Happy Birthday Donald Sutherland
It is with great delight that I wish Donald Sutherland a very happy 74th Birthday today. In celebration of the great man and the marvelous additions which he has made to cinema, I include a selection of my favourites from Mr. Sutherland’s many movies.
Don’t Look Now is nothing short of a gothic masterpiece. Following the accidental death of his daughter, Sutherland and wife Julie Christie travel to Venice, where they soon find that their nightmare is only beginning. This is still as chilling as it was upon its first release and the terror is matched only by its aesthetic beauty. If you were to start with one film in Donald Sutherland’s back catalogue, this would be it. Don’t ask anyone about it, because people love spoiling the ending. The biggest culprits of this being Channel 4 who showed it in one of their asinine ‘Best Of Horror‘ roundups. The idiots. It was also subject to a bit of were they? / weren’t they? controversy surrounding a very realistic looking sex scene between the two leads, something Donald (gentleman that he is) has never commented on any further.
Coming a close second in my all time favourite Donald Sutherland movies is Day Of The Locust. Set in 1930′s Hollywood, simply put, this is my Great Gatsby. Also featuring a sensational performance from Karen Black (House of 1000 Corpses, Easy Rider), and Burgess Meredith (Rocky) this is a tale of the underbelly of Hollywood that lingers with a resonance rarely seen in todays cinema. A climax that actually left me breathless (proving that the cliche can be true) and Sutherland eminating sympathy and pathos like never before. Like a lost scarecrow trapped in the body of a lovesick clumsy waiter, he stumbles through this movie with inimitable grace and skill.
Forget the TV show with Alan Alda that lasted three hundred seventy eight seasons, this is all you need to see. Sutherland is the ultimate Hawkeye Pierce. Elliott Gould is his ultimate wingman, the two making one of cinema’s finest comedy pairings. The best War comedy ever made, period. Sutherland’s lines are delivered with such precise humour and natural wit that they make this movie truly irresistable.
Amongst this plethora of megastars, it is Sutherland’s performance in Kelly’s Hero’s that sticks in the mind long afterwards. His hippie chic is wonderfully woven into the WW2 plot and his crazed tank riding shenanigans provide some real laugh out loud moments. Strangely enough, Sutherland was taken critically ill during the making of this movie and technically died. See him give a brief interview on the subject here.
Another one that you really should check out is Alex In Wonderland, which is one of my favourite movies in general. Also starring the likes of Fellini, this is a magnificent surrealist fantasy which was made in the late 1960′s. Sutherland stars as a tortured hippie filmmaker in a role which, whilst not one of his best known, is definitely one of his finest.
And so, in the realisation that I could actually sit and write about Donald Sutherland all night, I will leave you with a list of other noteable performances for you to seek out. That and the best wishes to Mr Sutherland on his birthday and may he have many more to come. ^_^
For You Consideration: Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Die Die My Darling (1966), Klute (1971), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), Animal House (1978), Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978), Eye Of The Needle (1981), JFK (1991) and The Puppet Masters (1994). This is by no means a complete filmography, mereely a further listing of my own preferred Sutherland roles. The final word goes to the man himself.
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