Notes for
La Guerre du feu (Quest for Fire) (1981)
Quest for Fire is one of the more famous films dealing with Prehistoric People
The film makers hired Anthony Burgess, the author of Clockwork Orange as the person to deal with the problems of language among prehistoric people. Desmond Morris famous for his work on human gesture and body language was hired as a consultant on movement and gesture. This was the first full-length film on prehistoric people to have made such academic connections. Only in 2001: A Space Odyssey do the film makers produce a film as carefully crafted about prehistoric behavior.
In terms of narration the film replicates the male/female journey drama. In this film, like When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, there are more than two levels of people and people like creatures. In the opening sequence in the film, a more primitive group of people attack a somewhat more (albeit slightly) advanced one. As a result of the attack, the fire which, they have, ultimately goes out and these people, who are unable to make fire, set out to find it. There travels take them through an alien landscape until the ultimately meet Ika (played by Rae Dawn Chang), a woman from an even more advance tribe, whose members are capable of making fire. Ultimately the men return to their own people where Ika makes fire. As the film ends, one of the three men who made the journey and Ika watch the moon rise. Along the trip there are a number of events which include meeting more realistic animals (i.e. more reasonable for the time – mammoths and saber tooth tigers rather than dinosaurs)
The structure of the film is reasonably typical – a small written introduction which includes information that we are now in prehistoric times. A somewhat alien landscape is on view. A group of “lesser” humans introduced largely through males. Three men from this tribe make a journey to a place where they meet a woman for a more advanced tribe. Advancement is marked by ability to make fire, a ritual complex, constructed dwellings, and laughter More complex tools like fire drills and adl adls are also in evidence.
In the course of the trip the three men show their intellectual superiority over animals (although there is some indication of religious some about the mammoths).
As typical, the events associated with the higher level society is seen as having values more in line with that of he film makers. In this it is interesting that the more advanced groups near nude appearance (as opposed to the rather shabbily dressed less sophisticated tribe) There is also an attempt at homosexuality among the more primitive which is rejected.
By far, the most carefully acted of the full length films, the actors have been carefully trained to imitate movement of the greater apes (chimps, gorillas and orangutans). Careful imitation of gesture and sound gives a kind of reality to the story. Sexual interactions are handled in a kind of matter of fact way, the way they are among the higher non=human primates. This is in accordance with some anthropological questions about the shift in humans from an animal from one which breeds seasonally to one which does not.
Visually the film holds to the narrative conventions of the other prehistoric people films. The opening shots are of an open alien space. There is some emphasis on the special effects used to make the mow extinct animals look real.
Frequent wide angle shots give a sense of openness and lack of population. The importance of fire (discussed in the opening statement) is marked in many shots which are lit largely by firelight. Fires appear in the middle of vast expanses of darkness.