X
  • 1986
  • R
  • Warner Bros.
  • 1 h 38 m
  • 1986
  • R
  • Warner Bros.
  • 1 h 38 m

Summary This film tells the story of one woman's struggle for acceptance amidst a barbaric clan. Daryl Hannah is Ayla in the film version of Jean M. Auel's best seller. No historian recorded their heartaches, triumphs or names. Yet Ayla and others like her left indelible imprints. They continued humankind's long march toward civilization.... and...

Directed By: Michael Chapman

Written By: Jean M. Auel, John Sayles, Clair Noto

  • 1986
  • R
  • Warner Bros.
  • 1 h 38 m
  • 1986
  • R
  • Warner Bros.
  • 1 h 38 m

The Clan of the Cave Bear

Metascore Generally Unfavorable Based on 12 Critic Reviews
34
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary This film tells the story of one woman's struggle for acceptance amidst a barbaric clan. Daryl Hannah is Ayla in the film version of Jean M. Auel's best seller. No historian recorded their heartaches, triumphs or names. Yet Ayla and others like her left indelible imprints. They continued humankind's long march toward civilization.... and...

Directed By: Michael Chapman

Written By: Jean M. Auel, John Sayles, Clair Noto

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Unfavorable Based on 12 Critic Reviews
34
0% Positive
0 Reviews
58% Mixed
7 Reviews
42% Negative
5 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Unfavorable Based on 12 Critic Reviews
34
0% Positive
0 Reviews
58% Mixed
7 Reviews
42% Negative
5 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
60
Director Michael Chapman, an experienced cinematographer, is skilled in conveying ideas through pictures -- quite an advantage in a movie about people who aren't especially verbal. And Chapman's cinematographer, Jan De Bont, has a varied palette that responds to the visual demands of a world in transition.
By Jay Boyar FULL REVIEW
40
Devotees of John Sayles' witty, literate screenplays will be disappointed by the repartee of subtitled grunts, while beneath the film's apparent plea for tolerance lies the offensive (if quite possibly true) assumption that tall, tanned Californian blondes represent the highest form of human life.
FULL REVIEW
40
The Clan of the Cave Bear is a dull, overly genteel rendition of Jean M. Auel's novel. Handsomely produced on rugged Canadian exteriors, this is the story of pre-history's first feminist.
FULL REVIEW
40
After much time with this soggy, quarrelsome clan, your sympathies may lie entirely with the bear.
By Sheila Benson FULL REVIEW
38
The filmmakers made no effort to empathize with their prehistoric characters, to imagine what it might have really been like back then.
By Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW
30
The Clan of the Cave Bear is dog. [27 Jan 1986, p.69]
By Jack Kroll FULL REVIEW
25
The cinematic adaptation of the novel, however, is so laughably awful that Auel later sued the producers for creating such an inaccurate work.
FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Warner Bros., Producers Sales Organization (PSO), The Guber-Peters Company, The Jozak Company, Decade, Jonesfilm
Release Date Jan 17, 1986
Duration 1 h 38 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline At The Dawn Of Mankind, A Woman Led The Way.
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Awards

Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination

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