Review of Quest for Fire (1981) by Dan B — 04 Jan 2011

Curious cross between the 2001 dawn of man sequence and a National Geographic documentary, that manages to be utterly gripping and believable despite (or because of) the simplicity of the story and the absence of CG effects.

Performances are superb, particularly given that there's no intelligible language, with a special mention going to Ron Perlman's understated simian brilliance. All in all it's quite an achievement (including drafting in Anthony Burgess and Desmond Morris to develop the cavemen's verbal and physical ways of communicating), albeit one that few filmmakers are likely to be drawn to replicating.