Quest For Fire

80,000 years ago, man's survival in a vast uncharted land depended on the possession of fire. / For those early humans, fire was an object of great mystery, since no one had mastered its creation. Fire had to be stolen from nature, it had to be kept alive - sheltered from wind and rain, guarded from rival tribes. / Fire was a symbol of power and a means of survival. The tribe who possessed fire, possessed life.

I was finally able to watch Quest for Fire on Netflix…the movie was made in 1981. I was 11. My dad often talked about this movie and I thought about it over the years and came across it the other night and…what a great movie.

I was particularly struck by the scene where a more advance early human shows another man how to create fire. With no dialogue to use the only way to convey the power of what this early man is witnessing is through facial expressions and grunts but with just these, the scene is magic. 

This reminded me of what I read in E.O. Wilson’s book, “The Social Conquest of Earth” about the importance of fire and meat in the evolutionary history of man. Wilson pointed out that our brains are incredible nutrient-sucks; brains require more nutrients than all the other organs and evolutionarily speaking, meat is one of the important nutrients feeding the brain. Wilson pointed out that lighting caused rolling fires over dry grass lands which rolled up animals in the fire, which early humans would then eat.  

In the movie one tribe learns to transport fire (smoldering embers in a tree-trunk like carrier) that can then be used to build larger fires in another location. But, another tribe has learned to CREATE fire.

The great thing about the scene is how the individual mind and the collective mind both explode; the fire would cook the meat that would explode the brain. 

Sublime.

I can’t find that specific scene on youtube but here is the trailer: