The Quest For Fire

It's a film quite unlike any other I've seen, though I have seen others dealing with early man, but none ever done this well. Though it takes place in the distant past, it's story is perhaps more truly ageless than any other as it reflects no influence of culture the way nearly any other story told in a more recent time would. It's universal to us all, because after all, this is everyone's past and even as early as 18,000 years ago we were all hunter gatherers though perhaps not necessarily dancing around fires and painting on walls. It's a story about a journey, it's an adventure, and it's even an epic in a strange sense of the word. That it takes place before many of the nobler virtues we like to note in men we admire doesn't detach us from being interested or caring for crude and simple as they are, we see in those on screen the same qualities of what we humans would someday become.

Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the perspective that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.

The movie opens with a very brief crawl of words explaining to the audience the time and situation.

"80,000 years ago, man's survival in a vast uncharted land depended on fire.

For those early humans, fire was an object of great mystery, since no one had mastered its creation. Fire had to be stolen from nature, it had to be kept alive-- sheltered from wind and rain, guarded from rival tribes.

Fire was symbol of power and a means of survival. The tribe who possessed fire, possessed life."

We then cut to a long shot of a solitary light in a canyon. We see close up that the fire is being tended by a thickly built man wrapped in furs eating next to the flames, which stand in front of the mouth of a cave, his home. The blaze keeps a pack of hungry wolves at bay and the man even throws a burning stick at them to chase them off.
The life of the tribe is much what one might expect of an animal in the same situation. Members pile on top of one another inside their den, huddled together asleep. When dawn comes, some of them head out to a nearby watering hole to drink and wash. They are all quite filthy, hairy and scruffy, worn down by living so closely with the earth. One of the men takes a woman from behind right in the middle of her bathing.

Around the tribe's encampment, we see some strange figures gathering and slowly creeping closer. They look strange, very hairy, and ape-like though their movements resemble humans more than apes. We're left to believe they are a Neanderthal-like group, and they are indeed hostile to the tribe we've been watching. The men of the tribe come out of the cave worried and alarmed, sniffing in the air with the inkling that something is wrong. The attack comes quickly, from above the mouth of the cave they push rocks and logs down on the tribe, and simultaneously close in upon the members at the watering hole as well. They look grotesque, ferocious, and inhumanly strong, though perhaps slower and more awkward than human as well. They beat and bite and claw at the members of the tribe and chase them away taking their home and their precious fire...

The tribe regroups in swampy marsh a ways away from their previous site. The wolves had already begun to fall upon them as some of them fled the camp devoid of fire's protection. One of the older men carries a small primitive looking lantern, though we can guess its purpose is to protect and transport the flames rather than to provide light. The grunts and moans and wails of the tribes members at this point have taken on a far more desperate and wounded tone as they frantically try to rekindle the embers of their slowly dying flames. We feel their desolation as it goes out. Three men of the group step up and make exclaimations we can only guess mean to announce they will take up the search to regain what was lost. And so the quest for fire begins.

It will take them far from where a band their size might at that time willingly venture. They encounter dangerous predators: prehistoric beasts like saber tooth cats who force them up into a tree for a whole night, mammoths they'll later feed and befriend in less than believable scene, and on several occasions, the most dangerous threat of all, other groups of humans.

In one scene they come across the remains of a camp, and with some disgust realize the former occupants had been cooking and eating members of another tribe they'd captured. They follow this group and set out to steal some of the fire of these more savage humans by splitting up and distracting them, while one sneaks in to the unguarded camp. As this happens, however, the captives are set free as well, captives, we see who come from yet another tribe and are covered with a gray-white ashy sort of paint as decoration. A girl from this tribe follows are protagonists and though we see they don't speak the same language at all, we understand as they do whats being communicated by observing their body language and tone of their voices and calls to one another.While it's obvious on appearance alone that this girl is quite different, what we don't see quite so quickly is just how much out main characters might be able to learn from her. She is much more animated than are our protagonists, more chatty despite the fact they can't entirely understand her, and well... other things as well. In an earlier scene, when something hits one of our main characters on the head, the other make no reaction, sitting around as if dumbfounded by everything, no response at all. When a similar thing happens while the girl is present however, she immediately begins giggling, and soon the others are laughing too as if it never occured to them that some things in the world are funny.

