A while ago I watched Jean Jacques Annaud's film The Bear, and I ended up really liking it. That leads me to what I thought was a rewatch but didn't feel that familiar, Quest for Fire.
This felt similar to The Bear, for certain. Filmed with the same minimalistic approach, we open with a group of maybe 20 or so Neanderthals. This film has no recognizable dialogue and no subtitles for the grunts and noises that are present, and yet we follow a very clear plot of them losing their fire source, selecting a few of them to go search for new fire, and the ensuing quest.
Ron Perlman and Everett McGill are in early roles in this, and they're excellent actors. The other guys are great in this too, in such amazingly thankless roles. Expressed all through body language, looks, feels, and that ambiguous energy that actors can convey, its a regular adventure film shot in incredible locations. They encounter an opposing tribe with a female who takes a liking to them, they confront woolly mammoths and sabretooth tigers, and learn along the way.
This is so much more of the vibe than a hard plot, but that's not to say the plot is vague. It's just incredibly simple. And it relies on artistry to carry the movie, which can be bad depending on the talent behind it, but fuck yo, when it works it works. This works, and its a beautiful and somber toned movie that has that ethereal "otherness" I search for, and often find in minimalism.
This movie kicks ass, and gets ya thinking. For that, 5 stars.
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