Quest for Fire: Amazon.ca: Video

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Quest for Fire is so detailed in its depiction of prehistoric man that it might have been made by time-traveling filmmakers. Instead it's a bold and timeless experiment by visionary director Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear), inviting scientific debate while presenting a fascinating, imaginary glimpse of humankind some 80,000 years ago. Using diverse locations in Kenya, Scotland, and Canada, Annaud tells the purely visual story of five tribes (some more advanced than others) who depend on fire for survival. They "steal" fire from nature, but the actual creation of fire remains elusive, lending profound mystery and majesty to the film's climactic, real-time display of fire-making ingenuity. Employing primitive language created by novelist Anthony Burgess and body language choreographed by anthropologist Desmond Morris, a unique ensemble of actors push the envelope of their profession, succeeding where they easily could've failed. They're carnal, violent, funny, curious, and intelligent; through them, and through the eons, we can recognize ourselves. --Jeff Shannon

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Customer Reviews

56 Reviews

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (56 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Not So Hot, Mar 5 2009

By

Estrild (BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Quest for Fire (Widescreen) (DVD)

I was under the impression that this was a fairly recent film, created sometime between 1997 and 2003, and while watching it I thought it was more like a 1987 film due to the flawed science. Our knowledge of early man has progressed since 1981, and for the best one can do today I recommend the documentary style film "Caveman".

The main tribe the story come accross looking like Neanderthals but acting more like much earlier hominids, very ape-like, I laughed several times at this. Yet they are suposed to be homo sapiens! The grey painted tribe they meet up with and the girl who is the love interest come accross as homo sapiens, which makes the "love interest" part a bit confusing, especially as the girl is so small and slight she seems to be a child of 12 or 13, and the Neanderthals are big and hulky. I really believe Neanderthal was more intelligent than portrayed here. The most believeable part of the film is the language and body language. This I found realistic.

At the beginning of the film they are suposedly attacked by a group of "Neanderthals" but these sasquatches look more like an earlier yet type of monkey man, earlier than Homo Habilis.

All in all I prefer Clan of the Cave Bear.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Film, Feb 29 2000

By

A. Naik (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quest for Fire (VHS Tape)

Quest for Fire is a film that will not only alter one's perception of modern human behavior but also show the dawn of what we call human civilization. This movie portrays man distilled to his original raw instincts, many of which in today's ultra modern society would be denounced as barbaric and foreign. It is hard to fathom that 8,000 years ago our predecessors had pretty much the same cognitive ability as modern humans do. It is simply the continual growth of technology and civilization that separates us from the characters in Quest for Fire. After knowing this morsel of knowledge, it was apparent that this movie not only defines life in the ancient world but also paints vividly shocking portrait of who we really are. Simply put, watching this film is quite humbling. The film climaxes when the main character discovers that man can create fire. This moment is quite inspirational and thought provoking simply because it is more important than man discovering the atom or the structure of DNA. That is, man is now capable of changing his environment instead of being controlled by it. In essence, the progress of humanity is a long and detailed history. In order to understand who we really are we must learn from where we came. Quest for Fire delivers a wonderful image of where we once were and who we are now.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quest for Fire, Jun 27 2004

By

Paulo R. C. Barros (S�o Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quest for Fire (Widescreen) (DVD)

"Quest for Fire" (1981 - 100 minutes), under Jean-Jacques Annaud direction and written by Gérard Brach, was based on the book of J. H. Rosny. The movie develops a travel in time showing one of the biggest conquest of human kind: the domain of fire.
It's a 80 thousand years ago beautiful drama.
The Ulan tribe lives nearby a natural source of fire. When the fire went out, three members of the tribe have to search for a new flame.
After several days of walking and having to face many dangerous situations like wild animals, down temperatures and even cannibal tribes, they found the Ivakas, a more evolved human group that had already discovered how to "make" fire.
With locations in Kenya, Scotland, Island and Canada, the movie was based on scientific knowledge, showing convincing habitats and characters. The preparation work of the actors body language was done by the Anthropologist Desmond Morris and Anthony Burgess took care of the "talking" of these human ancestors.
Almost an Anthropology documentary, this excellent movie shows at the end a scene that suggests the "discovery of love" between male and female.
Absolutely unforgettable.

Visit: www.enigmasonline.com/enigmidia

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Quest for Fire
I found that the movie was great and the time schedule was faster than expected.The condition was good and I had no problems with the DVD

Published 4 months ago by Ron Mercer

4.0 out of 5 stars A noble attempt to capture the far distant past
Different primitive tribes interact 80,000 years ago trying to keep their fire alive so they don't freeze and starve. Read more