Donald Sutherland was an actor’s actor. He made every movie better by making an appearance, and he had such a beautifully understated style that it’s not shocking, but it also feels completely wrong that not only did he never win an Oscar, but he was never even nominated. Maybe he just made it look too easy. Because he did. He made it seem as if he was that person. Not that character. That person.
Sutherland had exactly 200 film credits on the date of his death, two days ago, so of course I haven’t seen a huge number of his films, but these are my favorites, most of which come from the remarkable run he had of incredible films during the ‘70s and ‘80s. But Sutherland never stopped working. And never stopped being really good at what he did.
Don’t Look Now
Sutherland plays John Baxter, an architect who travels to Venice to restore an incredible building. But the story is really about John and his wife Laura’s grief over losing their daughter in a drowning accident. Sutherland and Julie Christie have an amazing chemistry in this film as they try to maintain some semblance of a normal life even though nothing will ever be normal again. This film also has one of the most sensuous sex scenes I’ve ever seen, but the heart of it is the emotional trauma between a couple that still truly loves each other.
Klute
Jane Fonda won an Oscar for her performance as Bree, a prostitute that Sutherland encounters and ends up befriending in his search for a missing man. As was so often the case, Sutherland brought out the best in the people he was working with as Fonda and Sutherland develop a complicated relationship when it becomes clear that his efforts to find the missing man are putting Bree’s life in danger. As with Don’t Look Now, the sometimes contentious, sometimes tender relationship between these two characters becomes the main focus of this film, more so than solving the mystery.
Ordinary People
There’s no better indication of how Sutherland’s professionalism was often overlooked than the fact that all three of the other main actors in this film—Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton (who won), and Judd Hirsch were all nominated for Oscars in this film, as was director Robert Redford. Again, the plot revolves around the loss of a child, and again it’s a drowning as Calvin and Beth Jarrett (Sutherland and Moore) try to come to terms with the loss of their oldest son while his brother Connie, who was present for the drowning, gets more and more lost in the grief and guilt from the accident. Moore was absolutely chilling in this role, which she always said was the closest to her actual personality. But as Calvin and Beth work hard to present a solid front, the cracks show through in several brilliant scenes where the anger and grief simply won’t be ignored, and both Sutherland and Moore shine in those moments.
Kelly’s Heroes
This role brings out the playful side of Sutherland, which we also saw in M*A*S*H and Animal House, as he plays Sergeant Oddball, part of a platoon of soldiers talked with sneaking across enemy lines and stealing a cache of Nazi treasures. This was one of Sutherland’s breakthrough roles as he held his own with a stellar cast that included Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O’Connor, and even Harry Dean Stanton. But Sutherland’s sardonic, intelligent sense of humor shines through in this film, and it established him as a great character actor, although he was much more than that.
M*A*S*H
Alan Alda will always be known as Hawkeye Pierce to most of the American public, but it was Sutherland, along with Elliott Gould as Trapper John, who originally captured the brilliant and irreverent surgeons trying to save the lives of young men during the Korean War. Robert Altman, who allowed plenty of improvisation, directed the film version, which was a much more successful film adaptation of a war satire than Catch-22, which of course was a much better novel. But nobody embodied the efforts to escape the horrors of war through humor, and maybe an occasional cocktail, than Sutherland and Gould in the film. I tried to dig up any information about whether Sutherland was offered the TV role, but I suspect he would have turned it down because his film career was just picking up, and TV was considered a step down at the time. But it’s interesting to consider how much different the TV version would have been with the original duo.
Day of the Locust
Many people consider Day of the Locust to be one of the best books ever written about the film industry, and the film adaptation does a decent job of capturing the cynical spirit of the book. Sutherland plays Homer Simpson (pre-Simpsons), an accountant who moves to California for his health and becomes involved in the film business. Homer develops a friendly relationship with Faye, a young wannabe actress, played by the brilliant Karen Black, but she doesn’t really have the talent to become the star she aspires to be. Meanwhile, a young artist named Tod is completely smitten with Faye, and the relationships between these three young people trying to make a mark in the cruel, heartless world of film becomes the heart of this story. Burgess Meredith was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Faye’s father, a former vaudeville performer who doesn’t approve of her life’s ambition. But Sutherland is really the soul of this movie as a man who is repressed in every possible way.
JFK
I don’t think this is a great, or even a good, film, mainly because Oliver Stone chose the guy who can’t do accents to play the lead, but Sutherland’s appearance in this film, which is only about four and a half minutes long, is a piece of acting brilliance. During that four and a half minutes, Sutherland packs an entire conspiracy theory, almost without taking a breath, and he makes it sound as conversational as a visit over coffee with a friend. Even the best actors can sound as if they’re reciting a monologue when they’re asked to speak for that long, but this is what makes him the penultimate professional.
Eye of the Needle
Sutherland didn’t play a lot of villains, but in this film, he plays a Nazi spy trying to get out of Great Britain with some valuable information. While waiting to get picked up in a village along the coast of Scotland, he ends up falling in love with a woman who’s husband is handicapped, once again creating the kind of emotional tension that Sutherland specialized in. Kate Nelligan is also excellent as his love interest in this film.
Also in the running: Animal House, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Train Robbery, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Dry White Season.
Great summary and tribute to Sutherland. Have you thought of sending this out to be published elsewhere?
Russell, he was my favorite screen actor, I would have watched anything with him in it.