I always think of his roles in both Don’t Look Now and yes, Animal House, as showing his range. And you’ve hit the nail on the head, Roy, when you talk about his charisma. He was odd-looking AND attractive, and he held the camera no matter who else was in a scene with him. I always think of him as being emblematic of the films of the 70s despite his long career. He was quite a talent.
(Rolls eyes in the direction of the NYT) Not the dumbest thing that's been published by them lately, but still a dumb thing: "Not anyone's idea of a heartthrob".
I think of one of his earliest roles, in The Dirty Dozen. He’s a geeky convict, but Lee Marvin picks him to pretend to be a general inspecting some other troops. You see him slowly get into it, until he asks a soldier where he’s from, and when the soldier answers with pride, sneers, “Never heard of it.”
Sexiest sex scene EVER is the one in Don’t Look Now. Speaking of which, I think this is (perhaps; right up there with Fargo and No Country for Old Men and — believe it or not — Apocalypto) my Very Favorite Movie. Last night when I heard the news about Donald, I watched it. Twice. Tonight it’s the one with the pod people. That scream at the end!!!! Honestly, Donald was The Bomb.
I read that Sutherland suggested he show his pasty white butt in the famous Animal House scene. Partly in solidarity with fellow butt-showing actor Karen Allen, but mostly because it manages to make that scene extremely powerful. A true surprising gut-punch in the film Animal House of all things!
"Don't Look Now", "Glengary Glen Rross" and "City Of Life And Death."
The three greatest movies I never want to see again.
Not being snarky. It was a privilege to be immersed in those worlds, but the emotional toll was off the scale. That's what I get for being a sensitive little twerp.
I want to see Start the Revolution Without Me again to see if my buzzed impression at the time, that Sutherland and Gene Wilder worked gamely to try to make the send up of period dramas (with a "Corsican Bros" plot) work, and didn't quite.
I remember it as a " Wrong Box" level misfire: much big talent wasted, and idiotic gags that were only marginally funny.
You could see him never quit his working to take it seriously as an actor...
I have to be really depressed to rewatch Ordinary People: where he isn't often credited with an incredible supporting performance.
I found it sporadic funny: Michael York unfunny, Cook and Moore wasted, as with so many other great actors: redeemed mostly by Peter Sellers' doctor, onscreen for? 3?minutes.
Jokes that should have killed (like the runaway funeral cortège), funny in concept, fell flat.
I think I'm already on record here saying overstuffed Victorian interiors combined with an atmosphere of forced zaniness just sends me up the fucking wall. It may be the funniest movie ever, I couldn't tell you because I've never been able to make it through more than 15 minutes of the thing. Maybe I need to watch it in installments, like a podcast.
Roy: "Ralph Richardson... Not many films have TWO of the funniest performances of all time."
Richardson does it for me, throughout this. Also, his scenes with John Mills, who's forced to go through a great deal of exertion lost on Richardson's oblivious character.
Parts of Start the Revolution Without Me are wonderful even though the plot sort of falls apart. Sutherland's "And I shall be Queen!" is almost the best thing in the whole picture.
A great career, a shit ton of jobs without any hint of prima donna stuff. Just got up there and banged it out of the park, time and again. (Allusion to his baseball fan side.) Something admirable that transcends the show biz stuff.
And rare these days I think, I don't know.
Meanwhile, none of the obits are even touching *scene* in "Don't Look Now", but I'm at the age that I much prefer crediting a good acting job than a reality caught on film. IYKYK and if you don't, I'm sure Google can help. Me, 🤐.
Should have added that being Canadian surely factored in somewhere around in his foundation.
The issue if there’s no truth the rumor is that it didn’t look faked to be fake. Reasonable if one’s seen the scene. (The least fake part remains seared in my memory. But ditto the end…)
Of course, given the era, the rumor may well have truth to it.
BTW: isn’t the Guardian some sort of bolshevik outlet?
I'm gonna recuse myself from commenting on specific works of a fellow countryman (whose work I've always admired). It's interesting to me that he seems universally to be a "known Canadian." Roy mentions his voice/accent, which has never struck me as being obviously Canadian; contrast that with his son Kiefer whose accent (to me) is so obviously Canadian I can barely believe he was allowed to play both Jack Bauer AND the US president. (Willem Dafoe is another guy whose accent would peg him as Canadian to me.) And, for fuck's sake, we do NOT say "aboot"!