While on the topic of humor, I suppose now might also be a good time to mention just how comical the film can be at times. The world of the past isn't all serious, and it's strange how even beginning to describe this movie as being about a bunch of cavemen would elicit a smile or chuckle as a first reaction, as we tend to look towards such distant ancestors with amusement as much as seriousness. I suppose this is largely because man at that time lived more like an animal, and often we laugh while watching animals in their actions as long as they're not seriously fighting or hunting. Then comes another scene towards the later part of the film where one of the men tries taking the girl from behind in a very mechanical, animal-like fashion, only to have her turn him around, teaching him the face-to-face position if you will. It too, is humourous, and yet in its own way also warm and tender which one wouldn't expect at all from watching such a thing as two cavemen getting it on.There comes a point when the girl splits off from the men, though she does beckon them to come with her (they refuse and we shortly after find out where she wanted to take them regardless). Then as the group appears ready to move on, one of them begins to wander off and discovers the remains of a primitive house. Though I use the word primitive, it is up to this point the most advanced thing to be seen in he movie. It is shelter from the elements created where none was before, something none of the characters to this point have possessed. Inside it also are the shards of old pottery and broken tools.

Wandering even further from his companions, one of our protagonists spots more houses in a valley but gets stuck in an unseen marsh while approaching it (obviously a defense measure the inhabitants know about that helps stop intruders). The villagers appear and pull him out and we see immediately that these people are a bit more advanced than those we've been watching up till now. They have tools for throwing spears with more accuracy, they have houses as I mentioned before, some wear masks made of wood bundled together, and all paint themselves with the same ashy gray colors as the girl we met earlier. It is revealed shortly thereafter that the girl is, indeed, among their ranks, though she doesn't seem to have much sway amongst her people. They examine him first, looking at his teeth and under his skins, then lock him up in a hut that is somewhat open aired, and give him food and water. Then they begin sending their women in to see him.It's funny how the people react to his behavior. The women first woman to come in to be with him tries to entice him by spreading open while facing him. When that doesn't get his attention, she points her rear at him and only then does he get the point; the villagers (who have all gathered to watch) giggle at him as if he were unsophisticated to not yet understand say, the missionary position. We see the women sitting in queue outside the hut getting up and going in as he finishes. I also found it amusing the way most of the women they send in to him were well a bit chubby, leading me at first to believe they might have been the ones in their group who weren't already taken, although considering the large, full-bodied fertility dolls we see so often among ancient artifacts, it's also possible that they were chosen for this task because they were most likely to provide the tribe with healthy new infants. The girl watches with all with a look of worry upon her face. She later tries to sneak in to his hut to see him later at night when everyone else is asleep, but is caught.

Then comes by far the best scene in the movie, as some of the villagers take the man to a cave and begin to show him their secret: the secret of how to make fire. The movie takes it's time showing us this part, making sure we get to see every detail in the process they use, from how they hold and grind the sticks by spinning them, to each level of kindling used to slowly coax the flame from hiding place within the wood. It's the kind of thing that would be fascinating to watch even if it weren't in a movie, but the reaction we get makes it much more interesting. I love the look on our protagonist's face as the smoke appears and then the tongues of flame, the acting is all done with his face, the smile, the light coming into his eyes as we realize he is witnessing what amounts to a miracle, like the birth of hope and safety itself writing themselves into existence before his very eyes.


Our story continues as the man's two companions find themselves trapped in the same marsh as he once did and soon, going through the same sort of initiation as well. Judging by the look of the man, who is now painted up like the villagers somewhat, he is slowly becoming integrated to the tribe. He laughs along with all the others at the newcomers. This time, however, the captives are able to escape, knocking out their guards and then even the man to drag him back to their home village. The girl spots them as they leave and follows behind yet again.

