He was a class act all the way. A great character actor and a Canadian too!
RIP Donald Sutherland
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
I've long considered Christopher Plummer, Gordon Pinsent and Donald Sutherland to be pillars of Canadian acting. Sadly they've all passed away now.
No beefs with his performance, though I found that film overrated.
HUNGER GAMES was and probably will always be his biggest hit due to inflation.......though I wished he had done more than clip bushes in the first installment.
SPYS has a funky end theme which suggests melting cheese somehow....similar to the workout sequence in CARRIE.
I saw the ITALIAN JOB on opening night.....but I've got to confess the one thing I remember in the entire film is Sutherland telling others they can trust Mark Wahlberg.
Snark aside, you can drown in Sutherland trivia. I've only seen 58 of his productions in 55 roles, and he was seen or heard or both in 200. So, let's get wet.
Donald Sutherland has played an inspector, a warden, a prince, a private, a corporal, a corpse, an ambassador, an uncle, one sergeant-major, two presidents (in five films), two professors, two Ronalds, two lieutenants, two colonels, two generals, three sergeants, five captains, five judges, five priests and ten doctors over the decades. He's portrayed Casanova, Christ, Clark Gifford, J. Paul Getty, Wilhelm Reich in a music video and Bullwinkle under an alias. He played John Williams, Michael Dorn and Homer Simpson 15 years before the SIMPSONS premiered. Then he appeared on that. He's played himself twice, the first time in the documentary F.T.A.
He played X in JFK and excelled in HBO's ''Citizen X''. Dale Dye played his boss in JFK and Sutherland was Dye's boss in OUTBREAK. Both of Sutherland's black second-in-commands had him arrested for character assholery in LOCKUP and OUTBREAK. He appeared with Stallone in two films: KLUTE first, LOCKUP later. KLUTE was his first major dramatic role, and a title role for him, yet Jane Fonda's Bree was the central character. In LOCKUP his character was quite deathworthy, and not because of his severest haircut ever.
He helped originate MASH and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER with different results. He assisted in remakes of OEDIPUS, HAMLET, THE MECHANIC, MOBY DICK, TREASURE ISLAND, THE (forgettable) ITALIAN JOB, SALEM'S LOT, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and FRANKENSTEIN. The finest of his remakes is almost certainly INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. That film has his best ending close-up of all time as well...right down to his nostril hairs.
He crossed paths with Michael Caine twice, first in a BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN cameo, then as a co-lead Irish antihero in the superb THE EAGLE HAS LANDED. In all honesty I find his role a relative weak link in a fine cast including Jean Marsh, Larry Hagman and Robert Duvall (which makes this film one of several MASH reunions). Sutherland rejoined with Elliott Gould in SPIES, and much later reunited with Tom Skerritt in PATH TO WAR. His voice is in LORD OF WAR. And he's all-in THE ART OF WAR.
Some films are naturally better than others. VIRUS with Jamie Lee Curtis surely is the all-time worst. Right from the beginning he yells at her endless variations of ''Do as I say!'' SHADOW CONSPIRACY with Charles/Carlos Sheen would be the most likely runner-up.
He was only the first of THE DIRTY DOZEN to get shot, earlier getting assigned to take over a scene Clint Walker opted out of. Just when his son Keifer was ascending, Donald reached a relative critical slump period in the late '80s, perhaps best-typified by THE ROSARY MURDERS. His first ''co-Keifer'' production was A TIME TO KILL, but no scenes were shared there.
Some of his thrillers are now extremely rare. BEAR ISLAND, his coldest B-movie, is still out-of-print to my knowledge, but I lucked out on an old VHS. I always wanted to see THE DISAPPEARANCE, but the price on the BluRay was highway robbery. His GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY with Sean Connery is easy to find, but I'm ashamed to say I still haven't watched it. I'm still surprised his CRACKERS comedy with Sean Penn appeared to go straight to cable. A '70s western of his which needs serious remastering has two titles: ALIEN THUNDER and DAN CANDY'S LAW.
One of his smallest parts in an earlier major film has him talking with Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen in THE BEDFORD INCIDENT. His last major live-action theatrical release was AD ASTRA. His final live-action to date is MIRANDA'S VICTIM. He was one of Gene Wilder's earliest comedic co-stars in START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME. He had the quickest of effective cameos in KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE as C.W.
His first R-rated movie WAS the first R-rated movie in America: THE SPLIT with Jim Brown and Ernest Borgnine. (A triple DIRTY DOZEN reunion.) Remember the bowl of steam the convicts were made to eat in TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN? That's exactly how Sutherland dies in THE SPLIT.
Then there's LITTLE MURDERS, AN AMERICAN HAUNTING, FINAL FANTASY, INSTINCT, FALLEN, OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW TELLS ALL, THE PUPPET MASTERS, BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, A DRY WHITE SEASON and MURDER BY DECREE. These titles all fall within my 58.
He was quite the hot stud in SPACE COWBOYS. And small wonder. Nobody could sex things up like Don Sutherland. Julie Christie in DON'T LOOK NOW was simply the warm-up. DISCLOSURE with Michael Douglas contains the most intense elevator scene since 1980 with no-holds barred tongue action in the silliest dream-sequence of all time. Let's move on....
My favorite Sutherland fight scene is from 1981's EYE OF THE NEEDLE, in which he's the top-billed Nazi villain. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED may be better in retrospect, but this is one of his most memorable unsympathetic parts. Had I nominated actors, I'd've given him best actor noms for NEEDLE and ORDINARY PEOPLE to boot. It's a double disgrace that not only was DS never nominated once in reality, his special award was never even televised on ABC to save time for the 270-minute broadcast.
ORDINARY PEOPLE was once in my all-time top six favorites ever.
Three other acting roles I'd instantly nominate him for would be MASH for Best Actor, then SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION and JFK for supporting. His incredible Mall monologue from JFK is about 18 minutes long yet feels like nine. He concludes with the warning ''Do your own thinking.''
Fewer people have seen SIX DEGREES, but trust me, it's Sutherland's single funniest performance ever, at least in the first half. Some of his finest lines are ''IT'S NOT A CONSPIRACY!!!!!'' and ''I hope your muggers read every word!'' Not to mention ''Get out! Thing! Thing! GET OUT!!!!'' Still, as hilarious as his character is, he's also got the worst name ever from all his films: Flan Kitteredge.
And still, as funny as SIX DEGREES is, he's got an even funnier line in PANIC: ''My {breasts} are sagging.'' He's married to Barbara Bain in that one. Their son is William H. Macy.
As mentioned, KELLY'S HEROES may be his most overrated movie, if not his clipper-happy HUNGER GAMES psychopath. ANIMAL HOUSE is simultaneously his most underpaid and underultilized role. And his weirdest, out-of-the-blue sequel is BACKDRAFT 2, of all things. A minor-character promotion for the ages.
Two last thoughts, both related to TV. There's a great '60s episode of THE AVENGERS where Sutherland plays the mastermind. ''The Superlative Seven'' also includes good roles for Charlotte Rampling and Brian Blessed. And lastly, Sutherland went TV-regular with Geena Davis's COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, while usually ending up with Act Four egg on his face nineteen weeks straight.
Rest in peace, Donald. You'll be missed for centuries at least.
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