Good concept, poorly executed.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Quest for Fire is a somewhat transfixing film about prehistoric times, but without dialogue and the vulgar nature of it, it wasn't compelling.While the premise of the search for fire and its understanding of creation is a good one, it lacks much else. It was also a bit silly and crude.

Anyone who paid attention in HS cannot take this movie seriously. Science and History was thrown out the window when this movie was written. Movies like One Million Years B.C. were at least entertaining. I only watched until the end to see where other reviewers found it so "realistic". My library is full of books on Prehistoric times and this movie never even tried to fit into the true nature of prehistory. If you want a good laugh then watch it. If you want to see a movie that is scientifically & historically accurate then I suggest Clan of the Cave. Bear. If they had placed the story line to perhaps 500,000 BC it might have reflected more truly the human evolution; unfortunately this story line would eventually lead to Homosapiens Never developing into the intelligent beings we have become.

I read the reviews about this Movie - "Quest for Fire" (1981) - and a set of similar films on the same Prehistoric theme. I shall enumerate in reverse order and since there are only a handful of them dealing with certain degree of historical accuracy on the Ice Ages, Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens proper: viz., watch also "10,000 BC" (2008), "Clan Of The Cave Bear" (1986), "Caveman" (1981) and "One Million Years BC" (1940, remake 1966). All those movies deal with life and adventures of Cavemen in real surroundings, using (hypothetical) artificially devised language and there is no thread of modern civilization involved, which is another lead plot where time is disposed and Lost Worlds discovered with strange Nature and extinct Animals. The most often exploited of those are the "revived Iceman" theme or the "Dinosaur" theme revisited. A solid earring for the unabashed spectator is the most often repeated misnomer - that Man and Dinosaurs never cohabited together, the latter were long time extinct before the Homo species appeared in evolution ladder. Whatever, let go to the principal idea that made me write those lines and these concern the Mother of all Entertainments on Prehistory, less documentaries and other scientific stuff - the Pif Gadget and its Rahan Series.I am a good man and used to be a very inquisitive kid, at least for the standards of former Socialist Country. Today I have turned into a middleman, who is pursued by homeless dogs in the Streets and trekked by schizophrenics at Home. This dispatch have nothing to do with my political convictions and mishaps in personal life or work (Guess I don't sound convincing but will continue right on topic) As I said, Pif Gadget was a comic magazine that was in high circulation in France and less so in the United States. Maybe even Americans at my age haven't heard about these cartoons which originated shortly in post-war France, firstly about adventures of Pif the Dog and Hercule the Cat in an illustrated magazine called "Vaillant" which issued in big newspaper size. It also appeared on stands in Socialist countries because presumably was outlet from French Communist Party, whether its true or not I am not aware.From 1969 it changed its name and numeration to "Pif Gadget" with a smaller size (double A4) which was wrapped in celluloid nylon plus a simple toy attached to the whole parcel. So this bundle was my favorite pastime as kid in the 1970s and although I didn't understand French the pictures in the comic strips spoke for themselves and I was fascinated. Special interest deserved the adventures of Rahan the Caveman, but also other heroes such as Doc Justice the Medicine Man, Teddy Ted the Cowboy, Loup Noir the Indian, Nasdine Hodja the Turk, Jeremie the Pirate Kid, etc. Specifically the Rahan case, first series appeared in 1970s where bi-monthly for some 7-8 years came about 150 issues with Rahan (black-and-white, "to be continued" format). Thus I gathered the magazine for years in a row before I decided that have become grown-up and sold them half price to the local Antiquary. The whole collection would have been priceless today but unfortunately its unattainable at low price.Now let me return to the titular movie "Quest for Fire" (1981), based on sci-fi novel by J.H. Rosny (pseudonym of collaborative work by two brothers). Here the interested reader can get additional information from pages in Wikipedia. The more debatable problem, however, concerning Ice Age as a unity is "How control of fire became a turning point in human evolution?" Go to the adequate page in Wikipedia and you will learn important details on this enormous leap of humankind. Before fire ape-man was a carnivore and hardly bi-pedal. After that he became slowly more and more cultivated, get into shelter, get aware of sexual dimorphism, etc. The story of agriculture and first great civilizations come at much later stage, not earlier than 10 000 years ago. Thank you!

Different primitive tribes interact 80,000 years ago trying to keep their fire alive so they don't freeze and starve. Visually stunning, and ultimately somewhat moving. But somehow, although it's very well done, it's hard to forget you're watching a movie. I found myself falling out of the story and thinking about what a great job they did making these actors look and sound like cave people, instead of being wrapped up in their situation. The score can also be over the top at times. Still, ambitious, original and interesting (if scientifically dubious at moments).