On the road home, there's yet another encounter with one of the hostile tribes from before, but our heroes are more prepared for them this time, using the spear throwing devices they learned about from the villagers to easily fend off their aggressors. The four arrive at the swamp were the original tribe still holds out, and what follows is undoubtedly one of the most ironically funny moments I've seen in cinema. Rushing back, fire in hand, to the excited cries of their fellow tribesmen, one of the group stumbles in some of the deeper water in the marsh only to extinguish right in front of everyone what they'd worked so to obtain. Fortunately something infinitely more valuable have been brought back as well...

The man tries to make fire for everyone, but unpracticed as he is, finds himself unable. The girl steps in at this point to show him once more, and all the others in the tribe for the first time how to make fire. Their reaction nothing short of what the man's was earlier.

The movie ends with the man staring at the moon over the hills where the girl walks up from behind to join him. He puts his arms around her to hold her and also places a hand over her belly, grown fat with child. We realize that a cycle of sorts has been completed and that a new chapter is opening for those we've been watching from the biological imperative we all have to survive and to proliferate. The final shot of the film is a mirror of the one which opened it: a long shot of the canyon with a dot of light marking the blaze in the home of our main characters.

* * *

I suppose from a technical standpoint, the film is not entirely perfect and, because it is based upon a science that is constantly updating and correcting itself, perhaps even more so than other films it started to become dated from its inception at an even faster rate. Its inaccuracies aside, there are the problems of plotting and the unnecessary addition of the prehistoric mammals (perhaps put in to attract viewers or financiers for the film) but the movie is great in its own way, standing on the foundations it builds as a truly timeless story.

Stylistically as well the film is a success, I feel. We can see that a lot of care was taken in choosing the locations to shoot, making the characters and creatures look authentic. Though the over all quality of these costumes and effects can look a little outdated at times, overall it holds up exceptionally well, especially when comparing it to more recent movies like the horrible "10,000BC" with it's over wrought effects and ridiculously unbelievable story. In addition to this, special pre-modern languages had to be created, and the movements, body language and gestures had to be designed and taught to the actors as well. It's kind of funny to think about this latter point given the way we wouldn't entirely be aware of it. The way we're taught as children correct posture: to keep our backs upright, to not hunch or slouch, and to walk straight would all have to be unlearned by the actors in preparation for the film. And wether one recognizes it subconsciously or not, the lack of these aspects would certainly diminish the level of realism and chip away at the illusion on screen. With regard to the language, we don't understand exactly what the characters are saying, and there are no subtitles as well. It's a bit surreal the way the whole tale, for all intents and purposes, is told without words but instead with actions, sounds, and I suppose one even could say, emotions.

I mentioned earlier how the fact that man behaves much as an animal makes for some comedic moments. At some points in the film, this animalistic quality causes the fear to run higher too for we know that our heroes are not the great and skilled warriors of modern or even classic tales, but rather frightened creatures just like us who know they will die if they don't run or fight. We in the audience know also the horrors of what will happen should they be captured by predators like the cannibals they encounter.

There were no rules in the ancient past and though some men certainly found an advantage in being powerful and aggressive, we could still see how those with some level of warmth or kindness found strength by banding together. The girl teaches our heroes not only how to hunt and make fire, but also how to laugh and to love as well.

The simplistic story has a primitive sort of beauty to it, and though it takes place before the languages and beliefs we have today, it nonetheless shows the makings of the creature man would become in all his rythm and grace, despite the crudeness and savagery we normally infer when thinking of our distant ancestors. It's strange how looking at the way ancient man once lived can remind so easily of the Darwinian struggle to preserve our genes. For then the path of man was much more fraught with desperation when so many more dangers threatened to break the chain. Man did indeed live more as an animal then than he does now: closer to nature, surviving off foraging and hunting, and frequently in fear of predators (especially other men). There's a poetic sort of poignancy in the idea that the central object of the story is, like our genes, something that needed to be held on to and protected for the moment, but ultimately passed on and propagated in the future.