Quest for Fire
Closed CaptioningJean-Jacques Annaud
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Plot Summary
Quest for Fire takes place some 80,000 years in the past. A primitive homo sapiens tribe huddles around a natural fire source for comfort and survival. When that source is extinguished, tribesmen Naoh (Everett McGill), Amoukar (Ron Perlman), and Gaw (Nameer El-Kadi) are sent out on a "quest for fire." After several days of wandering through the prehistoric landscape (the film was shot in Canada, Scotland, Iceland, and Kenya), the three come across a cannibal tribe that knows how to produce fire; they save a young girl, Ika (Rae Dawn Chong), from the clutches of the cannibals, with the hope that she'll reveal the secret. Based on a novel by J. H. Rosny Sr., Quest for Fire convincingly creates the world of the past and believably molds its characters within the context of their surroundings and their limited knowledge of the world. The credibility factor is aided by technical consultants Desmond Morris and Anthony Burgess, who respectively developed a set of gestures and a simplistic language for the Ulams and Ivakas. An Oscar went to John Hay and Penny Rose's costume design.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
83%- Reviews Counted: 18
- Fresh: 15
- Rotten: 3
- Average Rating: 7.2/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: ''Quest for Fire'' is more than just a hugely enterprising science lesson, although it certainly is that. It's also a touching, funny and suspenseful drama about prehumans.
Fresh: An engaging prehistoric yarn that happily never degenerates into a club and lion skin spinoff of Star Wars and resolutely refuses to bludgeon the viewer with facile or gratuitous effects.
Fresh: These characters and their quest began to grow on me, and by the time the movie was over I cared very much about how their lives would turn out.
Customer Reviews
Amazing movie
Don't let the 1981 release throw you, this movie is a one of a kind. It's often funny and the actors did an absolutely amazing job bringing to life our early prehistory. Highly recommended!
A masterpiece
If pre historic peoples such as Neanderthals and cro magnums interest you, I believe you will find this movie very entertaining. The characters were interesting and did a very good job acting the parts of the primitive people they portrayed. It is a beautiful story all in all.
Outstanding...
I saw this film in the theaters when I was a teenager. It had a great impact on me then, and an equally powerful impact on me now. This film is simply outstanding in so many areas. It is well worth watching. Without giving away anything, the sequence of "enlightenment" and the actor's reaction to the events as they unfold evokes such an emotional response in the viewer, I had to watch it more than one time. Again, simply outstanding.
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