Le clan de la caverne des ours

This is one of the films that I grew up watching, and even now, I love it and admire its beauty as much as I ever did.

First of all, comparing movies to their books isn't something we should do, because they are two different forms of entertainment, and can take different liabilities. What is important is if the movie still tells the basic story, and in the case of the Clan of the Cave Bear, it stuck to the original story in a very suitable fashion. I must admit that when I first saw this movie, I did not know that this was from a book. It wasn't until 15 years later that I read the book, and it confirmed my statement that the movie kept the story intact.

As far as the acting was concerned, I have to admire a cast that had to convey throughout an entire script in a totally different language, and manage to keep it consistent. Watching the film, you can see that certain gestures always mean the same thing, as well as certain grunts and sounds. Folks, that is the result of a lot of hard work, and to put down that part of the film is like looking at the Empire State Building as just the result of an erector set.

The basic story of the movie is to show prejudice against what is new and not understood. Ayla's presence is meant to show the Clan what the future holds, which is the underlying reason why they fear and hate her, though they are unaware of the reasons. Ayla endures many trials throughout the movie in order to gain their trust and approval, which ultimately prepare her for a journey into the world without the Clan.

A movie worth watching again and again. The book is great also, by the way, so I recommend them both.

Prehistoric tale set in Stone Age about cavemen plenty of drama , adventures , thrilling events and speaking a special language and particular primitive movements . At a time in prehistory when Neanderthals shared the Earth with early Homo Sapiens , a band of cave-dwellers travels through uncharted landscapes towards an unknown territory , searching for caves to shelter themselves . During their quest , they encounter and battle various animals as buffalo , lion , wolves and tribesmen in order to survive . Iza (Pamela Reed), Medicine woman of the "Clan of the Cave Bear" meets little Ayla from the "other"'s clan ; the little girl loses her parents , Ayla is taken in by after her own parents are disappeared , tradition would have the clan kill Ayla immediately , but the Medicine women insists on keeping her . Iza as a primitive gamine adopts blond and blue-eyed Ayla , the lost child of the "Others" . As it results out later , she's a bright girl , but has a hard time to keep her place in a clan with different habits . As the scrawny cavegirl named Ayla (a gorgeous primitive babe played by Daryl Hannah) matures into a young woman of spirit and courage , being helped by Creg (James Remar) , she must fight for survival against the jealous bigotry of Broud (Thomas G Waites) , who will one day be clan chief .

This interesting film about primitive humans contains drama , emotions , fights and is pretty entertaining . Ponderous and sometimes slow-moving , the picture failed at box office , however , nowadays being better considered . Based on Jean M. Auel's popular novel with screenplay by prestigious John Sayles , there is minimal narration ; subtitles translate the Neanderthal gestures and primitive spoken language . A planned back-to-back sequel never made it into production . Emotive musical score by Alan Silvestri , though composed by synthesizer . Colorful and brilliant cinematography by Jan De Bont , subsequently become filmmaker . The motion picture was well realized by Michael Chapman . Chapman is deemed one of the best cameraman of cinema , he photographed a lot of successes such as ¨Evolution¨ , ¨Primal fear¨, ¨The fugitive¨, ¨Rising sun¨, ¨Ghostbusters II¨, ¨Shoot to kill¨ and masterpieces for Martin Scorsese as ¨Raging Bull¨, ¨Last Walz¨, Taxi driver¨ . He occasionally directed some films as ¨The viking sagas¨, ¨All the right moves¨ and this ¨The clan of bear cave¨.

Other films dealing with cavemen are the following : ¨One million B.C. ¨(1940) by Hal Roach with Victor Mature and Carole Landis ; ¨One million years B.C.¨ by Don Chaffey with Rachel Welch and John Richardson ; ¨!0.000 B.C.¨ by Roland Emmerich with Steven Strait and Camilla Belle ; and the best is ¨Quest of fire¨ by Jean Jacques Annaud with Everett McGill and Ron Perlman .

When I saw it was on the TV I got up at 2 in the morning to watch this film! I just couldn't wait until the morning! I thought it was really good but advice to anyone is READ THE BOOK! The story is absolutely captivating and involving from the start. Darryl Hannah is a good Ayla (if not a little old - she is supposed to be 12!) and the film does well with the language problem. The hand signals are good and there aren't too many sub-titles. I really like the music as well. I think this is a good attempt at summarising Jean Auel's work (which is really very difficult to film successfully) - But summary is the right word so you are really missing out until you read the novel - there is so much more to it- I think the film could be a little longer - it is a 800 page book! Even though it doesn't live up to the book it's still really good fun to see. I also think that a film of her later books would be a success - especially as the language isn't a problem then. My sister watched it before reading the book and she was hooked, so it's definitely a success whether you are familiar or otherwise with this compelling story. I think it's a real shame that it's deleted in the UK! It should be on TV more often so people have a chance to watch it.

On the whole I would advise any fan who is prepared to be open-minded to watch it - you are in for a treat. If you are just going to nit-pick about the plot - Forget It!

If the movie lacks anything it is the beauty of the photography in films like "Quest for Fire" and "Windwalker". Otherwise I can't find any serious flaws. It is rare to find a decent movie about prehistoric peoples. "Quest for Fire" is the best movie of this kind in my opinion but "Clan of the Cave Bear" is a close second.

I am not trying to compare "Cave Bear" to the books by Jean M. Auel. To me the film takes the best part of Auel's story and makes a pretty good movie. The later Auel stories become more romance novel fodder and to some that may be more entertaining. "Clan of the Cave Bear" is not romantic. It captures the brutality of prehistory very well for a fiction film. I've seen documentaries about the Neanderthal and was surprised how accurately "Cave Bear" showed that time. The flaws in human nature are shown in all their rawness in this movie. There is prejudice, oppression and abuse in full force. What makes it bearable for me is how the Darryl Hannah character is able to deal with this and eventually over come it.

"Cave Bear" also shows some of the ritual of stone age culture with the Shaman and the hunting rites of passage. There is some beauty in that culture. But the bottom line for these people is survival and that was a very difficult thing to accomplish. They were scratching and clawing (literally) just to eat and raise children. And sadly we know that they are doomed (except for a few Neanderthals who possibly interbred with Cro-Magnons).

This kind of documentary approach in "Cave Bear" will not thrill those who want a stone age comedy-romance, "Caveman", or a special effects absurdity of prehistoric people fighting lots of dinosaurs, "One Million BC", (which is historically impossible). But if you can appreciate an intense story of a young woman's survival in the wild and her experience with a lost stone age culture, then I recommend "Clan of the Cave Bear". 9/10

The movie version of 'Clan of the cave bear' isn't really a bad adaption - but the very fact that this is a movie, running less than two hours, forces it to be a very compact version of the book. A lot of the details are left out, which of course is unfortunate.

Overall, the acting is quite good. How are we really supposed to act so it will be like neanderthals? Can you really put all their knowledge and way of life and act it out when modern man is so much different (or are we?). Daryl Hannah is probably a good choice for Ayla at the time, and thanks to the 80's still Allowing 'rougher stuff' to be shown, or as I prefer it: more natural, the abuse described in Auel's novel is to most extent included.

To sum it up: an OK adaption, but a 2-hour movie does not make this novel justice.