Quest for Fire (1981)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring Everett McGill, Rae Dawn Chong, Ron Perlman and Nameer El-Hadi
100 minutes
Sometimes we tend to take life for granted in the twenty-first century. I’m glad I’m alive now because man and woman have made pretty remarkable progress. It’s nice to come home and flick on switches, push buttons and to be able to have warmth.
When it comes to thinking about our ancient ancestors, I wonder how far back most people think? One hundred years... three hundred... a thousand years? How about 80,000 years?
I have a feeling most people would have no idea what humans were like way back then... I know I wouldn’t if asked on the spot.
Quest for Fire is a movie about the survival of a group of “cavemen”. They desperately cling to fire... if it goes out they are cold and they can’t do things at night. These cavemen sleep in a cave all together and they eat and mutter things like savages. Sex is forced and the women are considerably weaker in these groups. Someone has to monitor the fire at all times...
With the group of cavemen that are featured in this movie, three members travel across what seems to be the world (I’ll mention something about this later), to find fire, since their fire has gone out. The journey takes them to faraway lands. They meet other tribes and have to run away from natural predators like sabertooth tigers and wolves. There is also a bit of a love story in the movie.
Summing up this story wasn’t too hard because there’s really no dialogue for us to understand in the movie. In the opening credits, it says Anthony Burgess was in charge of writing a “special language” for the movie... who knows how he went about this but it must’ve been a pretty odd challenge. I’m sure he was listening to Beethoven’s 9th when thinking of this.
The orchestral score is done on a grand scale. The music can be fairly modern and the brass section of the orchestra is used frequently.
As I mentioned above, it seems as if they cross the world. I found this all a bit odd since the scenery changes from what seems to be a North American forest to the African plains. Well, it’s only a movie and they probably wanted to make us feel like the three cavemen have travelled a long distance. A lot of the cinematography is quite breathtaking!
Some things that the movie deals with is cannibalism... some do it and some don’t. Laughter... some do it more often than others. Smell and listening... these two senses are essential to survive in the world 80,000 years ago. Rape... when these cavemen want to do it, they do it. Technology... towards the end, our three cavemen seem to learn how to make better weapons that’ll help them survive (they aren’t shown making the weapons...). Fire... fire creates light and warmth and is essential for survival.
I enjoyed this movie very much. While there are parts that you may say aren’t realistic, the movie made me think and imagine life way back then. I’d give this movie 4.5 stars out of 5.
For more information about this movie please click here.
