Alien Thunder

Alien Thunder (1974)

When the law in the books failed, there was Dan Candy's law

Saskatchewan, Canada, late 19th century. The negligence of Dan Candy, sergeant of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, allows Almighty Voice, a young Cree warrior, to escape.

Date of release
1974-02-22
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (12)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Drama, Western
Director
Claude Fournier

Casting

Interesting facts

Alien Thunder is a 1974 Canadian Northern film directed by Claude Fournier and starring Donald Sutherland, Gordon Tootoosis, Chief Dan George, Kevin McCarthy, and Francine Racette. Its original screenplay was written by W.O. Mitchell but Mitchell removed his name from the final release due to changes that were made.

Production

The first version of the screenplay for Alien Thunder was written by W. O. Mitchell, a noted Saskatchewan author. However, as filming progressed and changes were made at the request of Sutherland, he asked that his name not be used on the finished version. He was reported to have said: "It's just not mine anymore."

The film was one of the most expensive produced in Canada at that time, with a cost of $1.5 million (approximately $9,245,000 in 2024). An historically accurate reproduction of the town of Duck Lake was built as one of the film sets. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police provided officers and horses for a cavalry charge in the film.

Alien Thunder was filmed in Saskatchewan at Battleford, Duck Lake, St. Isidore de Bellevue, and Saskatoon. During filming, Sutherland hired a local woman who ran a coffee shop in Bellevue to cook for him during the production, as there were few options for eating out in the small town.

Sutherland and Racette met on the filming of the movie. They married after the completion of the movie.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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