The Clan of the Cave Bear (film)

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The Clan of the Cave Bear
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Chapman
Written byJohn Sayles
Based onThe Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Produced byGerald Isenberg
Starring
Narrated bySalome Jens
CinematographyJan de Bont
Edited byWendy Greene Bricmont
Music byAlan Silvestri
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • January 17, 1986 (1986-01-17)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million[1]
Box office$2 million (United States)

The Clan of the Cave Bear is a 1986 American adventure film directed by Michael Chapman[2][3] and based on the book of the same name by Jean M. Auel. The film stars Daryl Hannah, Pamela Reed, James Remar, and Thomas G. Waites.

The film depicts a young Cro-Magnon woman (Hannah) who is separated from her family and orphaned during an earthquake. She is found and adopted by a group of Neanderthals. As the years go by, her intelligence causes disaster for the entire tribe, especially its future chief, Broud (Waites). Dialogue is conducted mostly through a form of sign language which is translated for the audience with subtitles.

Plot[edit]

After losing her mother in an earthquake in Paleolithic Europe, 5-year-old Cro-Magnon Ayla is left alone in the woods. She then suffers a severe injury to her legs from a nearby cave lion. After suffering from starvation, exhaustion, and infection of her wounds, she collapses, on the verge of death. She is rescued by Iza, the healer of a group of Neanderthals who call themselves "The Clan," against the orders for her to be left to die by the clan's chief, Brun, because she is clearly a member of "the Others", the distrusted antagonists of the Clan. Brun refuses to accept Ayla when Iza adopts her, only allowing her to stay with the Clan because Iza refuses to abandon her. The Clan calls her "Ayla", the closest they can come to pronouncing her birth name.

Through meditation, Iza's brother, Creb (the group's shaman), comes to believe that the child may be protected by the spirit of the cave lion, a powerful "totem" that is never given to a woman and very few men. He cites the cave lion attack the girl experienced shortly before being discovered as proof that its spirit marked her so that she could be adopted into the Clan. After traveling with them for a while and starting to heal, Ayla wanders away from the group when they stop to discuss what they should do and she discovers a huge, beautiful cave, perfect for their needs; many of the people begin to regard Ayla as lucky, especially since good fortune continues to come their way as they begin to accept her in the fold.

Ayla's different thought processes lead her to break important Clan customs, particularly the taboo against females handling weapons. She is self-willed and spirited, but tries hard to fit in with the Neanderthals, although she has to learn everything first-hand; she does not possess the ancestral memories of the Clan which enable them to do certain tasks after being shown only once.

Iza trains Ayla as a medicine woman "of her line", the most prestigious line of medicine women out of all of the Clans. It takes her much longer to train Ayla than it will her own daughter, Uba, since Ayla does not possess the memories of the Clan. Iza is concerned that when Ayla grows up nobody will want her as their mate, making her a burden to the Clan. So she trains Ayla to be a highly respected medicine woman who will have her own "status" and will not have to rely on the status of a mate.

Meanwhile, Broud, the son of Brun, has disdain for Ayla, and when they both reach adulthood, Broud brutally rapes Ayla in an impulsive bid to demonstrate his control over her. Broud continues to assault Ayla multiple times daily leaving her despondent, and she soon becomes pregnant. Iza explains to Ayla that her unusual appearance compared to the rest of the Clan will likely preclude her from obtaining a mate before she gives birth, a circumstance Iza's people believe will bring bad luck to their settlement. Ayla witnesses Broud trying to master a sling with no success, she then takes it and soon becomes skilled with it. The clan are then attacked by a pack of wolves and Ayla saves a child from being killed with the slingshot, the clan then decide to banish her from their settlement, she finds shelter in another cave. Following a difficult pregnancy and a near-fatal labor, Ayla rejoices in the birth of a son but, due to his appearance being an amalgamation of Clan and Other features, he is considered deformed and almost taken away from her, but because she has proven to have survived on her own and be a skilled hunter, she is allowed to keep him, and is given the name Durc.

After Iza's death, Broud is named chief by Brun. Broud's first order is to take Ayla for himself and separate her from her son, giving him to another couple, and he also exiles the already elderly Creb as there's another shaman in charge. Ayla opposes and fights Broud, defeating him. Thus a humiliated Broud agrees to keep Creb with the clan, but Ayla still chooses to leave, saying goodbye to her son, in search of her own people.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Producer Gerald Isenberg originally conceived the film as a television film but was rejected by NBC. The film was shot in western Canada, primarily in British Columbia, between June and October 1984 with a budget of $16 million.[4] It was filmed in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, a precursor to the many Hollywood productions that would film in Canada soon after (see Hollywood North and Cinema of Canada). It was also filmed at Cathedral and MacMillan Provincial Park, at the Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories, and in the Yukon Territory.[4] The score was composed by Alan Silvestri. This film is one of Bart the Bear's earliest roles. He was partly replaced by an animatronic bear designed by Sonny Burman and Steve Johnson. The muskox hunt was filmed just outside Hughenden, Alberta. The actors had to film scenes in mountains with minimal clothing of animal pelts in temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit, while the makeup for actors portraying Neanderthals took 3.5 hours to apply.[4] The animals were trained by professional employees from Heber City, Utah's Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife, Thousand Oaks, California's Animal Actors of Hollywood and Frazier Park, California's Working Wildlife.[5]

Box office and reception[edit]

Due to the production budget of US$15 million earning back only US$1.9 million, domestically, the film was unanimously considered a box-office bomb. Still, two makeup artists (Michael Westmore and Michèle Burke) were nominated for a 1987 Oscar for Best Makeup.[6]

The film holds a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on ten reviews.[7] However, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy states "It is hard to see why TCOTCB has drawn such critical contempt, unless for its tacit feminism: although the narration is overexpository and the equation of mental versatility with leggy blonde Cro-Magnons, as opposed to shabby Neanderthals, is a cliché, the movie is beautifully shot, well scripted and finely acted."[8]

Colin Greenland reviewed The Clan of the Cave Bear for White Dwarf #77 and stated that "there's a movie starring Daryl Hannah, whom I still like a lot, though she doesn't stand a chance amid all the picture-postcard photography, tacky mysticism and shaggy-browed sentimentality. But Ayla is unafraid, for she knows there are five more books to go yet."[9]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ The 12th Annual Grosses Gloss Thompson, Anne. Film Comment; New York Vol. 23, Iss. 2, (Mar 1987): 62-64,66-69.
  2. ^ Janet Maslin (1986-01-17). "'Clan Of The Cave Bear'". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Janet Maslin (1989-02-05). "Is January The Cruelest Month?". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b c "The Clan of the Cave Bear". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  5. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  6. ^ "Nominees & Winners for the 59th Academy Awards (1987)". Archived from the original on 2010-04-08. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  7. ^ THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR at Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ^ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997): Clan of the Cave Bear, The
  9. ^ Greenland, Colin (May 1986). "2020 Vision". White Dwarf (77). Games Workshop: 11.

External links[edit]

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