La Guerre du feu

"Quest for Fire" (1981 - 100 minutes), under Jean-Jacques Annaud direction and written by Gérard Brach, was based on the book of J. H. Rosny. The movie develops a travel in time showing one of the biggest conquest of human kind: the domain of fire. It's a 80 thousand years ago beautiful drama. The Ulan tribe lives nearby a natural source of fire. When the fire went out, three members of the tribe have to search for a new flame. After several days of walking and having to face many dangerous situations like wild animals, down temperatures and even cannibal tribes, they found the Ivakas, a more evolved human group that had already discovered how to "make" fire. With locations in Kenya, Scotland, Island and Canada, the movie was based on scientific knowledge, showing convincing habitats and characters. The preparation work of the actors body language was done by the Anthropologist Desmond Morris and Anthony Burgess took care of the "talking" of these human ancestors. Almost an Anthropology documentary, this excellent movie shows at the end a scene that suggests the "discovery of love" between male and female. Absolutely unforgettable.

Ignore the idiotic negative comments of the naysayers. This is a great film. It boldly creates a world unlike any we've seen before, with dedicated actors going well beyond the call of duty in portraying a life and death struggle for survival under the most harrowing conditions imaginable.

Featuring Claude Agostini's splendid wide-screen cinematography of remote, rainswept landscapes and a rich score by Phillipe Sarde, this movie will take you on a compelling journey that, if nothing else, will clarify the routine creature comforts of our civilized world in a manner more direct than anything you might have previously experienced in a theater.

Jean-Jacques Annaud and collaborators tell their tale with dramatic simplicity and virtually no dialogue, but the points made are powerful. Humanity survives, and will prevail despite our weaknesses and faults. Overall, a remarkable, life-affirming work.

I saw this film (on VHS rental) so long ago I might have been in it. My (ex) wife & friends thought it was stupid - "What's going on? Nobody's saying anything". I found it mesmerising and have been looking for it ever since (car boot sales, Ebay etc).

OK, if you've two adjacent brain cells, you'll spot the anachronisms and the cheap effects, but credit where it's due for originality and balls - to the director and the backers.

If you're sick of hype and tripe, find it. If you're hooked intravenously to Hollywood pap (as 99.999% of the world's population seem to be) then give it a miss.

Just my 2p.

Stanley Kubrick's classic "2001" celebrates the first weapon, when a hairy primate through some burst of savage genius turns a useless thigh-bone into a dominating club. He thereby takes a giant first step in humanity's long pursuit of bigger and better weapons. On the other hand, "Quest for Fire" dramatizes humanity's other side: the civilizing arrival of the campfire. But not just any campfire; instead it's the security found in mastering the technique to make fire any time the tribe wants. As a result, the Cro-Magnons have for the first time some control over their environment and can take time to relax. That's made apparent at film's end when the clan gathers happily around crackling embers to relate stories through crude gestures and grunts. Perhaps the evolution of complex linguistic forms had its origins in just such relaxed moments, when imagination and thinking could take hold and get expression in the company of others.

There's also that overlooked moment when Naoh humbly approaches the lordly herd of marauding mastodons. Tufts of grass in hand, he bows his head in an unmistakable gesture of submission, to which the herd responds-- not very plausibly --by chasing away the attacking cannibal clan. The point here is that Naoh understands in that quiet moment that we must live humbly with those forces much greater than ourselves if we want to survive-- a possible seed of what would later become religious belief, whether in the forces of nature or in the supposed power of the supernatural.

Of course, this is all speculation. The filmmakers don't exactly hit you over the head with their messages. However, the point is that the film succeeds admirably in getting you to think about the natural history of what these lowly but momentous origins must have been like. Moreover, there are other suggestive moments, such as when the camera transitions from Rae Dawn Chong's pregnant belly to the distant full moon and humanity's far-off future. Some reviewers point out scientific flaws in the script and reject the film on that basis. But that misses the point. Of course the film is not a documentary, so no serious researcher would base a study on it. Nonetheless, the movie remains just that, a well-staged and provocative ninety minutes of unusual filmmaking. I've seen nothing like it before or since.

This is an extremely overlooked film many people should learn about. First, it tells you a very complex story without a single line of dialog successfully.

Second, the story is universal: Every civilization on earth can pick up this film and understand it, because it goes to the most basic, primitive issues of a species (mainly, survival). Third, it makes the beginning of man interesting. Fourth, it reminds us we were once as savage as any other animal on earth.

Fifth, it's like no other movie you've seen before. That one I can guarantee you.