{Guerre du feu, La}
 "Tense, touching...and fascinating." -Leonard Maltin Set 80,000 years ago, this accomplished "cinematic spectacle" (New York Magazine) follows the lives of four tribes of early man-each with their own customs and stages of development. As they all face perilous terrain, human rivals and savage predators, one peaceful tribe searches for the element that will bring comfort and safety to all of mankind: fire. While celebrating human drama, this stunning film, shot on location in Scotland, Iceland, Canada andiKenya, also offers fascinating insights into prehistoric man's survival. This Canadian/French production from Jean-Jacques Annaud. "Quest for Fire" ("Le Guerre du feu") story, set among the Cro-Magnons of eighty thousand years ago, begins where you know neither the characters nor the plot. The genesis for this story is quite primal. A tribe of Cro-Magnons is attacked by its neighbors and has its fire stolen. This requires a small band to go forth and seek fire, which is necessary to ensure the tribe's survival. The trio consists of the brains of the outfit, Naoh (Everett McGill), the hulking brute, Amoukar (Ron Perlman), and the wiry comic relief, Gaw (Nameer El-Kadi). Along the way they hook up with Ika (Rae Dawn Chong), a young woman who is rescued from slavery because she actually knows how to MAKE fire, as opposed to waiting for lightning to hit something and start only a very small little fire. The authenticity of the "language" in this film comes from the work of authors Anthony Burgess("A Clockwork Orange") who created the spoken languages and Desmond Morris ("The Naked Ape") who worked on the body language and gestures. I have certainly met a few people who were bothered by the lack of sub-titles, but never anyone who did not understand what was going on or what was being communicated. Without your eyes darting to the bottom of the screen throughout the movie you can pay attention to the nuanced performances and each viewing allows you to further amplify the dialogue you are conjuring up in your mind. For realism, "Quests of Fire" has everything from "One Million B.C." to "Clan of the Cave Bear" beat big time. Ultimately, this story is not just a quest for fire, but a quest for love at a time when we think men simply knocked a woman over the head with a club and dragged her home to his cave, and if the film had not suggested the birth of true civilization came with the discovery of the missionary position, this film would enjoy a much better reputation. Annaud was probably trying to make a point about the importance of romance as a contributing factor to human evolution, but that idealization goes up in smoke when Ika shows Naoh a better way of doing it (it was almost enough to cost this film a star, but overall the ambition and execution on this one is too good to be that petty over one small screw up). For now the biggest complaint is that "Quest for Fire" is not yet available in wide-screen, because Claude Agostini's cinematography loses a lot in the scan-and-pan version of this decidedly "foreign" film. Cast Notes: Everett McGill (Naoh), Ron Perlman (Amoukar), Nameer El-Kadi (Gaw), Rae Dawn Chong (Ika), Gary Schwartz [I] (Rouka), Franck-Olivier Bonnet (Aghoo), Jean-Michel Kindt (Lakar), Kurt Schiegl (Faum), Brian Gill (Modoc), Terry Fitt (Hourk), Bibi Caspari (Gammla), Peter Elliott [II] (Mikr), Michelle Leduc (Matr), Robert Lavoie (Tsor), Matt Birman (Morah). User Comment: Gustav-11 Massachusetts • Jean Jacques Annaud's "Quest for Fire" caught me by surprise. I have always been enthralled by movies that take place in prehistoric times, but I never expected this movie to be filmed with such consistency. This film captures an innocent adventure, in which three men (Naoh, Amoukar,& Gaw) are selected by the tribe to recapture their snuffed out fire. The journey brings them into many trials of existence, which we modern beings very seldom come in contact with. At points, there scenes that capture a sense of humor that is so basic to our modern way of thinking, but for these characters they are just discovering such things like the concept of laugher. At other points of the film, these brave men encounter situations that show the true brutal world of the survival of the fittest. The manner in which these characters search for fire gives the viewer a true love for the characters courage and heroic nature. For if they do not succeed, it is surely the end of their tribe and for them. The fire holds the key to survival with its warmth, cooking function, and most of all its ability to ward off stalking predators. Fire is power for beings at this point in time. Just as knowledge is for modern human beings. This film succeeds in it's proportions,direction, settings, music, great special effects,and acting. The acting especially is something to take notice of, since there is no recognizable language spoken. The preparation for such a role as this these is amazing in its own right. "Quest for Fire" will lead you into the reality of what once was and capture the essence of the human spirit. Summary: A journey through the essence of the human spirit. IMDb Rating (02/18/05): 7.1/10 from 1,955 users
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