Review of Quest for Fire (1981) by Alex S — 13 Jul 2008

I have a special place in my heart for this movie...because (1) there is not a single word of english or any other intelligible language but you can still follow the story so easily, (2) Desmond Morris and Anthony Burgess were prominently involved, (3) it's pretty unflinchingly realistic about cavemen and life in 80,000 BC, (4) the climactic moment is when the main character discovers fire can be created by rubbing sticks together, (5) it pays tribute to the opening 14 minutes of "2001", (6) check out the DVD commentary for some unbelievable facts like (a) one crewman got Anthrax from building a hut for the film and almost died, (b) one tribe's lines were recorded entirely after the fact by Eskimos speaking random lines of Inuit - only the Eskimos wanted permission from the people on the screen, and then two of them started fighting over their character's wives kissing the other's character, and (c) they dressed up 14 elephants with elaborate costumes to look like Wolly Mammoths and it took them one year to train the elephants.