Tressa's QUEST FOR FIRE Review

A peaceful tribe of prehistoric humans, unable to create fire, lose their only source of flame due to another tribe's attack. Three of the tribe leave their home to search for a new source of fire to bring back to their people before the cold climate can take its toll. Their journey brings them not only into contact with other tribes of prehistoric humans at different stages of evolution but also advances their own humanity, as well as teaching them to be "prometheuses" in their own right.

An absolutely fascinating film. Those who are partial to history and anthropology will especially enjoy this. An honest, un-PC look at the origins of the species and the development of humanity through loss, tragedy, hardship, hostile elements and the beginnings of laughter, morality, community service, leadership, friendship and of course, love. A wondrous feat of body language performances as there is no truly discernable language/dialogue spoken. This is a well done, well made film all around. For those into scenery gazing at the beauty of the locations (Canada, Iceland, Kenya, Scotland) alone are worth a rental fee.

Ron Perlman is one of the three male leads/would be prometheuses. Watch the body language! Someone did research! A difficult and impressive (first movie) performance.

Availability: VHS and DVD. Suggest: Amazon.com. I have used Amazon for years, both new and used items, and have had no problems. Please remember to check that the VHS/DVD is compatible with your country/region.

Definitely worth a buy (the Region 1 DVD has two commentaries, one with the director Jean-Jacques Annaud, one with producer Michael Gruskoff, Rae Dawn Chong and Ron Perlman).

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud had this to say about working with Ron Perlman on his audio commentary:

"Those two (the twins) as well as Ron Perlman, that we'll see later, were really quite wonderful (body language)."...

"So the third man is Ron Perlman. It was his first appearance on screen. I picked him in a casting session. One of those casting sessions in New York. I worked with him again since. He did an important part in the movie after this one, which for me was 'The Name Of The Rose' and recently I used him in 'Enemy At The Gates.' He's a man I just adore, and he always remembered his first casting session was to come and see me, and he was so disappointed because he saw, he thought it was because of his art, and he saw that all around him was people with strange faces and he was quite depressed." ...

"You see Ron Perlman now in quite a number of movies. 'Beauty And The Beast,' a television series, in 'Alien #4,' a number of other movies. He often blames me that he became, since then, the 'official monster' in Los Angeles. He's quite a wonderful, wonderful actor and so splendid to do improvisation." ...

"You see Ron was very, very good with his body language and his way to walk was slightly open legs, slightly bent, and carrying his weight on a lower center of gravity." (escape from Ika's tribe scene)...

"I loved shooting that scene (rock deliberately dropped on Gaw's head/all laugh scene). We were so friendly. We had such an understanding, and Ron Perlman was such a jewel. Those scenes were his scenes really and he always managed to do them extremely nicely."