From Amazon.com
Every statuesque, beautiful blonde woman has spent more time in the company of Neanderthals than she cares to remember. Seems it's always been that way:
Clan of the Cave Bear, a 1986 feature scripted by John Sayles and based on Jean Auel's bestselling
novel set in prehistoric times, stars former mermaid Daryl Hannah as an intelligent Cro-Magnon woman adopted and raised by lesser-evolved Neanderthals. Berated for her brains, sexually exploited, and generally treated as uppity chattel, Hannah's character sets out for the far country to see who else is there. Eventually, she finds more
Baywatch-like gods and goddesses similar to herself, including an Aryan-looking stud with whom she discovers how good sex can feel with a warm, caring, proto-human. Sayles's writing on this project is forceful but cheeky. It's hard not to laugh at a number of scenes that shouldn't, in the strictest sense, be laughed at (the use of subtitles to decipher caveman grunts and clucks may or may not be an intentional running joke), but one gets the feeling Sayles looked upon this challenge as a pop exercise instead of (as many of the book's fans would have preferred) a religious experience. Michael Chapman, ace cinematographer of
Mean Streets and
The Wanderers, directed with an eye toward primitive exotica and made this a terrific-looking movie. Author Auel was reportedly unhappy with the final results on screen, but the film is well worth a fascinated look. With Pamela Reed and James Remar.
--Tom Keogh
Review
Pitched to the interests of teen girls, this simple-minded, semi-feminist tract is set in the dim reaches of a completely undefined prehistory. It tells the story of blond outcast Ayla (Daryl Hannah) who is adopted by the dark, hairy, and aptly-named members of the Cave Bear clan. When she grows up into adulthood her "blond ugliness" does not stop her from being raped by the Neanderthal clan leader. Left to her own devices, Ayla learns how to use weapons, and she is banished just for that fact. Big mistake. In the end, more is needed here than a pseudo, monosyllabic language to bring alive a prehistoric culture and to be convincing to viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
DVD ~ Jean-Jacques Annaud
by Jean M. Auel
by Jean M. Auel
by Jean M. Auel
by Jean M. Auel
