A Tribo da Caverna do Urso

It ain't "Quest for Fire," but does an OK job of getting it's story across. I've seen this film a couple of times, and am not really thrilled by it, but I also don't have too many criticisms of it either.

If I were to point my finger at one aspect of the film, an aspect that I thought was holding back a better movie, I'd have to place my finger on its direction. The actors are in earnest of their performances, and do their absolute best to give us a paleolithic saga, but the director points both story and performances to a high energy commercial film. For myself the performances, though genuine, aren't natural. They're forced, and that's no fault of the actors.

This combined with poor light design and mediocre cinematography really torpedos what could've been a better film. And for a film supposedly shot in 70mm every viewing I've ever seen has the film shaking in the gate a great deal. Not to mention the number of hot spots from reflectors bouncing sunlight onto the actors. The nail in the visual coffin is the color timing. The upside is that the location selected was quite impressive, though the film never conveys the geographic location it's supposed to be.

The notion of a blond haired beauty adopted into, quite literally, a low-brow tribe is fair enough. But the fact that she's "superior" and blond puts a wry knowing smile on this viewer's face. Then again it is Hollywood, so the sappiness is probably there by design. It's also somewhat ironic that a woman narrator, one with a seemingly African accent, helps convey the story of a blond heroine. It just seems silly to me.

I've never read the book, so I can't comment on the adaptation. However, I will say this; I found many of the plot points implausible, contrived, and just plain outright wrong, as well as disconnected from what is known, or at least believed to be understood, about our ancestors.

If you must see a caveman epic, then do yourselves a favor and pop "Quest for Fire" into the video machine of your choice. "Clan of the Cavebear" is watchable, but not overly great. I might call it an above average flick, but by no means exceeding.

Watch at your own risk.

I am not going to say it sucked because it was nothing like the book. I am merely going to say that if you have read the book, don't bother because it will only tick you off. And What ticks me off is not that it didn't follow the book closely enough, it didn't follow the book AT ALL. There are scenes that should have happened well after they did, and scenes that happened that would have explained other scenes that were in the movie that aren't. To the above commenter who said that the subsequent books were all romance fodder, first Valley was not, it wasn't until the end that most of the pleasures were added, with small intermittent scenes throughout. Yes, there are a lot of Pleasures scenes in the books, Yes, they could have been done without, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the story is not worth reading. That is not what I am writing a review on, however. I was more upset that the movie didn't even maintain a SEMBLANCE to the book, other than the character's name, almost as if the director skimmed the book, and took pieces from sections without thinking about how they would go together.

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

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 .

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.