The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)

Memorable, crazy movie

Excellent but underrated film

Admirable film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Not true in all respects to Jean Auel's novel, but entertaining in its own right. Then again, neither the book or film is accurate in light of more recent archaeological and anthropological research. The story is clearly set in the ice age, and close to the ice. Many Paleolithic burials have been found in this kind of setting. The stunning Canadian scenery, with its dense coniferous forests and mountains scarred from the last ice age, is perfect to convey this. Acting is good, with Daryl Hannah doing very well in the lead, and James Remar outstanding as Creb, the crippled holy man. In the book, I believe Ayla was about twelve, so it would have been smart to give Nicole Eggert (as the younger "Middle Ayla") a lot more screen time, and she was certainly capable of it. The scenes with Nicole Eggert and James Remar conversing are the most enjoyable in the film. I think costumes could have used a little more work. All of the characters wore furs and pieces of leather crudely patched together, but for some reason Miss Eggert's costume didn't look quite right and appeared unduly cumbersome for a kid to wear; probably should have tried some different styles for her and the handful of other young people in the film. At the other extreme, it seemed kind of odd for men to be out hunting muskox wearing practically nothing at all. Okay, maybe the Arctic isn't always freezing, but muskox live only in the Arctic and like the cold. Along with Quest for Fire, Clan of the Cave Bear is a serious work about the Old Stone Age. Unfortunately, both films fall somewhat short when it comes to truly great cinematic entertainment about our Paleolithic ancestors. The film industry needs to continue trying to meet the challenge.

As a teen, I started watching this movie; until my mom walked into the living room during the rape scene. OFF went the VCR and TV - no rentals for me for awhile. As an adult, some years later, I finally found a copy and promptly bought it. I sat down and watched it several times, loving every moment of it. Then I loaned out my copy - and 'poof' it is gone!The movie itself is done rather well, which is to say Daryl Hannah is a great choice for Ayla, and we can all dislike Broud rather easily.Unfortunately, as an avid, repeat, reader of the entire Earth children series of books by Jean Auel; I have spent years (5 to 7 of them) waiting on the next book, and most of my life waiting for the subsequent books to be made into movies. though if more movies based on the book series are ever made - they need to be more in depth and atuned with the books and would do best, I think, as each book made into a trilogy.

This film was shot in a remote part of a beautiful park in Southern British Columbia, Canada. That's the good part. The premiss of the film is that at some point Neanderthals and Cro- magnons must have encountered each other and interbred. There is now DNA evidence that this happened approx 100,000 years ago, likely in several places, perhaps including Southern Europe and Southern Turkey. Unfortunately the tale that the film tells is about a young woman (the Cro-Magnon) who plays a headstrong righteous person seeking emancipation at the hands of tyrants and an oppressive culture. The development is painfully slow, people communicate through the kind of hand signals and repeated utterances, as you might see in Mexico while watching stupid tourists. Darryl Hanna is easy to look at but boring otherwise. Her repertoire consists of cliché movements and faces. In short, it's a combination of bad entertainment and an awful documentary.

Many years ago I tried starting to read Jean M Auel's novel. Despite the fact that it is very much my kind of thing, I could never get into it. So I come to the movie, 25 years after it was made, completely cold.Its story of a Cro-Magnon orphan being adopted into a tribe of Neanderthals and having to cope with prejudice and antagonism is absolutely fine. The events and motivations all seem entirely reasonable, and who is to say otherwise? The story progresses satisfactorily, is easy to follow (with subtitles and voice-over where necessary), the photography is lush and the performances aren't bad (I don't think you have to be particularly subtle to play an irritable Neanderthal).But there were a couple of elements which made the suspension of disbelief a little difficult. One was Daryl Hannah's tasty clean-haired blonde Cro-Magnon, just a little bit too 20th centurily gorgeous to convince as a stone age trailblazer for women's lib.And the other is the Neanderthal wigs. The prosthetics are, for the most part, fine (and appropriate, of course), but the wigs don't cut it, I'm afraid. They are so immobile that they might as well have been cast in plaster, and they scream, "This is an actor in a wig." And, of course, that's exactly what it is, but you don't want it hammered home during every second of screen time.