The Clan of the Cave Bear

Michael Chapman

1986

Synopsis

Natural changes have the clans moving. Iza, medicine woman of the "Clan of the Cave Bear" finds little Ayla from the "others"' clan - tradition would have the clan kill Ayla immediately, but Iza insists on keeping her. When the little one finds a most needed new cave, she's allowed to stay - and thrive.

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Recommendations

60
Orlando Sentinel
Director Michael Chapman, an experienced cinematographer, is skilled in conveying ideas through pictures -- quite an advantage in a movie about people who aren't especially verbal. And Chapman's cinematographer, Jan De Bont, has a varied palette that responds to the visual demands of a world in transition.
50
The New York Times
[It] has a gentle approach to its characters and an occasionally striking visual style. What it doesn't have is much momentum or originality.
40
Los Angeles Times
After much time with this soggy, quarrelsome clan, your sympathies may lie entirely with the bear.
40
Empire
Greater drama and prehistorical weight are to found in the earlier Quest For Fire or the BBC's Walking With Cavemen, and without so much as a trailer for extras, this feels like a relic.
40
Variety
The Clan of the Cave Bear is a dull, overly genteel rendition of Jean M. Auel's novel. Handsomely produced on rugged Canadian exteriors, this is the story of pre-history's first feminist.
40
Washington Post
Mostly, though, the problem with the movie lies in the story, which is slow and episodic. Ayla learns how to use a sling (even though women aren't supposed to hunt). Ayla learns the tricks of the medicine woman. Ayla goes to a Neanderthal convention.
40
Time Out
Devotees of John Sayles' witty, literate screenplays will be disappointed by the repartee of subtitled grunts, while beneath the film's apparent plea for tolerance lies the offensive (if quite possibly true) assumption that tall, tanned Californian blondes represent the highest form of human life.
38
Chicago Sun-Times
The filmmakers made no effort to empathize with their prehistoric characters, to imagine what it might have really been like back then.

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