"Take off" and "eh" I heard all through my childhood from the frostbacks. In fact when I first saw the McKenzie Brothers I thought "how do they know Uncle Bud and Aunt Addee?"
Back in early 2001, I went to a protest in Quebec city against George W Bush and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the best protest button I saw had a maple leaf with the words "No, eh"
Canada and the US are both pretty large countries with a wide variance of accents/pronunciation/vocabulary/etc. I (from Nova Scotia) was once mistaken as an American (by a cop in Alberta). He made me name the last 5 Cup winners to prove I was Canadian (nahh, I made that part up!)
Yeah, there's that parody-Dakotan accent much loved by Garrison Keillor and by the Coen brothers in Fargo. Being simplified and exaggerated for comic effect, it helps you see how an American accent could shade gradually into Canadian as you move north. But is a Wisconsin accent really that different from a Chicago accent? Not that I can tell.
That is a Minnesotan accent, not Dakotan. The heavy Scandinavian inflection can be found in the eastern Dakotas, but you’re just as likely to get German or Czech inflections, and the farther west you go, the more Montana-Wyoming cowboy drawl you get.
I loved Casanova. I can't think of a better looking movie. I found the plot and the characters engaging. I think the story arc took me where Fellini wanted me to go. Sutherland was ideal. I recall someone saying somewhere he had the appropriately high forehead for the role
It's certainly the best late period Fellini. I do recall another wag saying What we thought we really liked about Fellini were things that we really liked about Marcello Mastrioanni and Giulietta Masina. I'm really partial to "I Vitelloni". . I like Stardust Memories better than 8 1/2.
Sutherlands JFK monologue really stands out for me. The best 12 or 15 minutes Oliver Stone ever did.
It's hard for me to choose favorites; his roles in the aformentioned Don't Look Now and Animal House are two of mine, along with Ordinary People (his struggling father is my favorite thing about that movie) and Citizen X. What occurs to me as I think about him now is how easily he always stood out in big casts, even big casts full of scenery-chewers (The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes, M*A*S*H, JFK). His characters always stuck with you, which is surely the mark of a great actor.
I never saw KELLY‘S HEROES until a few years ago. I thought his kinda-anachronistic tank commander was annoying AF at first, but looking back, he was clearly the best part of that very odd film.
Although I've heard it described as really at "Caper" movie and I think that might be more accurate now that I think of it. Kind of an Oceans 11 in khaki.
I highly recommend you listen to Keith Olbermann's reminiscence in today's Countdown. I did not realize they were close friends. I did not realize Donald Sutherland was a baseball fan, a baseball fanatic to be fair. Keith sent him a CD of Red Barber calling a game at Ebbets, and he wrote Keith a wonderful reply, ,which Keith read. I know that broadcast, know it well, and as Donald Sutherland described the game I knew exactly where in the game he was, what Red would say, etc. etc. For a moment, I was sitting with Donald Sutherland swapping stories about a game we both knew like the back of our hands. I knew he was a brilliant, brilliant actor, but I never dreamed he could be someone I felt I could have shared hours with talking about our beloved game. I knew we lost a great artist, but now I feel like I lost a personal friend. I did not think yesterday when I heard I could be sadder about the loss, but now I am much much sadder. Donald, I hardly knew ye.
I always think of his roles in both Don’t Look Now and yes, Animal House, as showing his range. And you’ve hit the nail on the head, Roy, when you talk about his charisma. He was odd-looking AND attractive, and he held the camera no matter who else was in a scene with him. I always think of him as being emblematic of the films of the 70s despite his long career. He was quite a talent.
"He was odd-looking AND attractive [...]"
(Rolls eyes in the direction of the NYT) Not the dumbest thing that's been published by them lately, but still a dumb thing: "Not anyone's idea of a heartthrob".
https://bsky.app/profile/alexvont.bsky.social/post/3kvevvij6ui2c
Yeah, saw that and thought "not a writer of substance".
