Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Leofwine_draca 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.

pavelb-968-44685 Since no one I know was around 80 millennia ago, it is up to the Director and Producers to set this film's stage in any way they choose. Our heroes demonstrate pretty basic human traits but there is a marked difference between them. The foreign "girl" adds wonder/advancement to many aspects of their adventurous dealings, from medicine, empathy, strategy, humour, sex, to the ultimate technological advance. The characters are believable, have depth and are thoroughly engaging (I know someone who is exactly like the Ron Pearlman character). If you have studied basic Anthropology (read Desmond Morris and Robert Ardrey), you might really enjoy this picture - there is a lot of very carefully designed 'script' material here. I enjoyed it back in the 80s when it came out and even more in 2016. It is clear there was huge effort put into the production (3 years preparation before filming). It is wonderful.

imwinglessangel Anyone who paid attention in HS cannot take this movie seriously. Science and History was thrown out the window when this movie was written. Movies like One Million Years B.C. were at least entertaining. I only watched until the end to see where other reviewers found it so "realistic". My library is full of books on Prehistoric times and this movie never even tried to fit into the true nature of prehistory. If you want a good laugh then watch it. If you want to see a movie that is scientifically & historically accurate then I suggest Clan of the Cave. Bear. If they had placed the story line to perhaps 500,000 BC it might have reflected more truly the human evolution; unfortunately this story line would eventually lead to Homosapiens Never developing into the intelligent beings we have become.

berberian00-276-69085 I read the reviews about this Movie - "Quest for Fire" (1981) - and a set of similar films on the same Prehistoric theme. I shall enumerate in reverse order and since there are only a handful of them dealing with certain degree of historical accuracy on the Ice Ages, Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens proper: viz., watch also "10,000 BC" (2008), "Clan Of The Cave Bear" (1986), "Caveman" (1981) and "One Million Years BC" (1940, remake 1966). All those movies deal with life and adventures of Cavemen in real surroundings, using (hypothetical) artificially devised language and there is no thread of modern civilization involved, which is another lead plot where time is disposed and Lost Worlds discovered with strange Nature and extinct Animals. The most often exploited of those are the "revived Iceman" theme or the "Dinosaur" theme revisited. A solid earring for the unabashed spectator is the most often repeated misnomer - that Man and Dinosaurs never cohabited together, the latter were long time extinct before the Homo species appeared in evolution ladder. Whatever, let go to the principal idea that made me write those lines and these concern the Mother of all Entertainments on Prehistory, less documentaries and other scientific stuff - the Pif Gadget and its Rahan Series.I am a good man and used to be a very inquisitive kid, at least for the standards of former Socialist Country. Today I have turned into a middleman, who is pursued by homeless dogs in the Streets and trekked by schizophrenics at Home. This dispatch have nothing to do with my political convictions and mishaps in personal life or work (Guess I don't sound convincing but will continue right on topic) As I said, Pif Gadget was a comic magazine that was in high circulation in France and less so in the United States. Maybe even Americans at my age haven't heard about these cartoons which originated shortly in post-war France, firstly about adventures of Pif the Dog and Hercule the Cat in an illustrated magazine called "Vaillant" which issued in big newspaper size. It also appeared on stands in Socialist countries because presumably was outlet from French Communist Party, whether its true or not I am not aware.From 1969 it changed its name and numeration to "Pif Gadget" with a smaller size (double A4) which was wrapped in celluloid nylon plus a simple toy attached to the whole parcel. So this bundle was my favorite pastime as kid in the 1970s and although I didn't understand French the pictures in the comic strips spoke for themselves and I was fascinated. Special interest deserved the adventures of Rahan the Caveman, but also other heroes such as Doc Justice the Medicine Man, Teddy Ted the Cowboy, Loup Noir the Indian, Nasdine Hodja the Turk, Jeremie the Pirate Kid, etc. Specifically the Rahan case, first series appeared in 1970s where bi-monthly for some 7-8 years came about 150 issues with Rahan (black-and-white, "to be continued" format). Thus I gathered the magazine for years in a row before I decided that have become grown-up and sold them half price to the local Antiquary. The whole collection would have been priceless today but unfortunately its unattainable at low price.Now let me return to the titular movie "Quest for Fire" (1981), based on sci-fi novel by J.H. Rosny (pseudonym of collaborative work by two brothers). Here the interested reader can get additional information from pages in Wikipedia. The more debatable problem, however, concerning Ice Age as a unity is "How control of fire became a turning point in human evolution?" Go to the adequate page in Wikipedia and you will learn important details on this enormous leap of humankind. Before fire ape-man was a carnivore and hardly bi-pedal. After that he became slowly more and more cultivated, get into shelter, get aware of sexual dimorphism, etc. The story of agriculture and first great civilizations come at much later stage, not earlier than 10 000 years ago. Thank you!