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?