I think they are a writer of substance, only that substance is crack.
What happens when you send a child to do an adult's job
Yeah, a little too much Mean Girls going on that one's head, if you ask me.
I think his best performance was as the batshit preacher in Little Murders. It was a small part but he hit it out of the ballpark.
I've done that monologue a few times myself and I have to say I admire his approach.
I think of one of his earliest roles, in The Dirty Dozen. He’s a geeky convict, but Lee Marvin picks him to pretend to be a general inspecting some other troops. You see him slowly get into it, until he asks a soldier where he’s from, and when the soldier answers with pride, sneers, “Never heard of it.”
Sexiest sex scene EVER is the one in Don’t Look Now. Speaking of which, I think this is (perhaps; right up there with Fargo and No Country for Old Men and — believe it or not — Apocalypto) my Very Favorite Movie. Last night when I heard the news about Donald, I watched it. Twice. Tonight it’s the one with the pod people. That scream at the end!!!! Honestly, Donald was The Bomb.
Good choice! Nick Roeg was a genius.
Donald named one of his sons Roeg after him. And Kiefer is named after Warren Kiefer, another director he admired.
Yes, *that* scene.
I can’t get the music out of my head
Apocalypto is underappreciated. Never seen anything else like it.
I love that movie! The ending is to die for. Literally
I read that Sutherland suggested he show his pasty white butt in the famous Animal House scene. Partly in solidarity with fellow butt-showing actor Karen Allen, but mostly because it manages to make that scene extremely powerful. A true surprising gut-punch in the film Animal House of all things!
"Landis let us see a bit of the guy’s ennui."
I'll just leave that here, I don't have the heart to do anything with it.
"Don't Look Now", "Glengary Glen Rross" and "City Of Life And Death."
The three greatest movies I never want to see again.
Not being snarky. It was a privilege to be immersed in those worlds, but the emotional toll was off the scale. That's what I get for being a sensitive little twerp.
I want to see Start the Revolution Without Me again to see if my buzzed impression at the time, that Sutherland and Gene Wilder worked gamely to try to make the send up of period dramas (with a "Corsican Bros" plot) work, and didn't quite.
I remember it as a " Wrong Box" level misfire: much big talent wasted, and idiotic gags that were only marginally funny.
You could see him never quit his working to take it seriously as an actor...
I have to be really depressed to rewatch Ordinary People: where he isn't often credited with an incredible supporting performance.
What's wrong with "The Wrong Box"?
I found it sporadic funny: Michael York unfunny, Cook and Moore wasted, as with so many other great actors: redeemed mostly by Peter Sellers' doctor, onscreen for? 3?minutes.
Jokes that should have killed (like the runaway funeral cortège), funny in concept, fell flat.
Maybe it was pacing, or the mocking of Victorian mores as perceived by 1960s types wasn't as clever as the writing.
In short: not enough yocks for a comedy
I partially agree, but it also has Ralph Richardson as the world's dullest man. Not many films have TWO of the funniest performances of all time.
I will love Ralph Richardson forever because of that, and John Mills too.
I think I'm already on record here saying overstuffed Victorian interiors combined with an atmosphere of forced zaniness just sends me up the fucking wall. It may be the funniest movie ever, I couldn't tell you because I've never been able to make it through more than 15 minutes of the thing. Maybe I need to watch it in installments, like a podcast.
Roy: "Ralph Richardson... Not many films have TWO of the funniest performances of all time."
Richardson does it for me, throughout this. Also, his scenes with John Mills, who's forced to go through a great deal of exertion lost on Richardson's oblivious character.
Timing. The timing was totally off.
Parts of Start the Revolution Without Me are wonderful even though the plot sort of falls apart. Sutherland's "And I shall be Queen!" is almost the best thing in the whole picture.
A great career, a shit ton of jobs without any hint of prima donna stuff. Just got up there and banged it out of the park, time and again. (Allusion to his baseball fan side.) Something admirable that transcends the show biz stuff.
And rare these days I think, I don't know.
Meanwhile, none of the obits are even touching *scene* in "Don't Look Now", but I'm at the age that I much prefer crediting a good acting job than a reality caught on film. IYKYK and if you don't, I'm sure Google can help. Me, 🤐.
