Denver’s Death Puts Focus on Video Release of ‘Thunder’

It’s a macabre fact of life that were it not for the tragic death of John Denver, the video release this week of “Walking Thunder” on the fledgling Rated Gee! family entertainment label might have passed unnoticed. A winner on the film festival circuit, this 1995 coming-of-age wilderness adventure will now instead be remembered as the singer-songwriter’s last film.

“It’s tragically ironic,” said Craig Clyde, the film’s director. “A week before he died [Oct. 12, in the crash of an experimental plane he was piloting], I would get hundreds of hits on the Web from his fans asking when the video would be out. He had a strongly loyal cadre of people who loved his music and loved him. He was an icon.”

Denver was anything but in 1970, when Clyde, then a sophomore at an Idaho junior college met him. “He wasn’t a name,” Clyde said. “His biggest claim to fame was writing ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane.’ He came [to our campus] to do a midweek concert. My little trio was the opening act. I got to introduce him.”

Twenty-five years later, following a stint as a screenwriter in Hollywood, Clyde was an independent filmmaker based in Alpine, Utah (“the other side of Sundance,” he joked), whose credits included the direct-to-video family films “Little Heroes” and “The Legend of Wolf Mountain.” He wrote “Walking Thunder” with Denver in mind for the supporting role of John McKay, a former shipbuilder who leads his family West in 1850.

Denver, whose most notable recent screen credit at the time was “Foxfire,” a 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame production, said “yes,” immediately, according to Clyde.

“Walking Thunder” was inspired by the journal of one of Clyde’s ancestors who, the director said, was one of the first settlers in Utah. The title refers to a legendary bear that terrorizes the settlers. At the heart of the film are the character-building adventures experienced by McKay’s eldest son in the company of a mountain man, portrayed by James Read.

The modestly budgeted production was filmed in Alpine in five weeks. “I was in awe at what a regular guy he was,” Clyde recalled. “It was a very difficult shoot, but he never complained about the cold or the night work. He would grab cables or help move lights. He did all of his own stunts and he pretty much choreographed his fight scene. At the wrap party, he performed a 90-minute concert.

“His biggest concern always was visiting his daughter [Jesse Bell] from his second marriage [which had ended in divorce]. I don’t usually let my lead talents leave town during production, but it was so important to him. She was small then. I’m a dad, too, and I couldn’t really stop him from doing that. He flew his jet to see her. He was a WYSIWYG: what you see is what you get.”

Denver is not “Walking Thunder’s” biggest star. It is Bart the bear, who receives higher billing, and whom Clyde called Utah’s “most successful actor besides Robert Redford.” His credits include “The Bear” and “Legends of the Fall.” He can currently be seen menacing Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin in “The Edge.”

“Walking Thunder” also features narration by Brian Keith, who committed suicide earlier this year. Clyde had directed Keith in “Wind Dancer,” which Rated Gee! will release on video in January. “I wasn’t surprised,” Clyde said. “[When we worked together] he had just been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. Over lunch, he told me, ‘If it gets bad, I’m checking out.’ ”