but the funny part is that i've never heard about this film

before today. I kinda did a blind-buy when a picked this film so it was like 'whatever' for me. But for my surprise, this film is a bit interesting. The cavemen are surprisingly intelligent in areas such as hunt and attack, and they also have a sub-par instinct and will to live and survive.

Sure it is a little nonsense at times, and the fact that it has no dialogs in any real language known in the world don't helps that much, but it needs to be in that way in order to keep the 'disbelief' suspended for it. Obviously, it would be weird to watch Cavemans from 80.000 years ago talking in English.

But yeah, as every film which touches in subjects related with the creationist theory, this film drew his fair amount of controversies at the time of it's release. Nothing too strong, though, since that this film is not the most popular out there.

I don't have any complaints about the acting, i thought it was very normal, with a few low moments. It's not the kind of film which relies that much in acting, anyways. It's the kind of film that requires the actor to be as bizarre and grotesque possible, which actually is not a hard job. The use of soundtrack is good, very good actually, but the film don't has plenty of quality tracks, so it is kinda off.

A recommended film, though not for everyone. 6.6/10

Spoilers ahead.

I started watching this movie, and, after 40 minutes, packed it in. Too much "ooh ooh, ah ah," too many apparently gratuitous rape scenes, something that felt like a racist vibe, funny scenes that seemed to fail, serious scenes that came out campy, and characters who didn't come off the screen, in spite of Ron Perlman's being on it. I thought at the time a more accurate title might have been Clan of the Caveguys.

But the next day, La Guerre du Feu kept popping into my head, so I finished it. The film improves. The disturbing/campy violence ultimately yields a fairly interesting subtext. The film's aesthetic is pretty arresting. And seeing the shaman of Ika's tribe "make fire" is just plain neat.

Even the love story finally kind of works in spite of the fact it's a patriarchal/phallocentric fantasy (I mean, she asks for something new in the bedroom, and it's *missionary*?), mostly because Rae Dawn Chong acts the hell out of her (ridiculous) scenes. I would have liked the film better if we saw more of her tribe, who provided the most potential for interesting characters. But I get that that's not what the filmmakers were going for.