Le tonnerre rouge

ALIEN THUNDER is based on the true story of Almighty Voice, a Cree Indian fugitive that eluded the Mounties for over a year. Donald Sutherland plays Mounty Dan Candy who is obsessed with "getting his man". The film is alternately sympathetic towards the white police officers and the Native Americans. Two of the First Nation stars are Oscar nominated Chief Dan George who plays Sounding Sky and, in his screen debut, Gordon Tootoosis in the title role. It is Donald Sutherland who steals the show with his role as the tall tale telling, comforting, determined N.W.M.P.. The film is recommended not for its plot, which wears a bit thin, but for it's vivid capturing of early Canadian pioneer life and Northern Cree culture.

I have low expectations when I watch a movie released on Mill Creek. It's not like I surrender a substantial amount of money to purchase a Mill Creek release. Plus, I am happy to be able to view movies from the past that have fallen into relative obscurity.

In order to keep costs down I don't expect, nor anticipate, a top notch transfer. And it can even be a little fun watching whatever scratched up print Mill Creek has procured.

Nevertheless, I was deeply disappointed by the absolute total lack of effort in the transfer for Dan Candy's Law.

As fas as I can tell, you somehow obtained the worst print possible (from Chief Dan George's basement, perhaps?) and decided to project it on a dirty bed sheet you acquired from an intern and then video taped it with a 1983 Sony video camera.

I'm guessing pan and scan is too costly, as well as going to the inconvenience of maintaining the original aspect ratio of the movie with a letterbox. But still, the transfer of Dan Candy's Law indicates complete and absolute indifference to your product.

I loved how a watermark with the Mill Creek logo appeared every so often in the bottom right hand corner. It was if Mill Creek were concerned that the viewer might forget who was responsible for their incompetence.

I can only hope that the majority of viewers of this film don't have to experience it via the Mill Creek release. Seeing half of Donald Sutherland's face half of the time is not a rewarding cinematic experience.

Average movie which only intermittently comes to live. A good performance from Sutherland, and it's always a delight to see Chief Dan George.

Not sure why they got Kevin McCarthy for such a small if pivitol role.

Imdb trivia reminded me that the movie featured the lead actors of the original invasion of the body snatchers and it's remake ie MCarthy and Sutherland. McCarthy had a small role in the remake, playing the same character as in the orignal. His appearance is more brief than in this movie, but it's a better one Note I prefered the remake to the original. I mus see if I can anything more about this story, and see how accurrately the movie portrays it.

Donald Sutherland who was Canadian never misses a chance to boost the film industry in his native country. With this in mind he starred in Alien Thunder about the true story of Cree Indian who was arrested for some minor charge, but resented confinement and escaped. The Cree, Gordon Tootoosis kills Mountie Kevin McCarthy who is Sutherland's partner.

In Canada as well as in the USA when you're partner is killed you're supposed to do something about it. That's what The Maltese Falcon teaches us. Sutherland feels the same way, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were never in the same kind of numbers that our US Cavalry were, they didn't need to be. It was a more solitary occupation with them having to cover the vast wilderness in this case of Canada's Northwest Territory.

I didn't see a particularly good print of the film, it had a really grainy and washed out look to it. That could have been corrected, but the rather dull telling of the story was not something better cinematography or editing could have remedied. The performances by the cast were sincere and the Indians were as realistically portrayed as ever been on screen.

An interesting story that was ruined with a dull treatment.

Donald Sutherland plays Mountie Dan Candy as if the character he knew he was in a movie and kept pushing it to be an action/adventure film, or a revenge movie, or a revisionist Western with a hero who could make a difference - but he's not. He's in an historical docudrama about a series of related domestic tragedies. Which means that the outcome is predetermined, and after insisting he has some power to effect matters for the better, he is left with the Indians to witness the end unfold.

This is the clue to the real strength of the film, which many would find its greatest fault. It is indeed slow, in order to accommodate an elegiac visual style. Tone and effect - essentially of sorrow, and of powerlessness over the historic inevitability of it all - form the real substance of the movie.

It's understandable that such is not to the taste of many audiences. But the film makers do deserve credit for attempting to approach their material in this fashion, rather than opt for something more profitably "exciting." That said, it must be admitted that a large scale production like this is operating on what appears to be a crash budget, and that doesn't help. It certainly didn't help in the preservation of the film, the available print on DVD is pretty bad. But occasionally the cinematography rises to the majesty that the script and director are calling for it, and eerie and beautiful moments pop up in the film, often when you least expect it.

Not really a success, but by no means simply a failure.