Alien Thunder

Last updated

Alien Thunder
Alien Thunder VideoCover.png
Video cover
Directed by Claude Fournier
Written by George Malko
Produced by Marie-José Raymond
Starring Donald Sutherland
Gordon Tootoosis
Chief Dan George
Kevin McCarthy
Jean Duceppe
Cinematography Claude Fournier
Edited by Yves Langlois
Music by Georges Delerue
Production
company
Onyx Films
Distributed byAmbassador Film Distributors (Canada)
American International Pictures (USA release)
Cinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date
22 February 1974
Running time
93 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,500,000

Alien Thunder (also known as Dan Candy's Law) is a 1974 Canadian Northern film directed by Claude Fournier and starring Donald Sutherland. Its original screenplay was written by W.O. Mitchell but Mitchell removed his name from the final release due to changes that were made. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

Set in 1890s Saskatchewan after the North-West Rebellion, Alien Thunder is based on a true story about a Woods Cree (Gordon Tootoosis in his first film role) who kills a North-West Mounted Police sergeant (Kevin McCarthy) under desperate circumstances. Hunted for two years by the sergeant's resolute partner (Donald Sutherland), the ending brings tragedy for all those involved.

Cast

Production

Alien Thunder was filmed in Saskatchewan's Battleford, Duck Lake, and Saskatoon.

The RCMP, which had originally seen the film as a centrepiece of its 1973 centennial celebrations, withdrew its backing. Donald Sutherland called Mr. Fournier’s direction of the project “wretched". [2]

Release

The film was not a financial success. [3] "Suspense is lacking and characters are generally underdeveloped, as is the tension between the Mounties and the Indians.", stated Natalie Edwards for Cinema Canada.[ page needed ]

An article in Luma found that "Though it laudably uses Indigenous (and principally Cree) actors and some of the Cree language, Alien Thunder is ultimately a film about Mounties and settlers; as sympathetic as it may be to the Cree, they are, as the native peoples of the Americas tend to be in Westerns, reduced to supporting players in their own story. " [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Sutherland</span> Canadian actor (born 1935)

Donald McNichol Sutherland is a Canadian prolific actor and anti-war activist whose film career spans over six decades. He has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Critics Choice Award. He has been cited as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiefer Sutherland</span> Canadian actor (born 1966)

Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland is a Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series 24, for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Satellite Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Fournier (filmmaker)</span> Canadian film director (1931–2023)

Claude Fournier was a Canadian film director, screenwriter, editor and cinematographer. He is one of the forerunners of the Cinema of Quebec. He was the twin brother of Guy Fournier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Gregory (actor)</span> American actor (1911–2002)

James Gregory was an American character actor known for his deep, gravelly voice, and playing brash roles such as Schaffer in Al Capone (1959), the McCarthy-like Sen. John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the audacious General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and crusty Inspector Frank Luger in the television sitcom Barney Miller (1975–1982).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief Dan George</span> Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, actor

Chief Dan George was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band whose Indian reserve is located on Burrard Inlet in the southeast area of the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He also was an actor, musician, poet and author. The Chief's best-known written work is "My Heart Soars". As an actor, he is best remembered for portraying Old Lodge Skins opposite Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man (1970), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and for his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), as Lone Watie, opposite Clint Eastwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan O'Bannon</span> American screenwriter, director & visual effects supervisor (1946–2009)

Daniel Thomas O'Bannon was an American film screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor, usually in the science fiction and horror genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tantoo Cardinal</span> Canadian actress

Tantoo Cardinal CM is a Canadian actress of Cree and Métis heritage. In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Tootoosis</span> Canadian actor

Gordon Tootoosis, was a Canadian actor of Cree and Stoney descent. Tootoosis was a descendant of Yellow Mud Blanket, brother of the famous Cree leader Pîhtokahanapiwiyin. He was acclaimed for his commitment to preserving his culture and to telling his people's stories. He once said, "Leadership is about submission to duty, not elevation to power." He served as a founding member of the board of directors of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company. Tootoosis offered encouragement, support and training to aspiring Aboriginal actors. He served as a leading Cree activist both as a social worker and as a band chief. In Open Season and Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run, Tootoosis was the voice of Sheriff Gordy.

