Quest for Fire (1981)

Without even a bar from "Thus Spake Zarathustra", Jean-Jacques Annaud takes us on some brutal and authentic time travel back to caveman days. That's where we encounter three warriors who are violently dispossessed of their home (and their fire) and find themselves at the mercy of the wilderness, the weather, the wildlife and some other tribesman who are perfectly happy to endorse the kill first speak afterwards philosophy. On that latter point, a whole new series of verbal communications - not words as such - has been developed for an on form Ron Perlman ("Amoukar"), Everett McGill ("Naoh") and Nicholas Kadi ("Gaw) to use as they roam in search of their stolen life giving element. The dynamic amongst the three friends becomes a little complicated when they are captured and escape with the addition of "Ika" (Rae Dawn Chong) who arouses in them passions hitherto suppressed. It's the bleakness and simplicity that makes this film work. They are dirty, injured, bleeding, tired, exhausted - indeed watching it can be quite a tiring experience as nature makes it quite clear that before man began to cultivate it's brain, it was mid-table on the chart of evolution and at a distinct disadvantage most of the time when facing the animal kingdom. Will they find fire? What will they do with it if they do? Well I found myself quite enthralled by their journey, the complete lack of a traditional script and a look at an existence that really was survival of the fittest, tempered by some quite human - even funny - moments.

**_A well-done fantastical portrayal of early humans_**

After a tribe of cave-dwelling homo sapiens in prehistory are attacked by neanderthals, three members of the group (Everett McGill, Ron Perlman and Nicholas Kadi) leave to apprehend fire, since they don’t know how to create it themselves. On their journey, they run into saber-toothed tigers, cannibals, a friendly female in body paint (Rae Dawn Chong), woolly mammoths and Ika’s more evolved tribe where the chief is interested in eugenics.

"Quest for Fire" (1981) is a serious attempt to depict people from prehistorical times in the tradition of “One Million Years BC” from fifteen years earlier (the one with Raquel Welch), although don’t expect any dinosaurs. Like that movie, there's no talking as we understand it; only grunting and primitive lingo.

This of course prevents the flick from being compelling in the sense of interesting or entertaining dialogues, which leaves us with a dramatically dull film with amazing locales and visuals. But there are some worthwhile scenes, such as a member of the Ivaka tribe showing Naoh their advanced knowledge of creating fire with a hand drill.

The special effects were shot live with no optical additions done in post-production. The Smilodons (saber-toothed tigers) were obviously just lions with long canine teeth added while the woolly mammoths were played by trained circus elephants.

Rae Dawn Chong does well in her role as the lithe girl, but don’t expect a stunning female on the level of Lisa Thomas as Sura in “One Million Years BC” or Beth Rogan in the 1961 version of “Mysterious Island.”

The film runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in Canada (Greig's Caves on the Bruce Peninsula near Lion's Head, Ontario, and Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island), Kenya (Lake Magadi) and Scotland (the Highlands and Tsavo National Park). I heard the mammoth scenes were done in Iceland.

GRADE: B-