Quest for Fire **** (1981, Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Rae Dawn Chong) – Classic Movie Review 5335

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s bizarre and ambitious 1981 prehistoric times historical adventure epic is impossible to classify and often impenetrable. Never the less, as an attempt to recreate a savage, dawning world, it is mighty impressive. It stars Everett McGill as Naoh, Ron Perlman as Amoukar and Rae Dawn Chong as Ika.

In the screenplay by Gérard Brach based on the novel La Guerre du Feu by J H Rosny Sr, a Stone Age tribe loses its source of fire after an attack by apes and wolves, and three warrior tribesmen set out to search for a new fire source, encountering sabre-toothed tigers, mammoths and cannibalistic tribes.

A polished piece of work, the movie is thoroughly gripping and unique thanks to magnificent location filming, Oscar-winning Best Makeup (Sarah Monzani, Michèle Burke), and the specially devised primitive language for the early humans by Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange).

Also in the cast are Nameer El-Kadi [Nicholas Kadi], Gary Schwartz, Franck-Olivier Bonnet, Naseer El-Kadi and Jean-Michel Kindt.

It is shot by Claude Agostini, produced by Michael Gruskoff, Jacques Dorfmann and Vera Belmont, scored by Philippe Sarde and set designed by Brian Morris.

Sarah Monzani, Michèle Burke and Christopher Tucker also won the Bafta award for Best Make Up Artist. The film was Golden Globe nominated as Best Foreign Film.

Annaud went on to make The Bear (1988) and Two Brothers (2004).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5335

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