ALIEN THUNDER (1974) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Claude Fournier
Donald Sutherland, Gordon Tootoosis, Chief Dan George,
Kevin McCarthy, Sarain Stump, Francine Racette
Racism on the Canadian prairie, with Donald Sutherland as a Mountie on an obsessive mission to track down the Cree Indian who killed his best friend. Parallels to "The Searchers" are obvious, and Sutherland's Dan Candy, like John Wayne's Ethan Edwards, is doomed by his own fanatical quest: If he captures his quarry, the quest ends and he loses the thing that defines him. If he doesn't, he's a failure on a quest that goes on forever. "You've become a hunter with nothing to hunt," Chief Dan George tells Sutherland at one point. He's chasing a ghost. The cinematography and the Saskatchewan locations look good, but the storytelling's a little murky. Kevin McCarthy has a cameo as Candy's dead comrade, which allows the two "Body Snatchers" stars to share the screen for a minute or two.
Donald Sutherland
(1935-2024)