Moccasin Flats is a Canadian drama television series that ran for three full seasons. The show, which has aired on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and Showcase Television since 2004, is co-produced by Big Soul Productions Inc. (Toronto) and Stephen Onda Productions Inc. (Regina). It takes place in Moccasin Flats, Regina, Saskatchewan, an urban reserve where the inhabitants struggle to maintain their cultural identity while overcoming poverty, gangs, violence, and racism. The series features award-nominated actor Andrea Menard and original music by Donald Quan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern (genre)</span> Multimedia genre set primarily in Northern Canada and Alaska

The Northern or Northwestern is a genre in various arts that tell stories set primarily in the late 19th or early 20th century in the north of North America, primarily in western Canada but also in Alaska. It is similar to the Western genre, but many elements are different, as appropriate to its setting. It is common for the central character to be a Mountie instead of a cowboy or sheriff. Other common characters include fur trappers and traders, lumberjacks, prospectors, First Nations people, settlers, and townsfolk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Farrell MacDonald</span> American actor and director (1875–1952)

John Farrell MacDonald was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.

Maria Campbell is a Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker, and Elder. Campbell is a fluent speaker of four languages: Cree, Michif, Western Ojibwa, and English. Four of her published works have been published in eight countries and translated into four other languages. Campbell has had great influence in her community as she is very politically involved in activism and social movements. Campbell is well known for being the author of Halfbreed, a memoir describing her own experiences as a Métis woman in society and the difficulties she has faced, which are commonly faced by many other women both within and outside of her community.

<i>North West Mounted Police</i> (film) 1940 film by Cecil B. DeMille, Arthur Rosson

North West Mounted Police is a 1940 American epic north-western film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll. Written by Alan Le May, Jesse Lasky Jr., and C. Gardner Sullivan, and based on the 1938 novel The Royal Canadian Mounted Police by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, the film is about a Texas Ranger who joins forces with the North-West Mounted Police to put down a rebellion in the north-west prairies of Canada. The supporting cast features Paulette Goddard, Preston Foster, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney Jr. and George Bancroft. Regis Toomey, Richard Denning, Rod Cameron, and Robert Ryan make brief appearances in the film playing small roles.

<i>Perils of the Wilderness</i> 1956 film by Spencer Gordon Bennet

Perils of the Wilderness is a 1956 American Western serial film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and starring Dennis Moore.

<i>Saskatchewan</i> (film) 1954 film by Raoul Walsh

Saskatchewan is a 1954 American Northern adventure film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Alan Ladd, Shelley Winters and J. Carrol Naish. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. The title refers to Fort Saskatchewan in present-day Alberta, Canada. Shooting took place in Banff National Park not far from the headwaters of the Saskatchewan River.

<i>Pony Soldier</i> 1952 film by Joseph M. Newman

Pony Soldier is a 1952 American Northern Western film set in Canada, but filmed in Sedona, Arizona. It is based on a 1951 Saturday Evening Post story "Mounted Patrol" by Garnett Weston. It was retitled MacDonald of the Canadian Mounties in Britain and The Last Arrow in France, Spain, and Italy.

Tyrone Tootoosis was a Plains Cree storyteller, activist, culture keeper and dancer. He was born on May 9, 1958, in Canada on the Samson Reserve in Maskwacis, Alberta and raised on the Poundmaker Cree Nation Reserve in Saskatchewan. He was a member of the Tootoosis family and was a descendant of Yellow Mud Blanket, a brother of Pîhtokahanapiwiyin, also known as Chief Poundmaker. His grandfather was John Tootoosis, was an activist for First Nations rights and founder of the Saskatchewan Indian Federation and he was the first born son of Wilfred Tootoosis, a historian and storyteller and Irene B. Tootoosis. He was married to Winona Wheeler, a professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Actor Gordon Tootoosis was his uncle.

Almighty Voice was a member of the One Arrow Willow Cree and a fugitive. He is best known for evading the North-West Mounted Police for over nineteen months, his standoff against them, and his eventual death from the fight in 1897.

References

  1. Conway, Alana. ""Blood on the Poplars: ALIEN THUNDER (1974) and the Story of Almighty Voice"". Luna Quarterly. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  2. "Quebec filmmaker Claude Fournier adapted Gabrielle Roy's the Tin Flute". The Globe and Mail. 26 March 2023.
  3. Lerner, Loren R. (January 1997). Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   9780802029881.
  4. "Blood on the Poplars: ALIEN THUNDER (1974) and the Story of Almighty Voice". Luma Quarterly. Retrieved 17 June 2023.