good back-story, and good acting

Expected more

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Entertaining and surprisingly engaging, "The Clan of the Cave Bear" teaches us that there was a time when mankind was divided into two species. Type one – the Neanderthals – had big foreheads, dark hair and a monobrow, while type two – the Cro-Magnons – were tall, blonde and had great teeth.Ayla, a Cro-Magnon child, is left for dead after being attacked by a lion. However she is found by a nomadic tribe of Neanderthals. They are reluctant to help at first as she belongs to a group they refer to as 'the others'– the Cro-Magnons. This is obvious from her blonde hair and the stylish cut of her animal skins, which also singles out the Cro-Magnons from the more shaggy-looking Neanderthals. A kindly Neanderthal male, Creb, talks the tribe into letting he and his wife Iza take the child with them.Years pass and Ayla has become one of the Neanderthal tribe despite the fact she has grown tall, blonde and has great teeth. In fact, Ayla has become Daryl Hannah, and although she would have little trouble in reaching the finals of the Miss Cro-Magnon pageant, to the Neanderthals, she is quite ugly and decidedly forehead and eyebrow challenged.Despite this, one of the young Neanderthal males, Broud, is attracted to her. No doubt, the way Ayla fills out her animal skins caught his eye. In Neanderthal culture, a desire to couple is indicated by the male clasping his hands; the deed then takes place without further ceremony. After Ayla responds to many handclasp signals from Broud, she falls pregnant.Ayla is also a bit of a tomboy and wants to throw spears, use a slingshot and hang out with the guys target shooting. However this is taboo in Neanderthal culture; the punishment for a woman caught fooling around with the boy's toys is instant death. But Ayla becomes an expert with the slingshot. When a wolf carries off a young Neanderthal boy, Ayla brings the animal down with one shot. Her cover blown, she is forced to demonstrate her skill to the males who will decide her fate; they quickly realise that she has in fact become a prehistoric Annie Oakley with the slingshot.Although she would normally face death, she is instead banished for the winter. She delivers the baby by herself and survives by using her hunting skills to catch food.As the years pass, Iza and Cleb grow old and feeble, Ayla on the other hand does not change much at all, she retains her youthful appearance proving that an outdoor life free of smog and pollutants does wonders for Cro-Magnon skin. When the clan joins a great gathering of Neanderthals, another male disregards Ayla's lack of forehead and monobrow and takes a shine to her. This is Brun, and he is everything Broud is not; he is thoughtful, polite and chivalrous. Unfortunately he literally loses his head when the young men of the tribe attack a bear – showing how precarious existence was before the invention of the tranquilliser gun.Broud becomes leader of the tribe, and his first act is to take Ayla as his wife. When he attempts to separate her from her child Dirk, Ayla refuses and fights him. The tribal elders come to her assistance. Broud is stripped of leadership of the clan as he has failed to uphold the tribe's charter on every possible level.But now, Ayla, who has developed a markedly spiritual side to her character, decides that her destiny does not lie with the clan. She says goodbye to them all including her child, who is half Neanderthal and destined to become the leader of the clan. She is last seen heading towards the sunset to seek 'the others' to whom she feels she more rightly belongs.The last scenes are quite moving. Identity and the feeling of belonging are dominant themes in the film. Anthropologists might question some of the liberties taken by the filmmakers, but "Clan of the Cave Bear" is one of those movies where the best thing is to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I'm in the middle of the 2nd Clan book, Valley of the Horses, enjoying reading the series tremendously, and held off on seeing this film till I was well past the first title.The usual rule seems to hold that if you really love the book, you ain't gonna dig the movie. I wonder, though if it's partly the look of the film, and not just the inability of one genre to capture the best of another genre's take on "the bad old days," complete with thoughts and lots of solitary scenes for the main character.Maybe a really great animated version using the latest technology and some good-old fashioned character building could come a little closer to a strong depiction of the chinless, "flathead" Neanderthals than the comical looking folks with the bad wigs and prosthetic brow ridges that crowd this picture. While I haven't lost my critical faculties reading the books, they've never prompted me to smile or wince so much as this film did.Just a facetious suggestion--I suspect the story is just not one that's good for film adaptation.

I am one of those who absolutely adore the stories of Ayla written by Jean Auel. I've read them all several times and am still waiting for the upcoming parts to the story. However, not until now have I seen this movie... and what a disappointment..There is just too many holes in this story that there's no end to it. I mean, I understand that in -86 there was some things you couldn't make as perfect as you can in modern film - like the looks of the so called Neanderthals of this movie, or the small variations in the clan way of behaving.. But you could at least keep to the story. If you can't make a long enough movie, so you could include all the important details instead of making your own "short version", then why even bother?I mean just for example: First of all, the way Ayla lost her family and when she saw Iza for the first time. Why change those small things? The way Creb learned her how to speak the Clan way - was it so hard to show more of that, to express how hard that was for her? The way Ayla got her totem, and when! Iza would never have asked Creb to find a totem for her, and why the long time? Uba wasn't supposed to be born! When Iza started training her to become a medicine woman.. It was way earlier in the story than that. Why Ayla decided to hunt even though it was forbidden, and why she learned to throw two stones. When Broud raped her, and why. When Ayla got pregnant, and why she wanted to keep it so badly. Why Broud separates Ayla from Durc when he gets leader.. That Ayla would use her weapon against Broud... that's insane.And the fact that she would give birth to Durc alone in her cave is just WHAAAT?! Complete mix-up. And that Ayla and Uba would have met one of the Others in the middle of nowhere?! (Jondalar?) I mean that doesn't fit into anywhere.It's mostly small stuff that I don't understand WHY they would change, but I could have lived with small differences as long as they could've kept to the true story and not cutting it short because of budget or whatever. The relationships between all the characters was never told the way it should, it feels like more than half of it was left out.If i hadn't read the books beforehand I'm sure I could have appreciated it better, but this simply pisses me off.It's a shame that such a great story never will be told the way it deserves, because of this.

Lacking some of the minor details. And changing it slightly. As in that she hadn't seen her mother fall into the pit. She was playing in the river. And she doesn't learn to speak until quite a bit later. Or that in the beginning, she never touched a weapon. Of course, Book to video always changes. So that much was already expected. The progression of the movie, compared to the book was startling. And Why was there a flock of doves or pigeons living in the cave? They completely forgot the whole ceremony for the cave, and the feast. and the whole reason broud hates her. I find them very important aspects of the story. But they held some accuracy at least. It wasn't completely all there, but it wasn't a bad movie, overall.