The Donald Sutherland essentials
Saturday, July 18, 2020 at 9:34AM 
I don't know about you, but I love to find which people share the same birthday as me. That's especially true of artists who I admire. It's not like sharing a birthday means a whole lot, but it's nice to know that there's something in common between you and one of your idols. In my case, birthday twins include the cinematic genius Wong Kar-Wai, the fabulously talented Diahann Carroll, the eternal gangster James Cagney, Weekend star Tom Cullen, Best Supporting Actress nominee Barbara O'Neil, Sibyl director Justine Triet, and, of course, this piece's focus, the great Donald Sutherland. Our special day was just yesterday.
Despite never having been nominated for a competitive Oscar (he received an honorary in 2018), Donald Sutherland can be counted among Hollywood's most respected thespians. With a career spanning from the 1960s to now, full of memorable hits and influential classics, complex performances, and scene-stealing turns, Sutherland is an actorly institution all by himself. In honor of his 85th birthday yesterday, here goes a list of some of the movies anyone must watch if they're fans of the actor…
First up, we have the first Best Picture nominee he ever starred in.
MASH (1970)
The beginning of Donald Sutherland's stardom is tied with a series of subversive war pictures of the late 60s and early 70s. MASH is the most famous of them, though one shouldn't undervalue The Dirty Dozen and Kelly's Heroes. In any case, his comedic turn as an army doctor during the Korean War is a devastatingly funny piece of acting that masterfully walks the line between outright parody and Robert Altman's trademark naturalism. His chemistry with costar Elliott Gould is especially entertaining.
You can stream MASH on DirectTV. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
KLUTE (1971)
While Jane Fonda's Oscar-winning performance as Bree Daniels may be Klute's greatest claim to fame, Donald Sutherland's work as the titular investigator shouldn't be entirely ignored. Working in an almost suffocating, dialed-in register, the actor conjures a complicated storm of sensual longing and cold masculinity without which the movie wouldn't work. This thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula is one of Donald Sutherland's best and most important films.
You can stream Klute on HBO Max. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)
Horror movies that are, not so secretly, deep explorations of grief seem to be all the rage nowadays. However, you'd be wrong to suppose this is a new development in the history horror cinema. Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now is a good example. The 1973 movie uses a frightful trip to Venice as the foundation upon which to build a searing portrait of a couple trying to move on after their child's death. The performances of Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are beyond reproach as is their infamous marathon-length sex scene.
You can stream Don't Look Now on Showtime, DirecTV, Pluto TV, and the Showtime Amazon Channel. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1975)
This adaptation of Nathanael West's seminal novel about the seedy underbelly of Hollywood is one of the most disturbing visions that Tinsel Town ever produced about itself. Surrealist, ugly, and unsettlingly nightmarish, the film's a languorous descent into madness that's perfectly personified by Donald Sutherland's unfortunately named Homer Simpson. Brimming with impotent rage and repressed sexuality, this man is like a time bomb that goes off at the picture's end in a spectacle of demented brutality.
You can rent The Day of the Locust from Amazon, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
FELLINI'S CASANOVA (1976)
Federico Fellini's portrait of Italy's most famous lothario is a picaresque odyssey bursting at the seams with bawdiness and wild grotesquerie. Sutherland's take on the titular character is, appropriately enough, a weird miasma of eroticism, smarmy confidence, and the romantic helplessness topped with powdered wigs and covered in silk brocade. It's certainly one of the actor's strangest inventions, as well as one of his most tragic characters.
You can stream Fellini's Casanova on Hoopla.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)
Remaking a classic of McCarthy-era hysteria turned into sci-fi horror, Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a cinematic depuration of the 1970s' sense of growing distrust with any and all institutions of power. Sutherland plays a rather passive health inspector faced with the existential terror of an alien invasion, gradually imploding as the film progresses and salvation becomes ever more unlikely. His final scream is the stuff of movie legend.
You can stream Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Hoopla, Showtime, Amazon Prime Video, DirecTV, and the Amazon Showtime Channel. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, and others.
ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)
As previously explored in the Almost There series, Donald Sutherland should have received an Oscar nomination for his work in the Best Picture-winning Ordinary People. Serving as the mediator between the iciness of Mary Tyler Moore's grief-stricken matriarch and the fiery emotions of Timothy Hutton's suicidal teenager, Sutherland is a reactive element that's central to the film's success. His smart underplaying of the drama's heartbreaking climax remains one of this thespian's greatest feats of screen acting.
You can stream Ordinary People on the Roku Channel, Crackle, and Pluto TV. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
JFK (1991)
With only one sequence lost in the middle of Oliver Stone's most unhinged historical epic, Sutherland is tasked with vomiting monumental amounts of exposition in record time. His Mr. X is a personification of Cold War paranoia, a Washington specter whose forceful urgency lights a fire under the picture's meandering plot. He energizes this ungainly cinematic gem and delivers a masterclass in how to deliver information without boring the audience for a second.
