Clan of the Cave Bear: The movie
Since I just finished the book, I thought I'd try the movie.
Back when it came out (almost 40 years ago), it got awful reviews and was pretty hated by fans (and others). It cost about $15 million to make and brought in only $1.9 million.
I remember HATING it at the time. It was nothing like the book!
But watching it now? It's not so bad at all. It's kind of like a shorthand version of the book, very sanitized for a general audience. For example, in the book Broud raped Ayla when she was eight years old (which was an adult in their culture). In the movie, she was clearly an adult.
I'm really not sure how much someone who didn't read the book would get from the movie though, so much wouldn't make sense if you hadn't read it.
My biggest issue is that the people of the Clan (Neanderthals) look exactly like modern human, other than they all have brown hair. I understand that removing the chins of actors is an effect that a 40 year old movie couldn't pull off, but couldn't they have slapped heavy brows on the actors? (This issue made the scene of Ayla discovering how "ugly" she is kind of confusing, since she looked just like everyone else.) Plus the men all have neatly trimmed beards and generally hairless chests/shoulders. In the book they were described as nearly having a pelt on their upper body with long "scraggly" beards.
The second biggest issue is how different the Clan was culture-wise. In the movie, Broud got in trouble for hitting Ayla. His father said something like "A man who hits members of his clan will be no leader!". But in the books, a man hitting a woman was not just accepted, it was expected. Women needed to be hit, according to their culture.
The ending of the movie was somewhat different than the book, but it still worked. I liked it at least as much as I liked the book's ending.
I think the movie suffered because they tried to make it for everyone, not just book fans. So it was too different for book readers and probably made no sense to non-readers. Plus in multiple places I read that some male fans were especially upset with the movie, since the story was "feminist".
I'm glad I gave this movie a second try 40 years later!