Product: La Guerre du feu (1982)
Rating: 4.0
Those Weren't the Good Old Days
I like this movie. It's one of the easiest films to make fun of I've seen, and it has sure taken more than its share of hits from clever critics. It's basically about three Neanderthals (I think) who leave their tribe to find another source of fire, theirs having been doused. (No one knows how to start fire). They encounter cannibals, mammoths, sabretooths, a tribe further up the evolutionary ladder and some great scenery. They eventually discover how fire can be made, how to think a little better, and, in one of the major advances of civilization, the missionary position.Dialogue is grunts and screeches and the make-up involves lots of hair. The actors do a first-rate job. Everett McGill is the leader of the bunch who has to puzzle things out as they go along. He's a curious actor. I don't think he's really that good an actor, but after seeing his completely different performances in The People Under the Stairs and The Straight Story, I'm not sure. Ron Perlman is teriffic as his hulking sidekick. Rae Dawn Chong, an actress I've always liked, plays a very human early human they meet along the way.The DVD transfer is first rate. I'm usually indifferent to most extras, but there is an interesting interview with Annaud on the difficulties of putting this film together.