You can stream JFK on Pure Flix. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
CITIZEN X (1995)
Sutherland won a Golden Globe for his supporting turn in this HBO TV Movie about a real-life Russian serial killer and the manhunt that was orchestrated against him. In the feature, he plays a pragmatic officer who has learned to manipulate the systems of power of the Soviet Union but slowly becomes inflamed with indignation and passionate fury. It's one of the actors' best performances as well as one of his subtler efforts, standing high among the many authority figures that have defined Sutherland's last few decades on-screen.
You can stream Citizen X on all HBO streaming services as well as DirecTV. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005)
I genuinely think Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice should have earned Donald Sutherland an Academy Award. His Mr. Bennet is a surprisingly warm take on the literary character, a deep well of fatherly pride that's sometimes tainted by the ironic drollness of an abrasive old man. The paternal vulnerability he shows at the end of the picture, falling apart in lachrymose joy for his most beloved daughter, makes me tear up every single time.
You can stream Pride & Prejudice on Netflix and DirecTV. You can also rent it from Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Youtube, and others.
What is your favorite Donald Sutherland flick? Also, do you have any cinema-related birthday twins you greatly admire?
Reader Comments (27)
He won an Honorary Oscar? See, this is why cutting the awards from the ceremony is so harebrained. I was thinking just the other day about how he deserves an honorary award.
Six Degrees of Separation. I loved the play when I saw it, but Sutherland humanized the role in ways I did not expect without losing all the aggravating aspects of the character. That monologue about his kid's art teacher landed harder for me in the film than in the theater.
The Day Of The Locust is such a magnificent film - still baffles me that such a deranged picture managed to grab an Oscar nomination for Burgess Meredith (even if Sutherland and Black are far more deserving).
First of all Happy Belated Birthday!
So many. I suppose my top favorite is his work in Pride & Prejudice but I love him in Ordinary People, Six Degrees, The Italian Job, Max Dugan Returns and the TV version of The Winter of Our Discontent.
I noticed it was his birthday yesterday so I watched a film of his that was new to me-Lady Ice. I wish I could say it was great but it wasn't. Good cast (besides him Robert Duvall and Patrick Magee were also in it) and what should have been a solid story about a female jewel thief with an investigator on her trail but the execution was flat.
It was also the birthday of the wonderful Helen Walker of Nightmare Alley fame yesterday.
Bow down, I share my birthday with Madonna!
Also Steve Carell and the premiere of Bonnie and Clyde.
I share a birthday and year with Anne Hathaway.
He is a great actor. We take him too much for granted.
He has been lead and supporting for years.
I also liked Sutherland in The Eye Of the Needle (a gripping Ken Follett thriller with the wonderful Kate Nelligan), as Dr. Norman Bethune in Bethune, as long distance runner Steve Prefontaine’s coach in Without Limits, and the fun of Space Cowboys.
People sometimes wonder why Sutherland didn’t have more early awards. He and Jane Fonda were considered rabble rousing Reds. Remember much of old Hollywood at that time were people who had allowed, condoned, and agreed with the Blacklist, the jailing and ostracizing of anyone with leftist tendencies. They hated Donald Sutherland.
Jane Fonda was forgiven because of her Hollywood lineage. Sutherland was an outsider and a foreigner.
Sutherland also had an artistic crisis that took him a few years to recover from. Smart, sensitive, totally engaged artists like him can fall into a pit if they play too many psychopaths. They shouldn’t go there for their own mental health, especially not more than once.
I share a birthday with Viola Davis and... Hulk Hogan.
I love Donald Sutherland. Several of these movies are old faves (Klute, Don't Look Now, Day of the Locust, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) with Ordinary People being one of my all-time faves (like somewhere in my top 3). He's a wonderful actor who can play anything.
His work as Attila on "1900" is the kind of performance that creates a legend, and it basically did--so over the top, heroically so, but in a way that serves the film. As Pauline Kael said, he was a dash of Hammer horror in a movie strung together out of a catalogue of film styles and film homages. He apparently couldn't bring himself to revisit the film after an initial screening, he was so horrified with the evil character he personified. I can see why.
Cláudio:
How did you skip over Six Degrees of Separation?! *gasp*
¡Feliz cumpleaños, Claudio! Nice piece. I also loved him in Six Degrees of Separation ("our throats!...slashed!). But my favorite is definitely Ordinary People, a truly wonderful film that I was overjoyed with, when it won the Best Picture Oscar. MTM should have won too. And I remember being very scared during the entire viewing of Don't Look Now. And I remember that Invasion of the Body Snatchers scared the bejesus out of me.
JF -- It would have been wonderful to see him accept his award during the ceremony. I miss the televised Honorary Oscars too.
