Wow! Such a good movie.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

A fictional take on the meeting of cro-magnons and Neanderthals. When her mother dies, the child Ayla(Hannah, mixing her usual determined, almost masculine, approach with some longing to be accepted, to fulfill a role) nearly dies. She is found by the titular clan, and in spite of tribal xenophobia(I use the term in a neutral sense), the medicine woman Iza(Reed, embodying the healer) and the spirit-talker Creb(Remar, who forms a deeply personal relationship with our protagonist) convince the others to take her in. As she grows into adulthood, she must face many trials as "one who does not belong".I have not read novel, albeit I imagine it's well worth reading, as my father is familiar with Jean M. Auel, and explains she researched thoroughly. This has some of the best child actors I've ever witnessed. Even the youngest are entirely convincing. Every performance is raw, honest, and doesn't hold back - making it ideal for the tone, that does not shy away from unpleasant subject matter, without it venturing into exploitative territory, either. The production design is beyond reproach. Nothing can be pointed to as less than perfect - the work with animals is gripping. This has not, and will not, age... other than possibly being disproved by new scientific discovery. Jan De Bont uses the camera extremely well - turning the audience into a voyeur to signal that someone is being watched, maintaining tension without being overt, etc. Alan Silvestri's score is powerful and effective.As I won't be able to avoid comparing this to Quest for Fire, I will simply go through all of their differences. This takes the focus mostly away from tools and the exact "how" of what these beings did, and instead opts for a more personal tale. There's even a sort of antagonist character, to complete the more traditional approach to storytelling. This allows for greater complexity - rather than being fully about a struggle to survive in nature, this explores universal human themes, ones that relate to all of our history, regardless of geography or culture. The status of women and men, birth, talent, origin, etc. Both have a credible spoken language that we can try to understand - here, it is subtitled, and supplemented with English narration. I would be interested in watching a version that omits both - see how much is successfully conveyed without them(I trust the majority of it).There is some bloody, graphic violence, mature and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to anyone who wants to take a journey into where we came from - even if the trip can't be verified, it's an amazing, inspiring ride. 8/10

As a teen, I started watching this movie; until my mom walked into the living room during the rape scene. OFF went the VCR and TV - no rentals for me for awhile. As an adult, some years later, I finally found a copy and promptly bought it. I sat down and watched it several times, loving every moment of it. Then I loaned out my copy - and 'poof' it is gone!The movie itself is done rather well, which is to say Daryl Hannah is a great choice for Ayla, and we can all dislike Broud rather easily.Unfortunately, as an avid, repeat, reader of the entire Earth children series of books by Jean Auel; I have spent years (5 to 7 of them) waiting on the next book, and most of my life waiting for the subsequent books to be made into movies. though if more movies based on the book series are ever made - they need to be more in depth and atuned with the books and would do best, I think, as each book made into a trilogy.

Prehistoric tale set in Stone Age about cavemen plenty of drama , adventures , thrilling events and speaking a special language and particular primitive movements . At a time in prehistory when Neanderthals shared the Earth with early Homo Sapiens , a band of cave-dwellers travels through uncharted landscapes towards an unknown territory , searching for caves to shelter themselves . During their quest , they encounter and battle various animals as buffalo , lion , wolves and tribesmen in order to survive . Iza (Pamela Reed), Medicine woman of the "Clan of the Cave Bear" meets little Ayla from the "other"'s clan ; the little girl loses her parents , Ayla is taken in by after her own parents are disappeared , tradition would have the clan kill Ayla immediately , but the Medicine women insists on keeping her . Iza as a primitive gamine adopts blond and blue-eyed Ayla , the lost child of the "Others" . As it results out later , she's a bright girl , but has a hard time to keep her place in a clan with different habits . As the scrawny cavegirl named Ayla (a gorgeous primitive babe played by Daryl Hannah) matures into a young woman of spirit and courage , being helped by Creg (James Remar) , she must fight for survival against the jealous bigotry of Broud (Thomas G Waites) , who will one day be clan chief .This interesting film about primitive humans contains drama , emotions , fights and is pretty entertaining . Ponderous and sometimes slow-moving , the picture failed at box office , however , nowadays being better considered . Based on Jean M. Auel's popular novel with screenplay by prestigious John Sayles , there is minimal narration ; subtitles translate the Neanderthal gestures and primitive spoken language . A planned back-to-back sequel never made it into production . Emotive musical score by Alan Silvestri , though composed by synthesizer . Colorful and brilliant cinematography by Jan De Bont , subsequently become filmmaker . The motion picture was well realized by Michael Chapman . Chapman is deemed one of the best cameraman of cinema , he photographed a lot of successes such as ¨Evolution¨ , ¨Primal fear¨, ¨The fugitive¨, ¨Rising sun¨, ¨Ghostbusters II¨, ¨Shoot to kill¨ and masterpieces for Martin Scorsese as ¨Raging Bull¨, ¨Last Walz¨, Taxi driver¨ . He occasionally directed some films as ¨The viking sagas¨, ¨All the right moves¨ and this ¨The clan of bear cave¨.Other films dealing with cavemen are the following : ¨One million B.C. ¨(1940) by Hal Roach with Victor Mature and Carole Landis ; ¨One million years B.C.¨ by Don Chaffey with Rachel Welch and John Richardson ; ¨!0.000 B.C.¨ by Roland Emmerich with Steven Strait and Camilla Belle ; and the best is ¨Quest of fire¨ by Jean Jacques Annaud with Everett McGill and Ron Perlman .

This film is very much reviled by the Jean M. Auel novel's many fans. I don't have the baggage that comes with having read the book, although, even if I did, I tend to think I'm a much better judge of cinematic adaptations than most people. It's easy to see that the novel is likely far better than the film, just because the story feels rushed at times and the climax is extremely weak. But I honestly enjoyed the movie. Heck, Daryl Hannah is always pleasing to the eyes, even when she's playing a filthy cavewoman. The acting all around is quite good. And I thought the film did a good job imagining prehistoric communication and society. The grunting and simple signing should seem much more ridiculous than they do here. My main reason for enjoying it could be because Roland Emmerich's film 10,000 B.C., released early in 2008, is still fresh in my mind. Clan of the Cave Bear beats the heck out of that one, despite the two good action sequences it contained (Clan isn't an action movie, more a "girl excelling in a male dominated society" type of movie). And I still haven't seen what is purportedly the best caveman movie, Quest for Fire. I have, however, seen Caveman, starring Ringo Starr and Shelley Long.