You Haven't Seen That Yet? - The Clan of the Cave Bear

Plot: The story begins at the moment in pre-history when the last of the Neanderthal men were becoming extinct and the superior race of Cro-Magnons were starting to supersede them. It focuses on a tribe of wandering Neanderthals who adopt a young girl named Ayla (Daryl Hannah). She grows tall, lithe, and smart. The Neanderthals accept her into their tribe, but ... Ayla begins to question the tribe's male chauvinistic presumptions. As the seasons wear on, the tribe utilizes Ayla's knowledge for their own good, while Ayla continues to try the patience of the tribe with her unspeakable feminist demands. (via.)


Nicole's Rating: B-

Yeah, He Hasn't Seen It: You know, it's not the greatest movie. And I'm certainly not surprised Matt hasn't seen this. But, I wanted him to watch it because I still love it. Say what you will for its strangeness, it's completely unique and fairly well acted.

I saw this movie for the first time when I stayed home sick from school. It's an archaeological and anthropological study - the imagined life of a Neanderthal clan who end up raising a Cro-Magnons child after she loses her family in an earthquake. Maybe it was the fever, but I fell in love with it. It wasn't until much later that I realized this was a series of books by Jean M. Auel - a fantastic series which is even more anthropologically accurate than the movie, the author having done a vast amount of research on Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.


Matt's Rating: C-

Matt's Review: Most caveman movies are stupid. This is no exception. I found it boring, strange, and probably much worse than the books. I did not find it interesting at all. Considering the time period they are trying to recreate, it was well made and the acting was as good as it can get, but nothing about this interested me. It was very slow. I'm talking early 80's sci-fi slow but without all the cool fx.  The problem with caveman movies is that people keep trying to recreate these "realistic" depictions of early humans. But if present day humans in their natural and real state are boring then early humans will be REALLY boring. So, when we try to make early humans interesting, it usually involves melodramatic story lines or severely stretching the truth. These early humans were not very developed as a species. This makes them inherently uninteresting, just like the movie.