Scottmichael -- I've never watched it performed live, but it would be interesting to compare Sutherland's approach to that of stage actors tackling the same role.
kermit_the_frog -- It's such a bizarre picture. While watching I could hardly believe that AMPAS had nominated Meredith for that deranged performance. I'm glad they did, but it's shocking nonetheless.
joel6 -- Thank you for your kind words and for mentioning Helen Walker. I'd have nominated for the Oscar in 1947 for Nightmare Alley.
Alguém -- I'm bowing down, mostly for the Bonnie and Clyde connection.
rdf -- I agree that we take him for granted. Looking up his filmography, it's astounding how many amazing pictures he's been involved in.
Jonathan -- A fascinating combination.
Dan & Volvagia -- I thought about including Novecento and Six Degrees of Separation and would certainly add them if I ever do a follow up to this list. He has a great filmography full of brilliant films and also a lot of wonderful TV work. I apologize if it felt like I was slighting those pictures.
rrrich -- Thank you so much. I was also terrified by Invasion of the Body Snatchers and that line reading from Six Degrees is one of Sutherland's best - haunting in the best way.
Thank you all for the birthday congratulations and the feedback about the article. it's always appreciated.
Nice feature on Donald! If you guys want a recent fun and silly turn of his, check him out as the villain in the Brie Larson musical BASMATI BLUES.
My birthday twin is Dakota Fanning, who I admire and keep hoping she’ll finally land that Oscar project worthy of the buzz at the beginning of her career.
Happy others appreciate him,Great analysis of some of his best work,I like him in most things but he's especially good in 89's A Dry White Season and Ordinary People plus his cameo in Backdraft is barmy in all the right ways.
His cameo in JFK is my favourite cameo of any performer ever and maybe would have won my 91 S/Actor Award,why Jones was singled out for doing barely anything I don't know,it's his way with the heavy dialogue that hooks you in the scene.
Cláudio - Sutherland had a haughtiness and a self-satisfaction that he colored every so often with a compelling sense of regret. I don't know that it's fair to compare him and the actor I saw onstage because of the lack of close-ups. 🙂 Also, onstage Ouisa and Flan are telling their "anecdotes" directly to the audience, while we see them telling it at various parties and functions in the film, an approach I found very effective and may have added some dimension to Flan.
Also, I was so wrapped up in my Six Degrees enthusiasm that I forgot to say happy birthday from me and my birthday twin Kathleen Turner!
One of my all time favourite actors, he has such range. His stretch during the 70's was remarkable, and I'm glad so many people brought up "Six Degrees of Separation". "Chaos...Control...Chaos...Control"
Thank you for acknowledging his very fine work as Mr. Bennett in "Pride & Prejudice". He went in the opposite direction for "The Hunger Games". His President Snow is chilling and suitably scary.
@Cláudio I wasn't accusing you of slighting 1900. Just putting my two cents in. I do wonder if 1900 and CASANOVA hurt Sutherland's career in the way MOMMY DEAREST hurt Dunaway and THE SHINING threatened to hurt Nicholson. Just so heroically over the top. Almost Kabuki style acting. You've got to respect the risk taking.
My favorite Donald Sutherland film is "Ordinary People."
So glad to see Donald Sutherland being spotlighted! His range as an actor is quite amazing, and a quick review of his filmography points out how much his could do.
I'd also throw in a recommendation for Eye of the Needle. Ultimately, Kate Nelligan is the actor you'll remember it for, but she and the film would not be nearly as effective without his work in it.
It's a shame his son inherited so little of his on-screen charisma.
Cláudio is the nicest person <3
Donald Sutherland is an underrated actor. I could never understand why, maybe his politics or that he is Canadian? My favorite would be Ordinary People.
Donald Sutherland rules. Where's Space Cowboys? Yeah, it's not a great film but he was awesome in that as to see him just shoot the shit with Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, and James Garner just made him even cooler. What about Animal House? He was funny in that film.
Ordinary People I think is his best work as you end pitying him as he is just someone trying to calm everyone down in a family that is falling apart only to have some serious revelations about everything that is happening and with his marriage. Him crying alone upon realizing he no longer loves Mary Tyler Moore should've gotten him an Oscar nod.
I liked him in Casanova. It may be a lesser Fellini film but I'll take a lesser Fellini film over everything else. Novocento was great as he was scary to watch although I should note that Sutherland was horrified by his performance that he didn't re-watch the film for many years.
The teary eyed resolve for his daughter at the end of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE! *Sobs* Gets me every time! He should have gotten an Oscar nomination for that role.
Gotta include Animal House (huge hit, scene-stealing role) and Six Degree of Separation (sublime). I also would argue that he was the perfect "spice" for '90s thrillers like Backdraft and A Time to Kill.
My b-day twin is...Russell Crowe (oy vey).
Sutherland is so good is so many roles