Quest for Fire

Winner of the Academy Award for Best makeup 1983

Plot (Spoiler Alert)

Taking place during the prehistoric time, three cavemen, Naoh, Amoukar and Gaw, go on a search for a new fire source while protecting the only piece of fire they have left. Along the way the meet Ika, a woman from a different tribe. She joins them for she knows a way to make more fire.

Blaine: French director Jean-Jacques Annaud had obsessed with the story of prehistoric man and fire since his childhood. “Quest for Fire” was a fantasy for Jean, but it was one that could be possible in a time period. He spent three years of research with screenwriter Gerard Brach. It took six years for "Quest for Fire” to be made into a film.

There’s no dialogue in “Quest for Fire”. The characters just make noise throughout the film like prehistoric person would do. But you can understand what’s going on just from what you’re seeing. The story already shows that man has discovered fire and they can transfer it onto another wooden object, but they don’t know how to start a new one. They come across a different species of prehistoric figures. One of the reasons it took three years to get the budget Jean-Jacques Annaud needed to get the film made is because the studios didn’t know what language they were going to be speaking. They liked the script, but it had words with no meaning and they asked for subtitles, but Jean said “no”. Jean is very grateful that 20th Century Fox went for it. The characters do say stuff in “Quest for Fire”, but they don’t speak in words. The actors would have to learn a new language and body language trained by a man named Anthony Burges.

It took Jean three years to find the right locations to shoot “Quest for Fire”. He had look through five continents that looked prehistoric. He picked Scotland for a number a scenes with animals. Canada because of how enormous it is. Kenya because of the tremendous landscapes. The actors of “Quest for Fire” had to be nude or half naked out in that cold weather that would sometimes be from 20 to 25 degrees. It takes a lot of guts to do that and they had actors that were very devoted. The actors had walk through water that was at a freezing level where in some places you could still see ice floating and that was for the scene after their characters escape from the ape like creatures attacking them. Most of the movie was a one take job because they didn’t want to torment the actors too much. There was a time in Kenya that it was so hot, it was difficult for the actors to walk barefoot on the rocks because they were hot as an oven and the makeup was melting from the heat. They shot that during the summer.

The makeup crew was twelve people and two hair dressers. Three of them were the lead makeup artists and the rest of them would spend time painting bodies. The makeup artists also used makeup skills on lions and elephants. The lions wore these fake sharp teeth that were made of rubber because if they were plastic they would break easily. It four months for the lions to get use to those teeth before shooting began. They are supposed to be sabertooths in the film. The elephants would be shipped to location and the makeup people would transform them into woolly mammoths. They would wear fur and some kind of head belt for the fake tusks. There was fourteen elephants used for the mammoths. They would be difficult to work with because as soon as they unchained them from the legs, they would go running off. Jean needed a scene where they are running towards the camera. The trainer would say it’s easy and all they would have to do was put a female elephant next to the camera and they would run for her. Problem was there was something they loved more than a female and that was the warmth of a tent. The elephants went running straight for the tent that had the camera equipment and trampled them. So they had to fly new cameras back to their set.

Jean said that Everett McGill, who plays Naoh the leader of the three cavemen, was a very spiritual lead and what was so wonderful about him was that he managed to keep a level of compassion and understanding that influenced the whole unit.

One of the surprising casting sessions for Jean-Jacques Annaud was casting the character Ika. Jean had a difficult time finding the right woman to play the character, but there was only one person he could think of that fit perfectly was Rae Dawn Chong. Jean would see her at the Los Angeles beach a lot and her looks are what Jean imagined Ika to look like. The thing was she wasn’t an actress, but after two years of casting, Jean finally decided to go with Rae and he was happy that she accepted the part. “Quest for Fire” was Rae Dawn Chong’s first film. She didn’t have a problem being nude for "Quest for Fire" as long as she was wearing makeup all over her body. It felt like a costume to her. She would wander around in that paint and no one on set knew she was naked. Her character, Ika, is from a more evolved tribe and she has a romantic relationship with Naoh. He helps her escape from a cannibal tribe that has her tied up and then she joins his quest. They shot a scene in Scotland at night and it was very cold that Rae didn’t want to be in the movie anymore, she didn’t even want to be an actress. Jean had a difficult time getting her on the set. Ika likes being around Naoh and his group more than her own tribe. She likes to explore new places and teach the boys a few things. Ika also teaches Naoh how to make love because all the cavemen had sex with the females doggy style all the time, but she shows him how to do it a different way and more romantically. The actors were uncomfortable shooting that scene because it was cold and wet out, but it's cute the way they cuddle before getting it on. I also like that scene because it shows how much closer they become. I like how Naoh is holding Ika in his arms at the end of the film and they are expecting a child.

My rating on “Quest for Fire” is five out of five stars.