This week’s headline is partly a reference to one of Donald Sutherland’s finest performances. But it’s also an admission that your Webb Weekly critic is tardy in honoring that distinguished actor, who passed away in June at the age of 88.
Yet maybe late accolades are fitting for Sutherland; despite a six-decade resume covering 150 movies, he was never even nominated for an Academy Award.
The veteran did finally receive an honorary Oscar in 2017; but as for what’s called a “competitive” trophy, he joins an impressive but dispiriting cadre of stars who did not earn a single nomination: Alan Rickman, Maureen O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Peter Lorre, Errol Flynn, Kevin Bacon, Steve Buscemi — and many more.
Born in Canada in 1935, Sutherland struggled with childhood illness (polio and hepatitis among them) before beginning stage work in Toronto and London.
On a related personal note: One of my favorite moments as a high-school teacher was finally getting my hands on Christopher Plummer’s Hamlet — which had been filmed for live TV in 1964. Cuing it up, I was thrilled to find that it also featured Robert Shaw and Michael Caine — with Sutherland as the late-appearing Fortinbras. Some of my 21st-century students knew Shaw from Jaws, while more could pick out Caine from the Nolan Batman films; but few recognized the then-youthful Sutherland — even though they had all seen him as President Snow in the Hunger Games series.
After much early theatrical work, Sutherland burst onto the cinematic scene with a trio of war films: The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970) and Kelly’s Heroes (1971). The first of those, incidentally, appeared in what is now recognized as a landmark year at the movies — seeing the release not only of that Robert Aldrich hit, but also The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Cool Hand Luke and In the Heat of the Night. Phew!
The three early war films, with uber-cool casts including Elliott Gould, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Robert Duvall, Charles Bronson and Carroll O’Connor, kicked off a career in which Sutherland wound up performing beside virtually every big-name actor in the business. And that goes for directors, too: Robert Altman, Ron Howard, John Schlesinger, Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Robert Redford, Oliver Stone, Anthony Minghella, Louis Malle, Alan J. Pakula and Clint Eastwood.
Dozen, M*A*S*H and Kelly’s were followed quickly by two of Sutherland’s most critically acclaimed roles — first in the detective thriller Klute, co-starring Jane Fonda, and then the moody, haunting cult-fave horror piece Don’t Look Now, with Julie Christie.
The latter features a brief but frank sex scene which caused some controversy at the time — though it pales in comparison with what now passes for an “R”-rating. While it remains a bit too explicit for me, the sequence does at least have the virtue of showing true passion between people who are actually married; and really, how many scenes like that can you think of? Try: almost none.
Sutherland went on to a dizzying array of roles in which he could play the lead (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), or support (the neglected Trumbo) — or even a virtual cameo, as in 1978’s Animal House. He could do historical pieces (1900, Pride & Prejudice), family drama (Ordinary People), sci-fi, comedy, thrillers and everything in between. He made a likable good guy (Outbreak, Space Cowboys) or a dastardly villain (Backdraft, Hunger Games) — and in his heyday, he showed a penchant for two or three films every year. His record was seven in 2005!
So there’s a lot to choose from if you want to revisit this fabulously successful performer. For me, Don’t Look Now is a career high point — but it sure is creepy.
And what an ending.
