Iceman (1984)

Iceman has some beautiful arctic cinematography during its opening credits (suggestive of The Thing) and an attractive soundtrack (reminiscent of the hauntingly plaintive bassoon tracks from Never Cry Wolf). As a caveman story (albeit about a resuscitated one), Iceman presents a sci-fi spin on The Quest for Fire as it takes its science and linguistics seriously. While the premise lies beyond plausibility, this movie makes every effort to present and explain the biology and medical science believably (right down to the buttercups). As a result, we get a humanistic tale where Timothy Hutton as the anthropologist Shepherd counters the hard-bitten scientists who want to dissect the iceman piece by piece, treating him like scientific chattel instead of as a person. He then risks his life to initiate an ongoing dialog with "Charly" (echoes of Flowers for Algernon) as they puzzle out each other's words for such things as "earth" and "bird." After Shepherd figures out what motivates Charly -- I could follow the wheels turning in their minds just through the linguistics -- the ending may disappoint some viewers (though it seems likely Charly got what he wanted). This movie works for me because it takes all factors and actors seriously, opting for authentic human dialog and respect instead of rancor and division. The conclusion is based on human choices as opposed to human failures. Iceman is a gem from 1984 that should endure because it focuses on the human question more than the solution. While slightly dated, its essence seems timeless. (I had to acquire this disc from a competing service since it is not in stock at this rental service. See my growing Bl-ckbuster list to find movies you can only rent elsewhere then rate and review here.) Enjoy! 4 stars.