EDIT! It was THAT cold in the library that I got Tim Robbins and Timothy Hutton confused. Heh. Corrected! The funny thing is that mistake most likely came out of a conversation last night with a friend who started that confusion as we were discussing movies both actors were in and I must have retained that up in the vaults as a frozen memory. OOPS. Ah well…

Yes, it’s still winter outside, so I’m tossing this forgotten flick up with the hope you check it out because it’s actually a great and thought provoking sci-fi drama. This may or may not be a short post because it’s FREEZING in the library (seriously, NYPL? What’s up with this indoor cold?) and my brain is flipping on and off in deciding my word count. Anyway, excellent performances from Timothy Hutton as Stanley Shephard, an anthropologist who helps a defrosted prehistoric man (John Lone) as he struggles with the new world he’s been awakened into.

Sure, the “science” here is immediately questionable as to how that caveman survived 40,000 years in that block of ice, but the film works because of the performances that have you believing everything it throws at you. Besides, as I’ve said before, if you’re going to see a sci-fi flick for the “science”, you’re not going to be enjoying much with a too-critical set of eyes…

The film is one of those “Do we study the “thing” we found as a living entity or cut it up for science?” flicks that raises some intriguing questions that don’t have proper answers to some people. The fact that “Charlie” (the name given the caveman by Stanley as he starts to communicate with him) survived his freezing makes him of interest to science because if they can figure out why he lived, they can whip up a fountain of youth through some sort of similar preservation techniques. As Charlie gets closer to Sheppard, it’s clear that Stanley sees his new friend’s difficulties in adjusting to his surroundings aren’t going to disappear any time soon and as the science folks press more and more to get their knives out, Stanley devises a plan to help set his friend free.

There are some beautiful moments here, such as the two men from different times singing together (it’s amusing and touching at the same time), Charlie seeing a helicopter and thinking it’s some sort of mystical bird and Stanley putting together pieces of the caveman’s life through the new drawings he makes. Lone’s performance is remarkable (as is his makeup) and as the film winds its way to what I think is an inevitable conclusion, you’re with him and not the folks who keep trying to get him re-frozen just to see if they can bring him back a second time. Yes, you can argue that sacrificing one for the many is a “good” thing if we can learn a lesson, but again, this is a film that makes you rethink that for a hot minute because at the end of the day, you may learn more from observation than you do from dissection.

That said, at the end of the day it was all up to Charlie anyway and Charlie don’t surf. Or fly. He was always somewhere else and probably thought up until the time he was reawakened that he’d already gone there. All those poky guys with the funny clothes on did was make him take his trip a second time and make it more successful. GO check this one out when you can. My fingers are getting numb, so I’ll stop here. Stupid library. I feel as if I’m in a block of ice, brrrrr!