Amazon.com video review:
Every statuesque, beautiful blonde woman has spent more time in the
company
of Neanderthals than she cares to remember. Seems it's always been that
way:
Clan of the Cave Bear, a 1986 feature scripted by John Sayles and
based on Jean Auel's bestselling novel set in prehistoric times,
stars
former mermaid Daryl Hannah as an intelligent Cro-Magnon woman adopted and
raised by lesser-evolved Neanderthals. Berated for her brains, sexually
exploited, and generally treated as uppity chattel, Hannah's character sets
out for the far country to see who else is there. Eventually, she finds
more
Baywatch-like gods and goddesses similar to herself, including an
Aryan-looking stud with whom she discovers how good sex can feel with a
warm,
caring, proto-human. Sayles's writing on this project is forceful but
cheeky.
It's hard not to laugh at a number of scenes that shouldn't, in the
strictest
sense, be laughed at (the use of subtitles to decipher caveman grunts and
clucks may or may not be an intentional running joke), but one gets the
feeling Sayles looked upon this challenge as a pop exercise instead of (as
many
of the book's fans would have preferred) a religious experience. Michael
Chapman, ace cinematographer of Mean Streets and The
Wanderers,
directed with an eye toward primitive exotica and made this a
terrific-looking movie. Author Auel was reportedly unhappy with the final
results on screen, but the film is well worth a fascinated look. With
Pamela
Reed and James Remar. --Tom Keogh