Should have added that being Canadian surely factored in somewhere around in his foundation.
Well, The Guardian did mention it, in both the straight obituary, and the personal view of their film critic:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jun/21/donald-sutherland-obituary
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jun/20/donald-sutherland-filmography
The only sex scene that I heard my very-straight-laced mother praise.
The issue if there’s no truth the rumor is that it didn’t look faked to be fake. Reasonable if one’s seen the scene. (The least fake part remains seared in my memory. But ditto the end…)
Of course, given the era, the rumor may well have truth to it.
BTW: isn’t the Guardian some sort of bolshevik outlet?
I'm gonna recuse myself from commenting on specific works of a fellow countryman (whose work I've always admired). It's interesting to me that he seems universally to be a "known Canadian." Roy mentions his voice/accent, which has never struck me as being obviously Canadian; contrast that with his son Kiefer whose accent (to me) is so obviously Canadian I can barely believe he was allowed to play both Jack Bauer AND the US president. (Willem Dafoe is another guy whose accent would peg him as Canadian to me.) And, for fuck's sake, we do NOT say "aboot"!
Maybe it's a class thing but my Picton, Ontario relatives said something close enough to "aboot" to be rendered "aboot."
It's a pet peeve of mine. I've recorded myself saying "about" and played it back for friends who said it sounded like "aboot!" I hear "about" dammit!
They say it like that in the Shenandoah Valley (with a correspondingly similar version of „house“, „mouse“, &c).
I've always heard "aboat" but then, I'm from a city that mixes Upper Midwest with Mississippi Delta.
Hey, I’ve heard plenty of Canadians say aboot, eh. Is it true that Canadians never said hoser? That Bob and Doug just made that up?
I can swear on The Cup, that I never heard anyone say "hoser" before that skit. "Hosebag," was the word they "cleaned up" for TV.
"Take off" and "eh" I heard all through my childhood from the frostbacks. In fact when I first saw the McKenzie Brothers I thought "how do they know Uncle Bud and Aunt Addee?"
Back in early 2001, I went to a protest in Quebec city against George W Bush and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the best protest button I saw had a maple leaf with the words "No, eh"
And yet Willem Dafoe is from Wisconsin, and Sconnies just sound Midwestern to me (a transplanted Illinoisian) and nothing like Canadians.
Oh, where's Henry Higgins when you need him?
Damn, I coulda swore he was Canadian (just checked and you are correct!).
"Willem Dafoe was born in Appleton" is one of the "fun facts" on regular rotation on the Spectrum News. Sponsored by Gruber Law Offices!
Canada and the US are both pretty large countries with a wide variance of accents/pronunciation/vocabulary/etc. I (from Nova Scotia) was once mistaken as an American (by a cop in Alberta). He made me name the last 5 Cup winners to prove I was Canadian (nahh, I made that part up!)
Yeah, there's that parody-Dakotan accent much loved by Garrison Keillor and by the Coen brothers in Fargo. Being simplified and exaggerated for comic effect, it helps you see how an American accent could shade gradually into Canadian as you move north. But is a Wisconsin accent really that different from a Chicago accent? Not that I can tell.
I can't keep up with Japanese accents/dialects. If I understand you, that's English!
That is a Minnesotan accent, not Dakotan. The heavy Scandinavian inflection can be found in the eastern Dakotas, but you’re just as likely to get German or Czech inflections, and the farther west you go, the more Montana-Wyoming cowboy drawl you get.
He made me name the last 5 Cup winners to prove I was Canadian
Trying your hand at being in the Canadian Stalag 17?
I'm a native of Buffalo, where Canadian accents aren't rare. It's more subtle than "aboot" but definitely not "abowt".
I don't know what you're talking abowt! ;-)
I loved Casanova. I can't think of a better looking movie. I found the plot and the characters engaging. I think the story arc took me where Fellini wanted me to go. Sutherland was ideal. I recall someone saying somewhere he had the appropriately high forehead for the role
It's certainly the best late period Fellini. I do recall another wag saying What we thought we really liked about Fellini were things that we really liked about Marcello Mastrioanni and Giulietta Masina. I'm really partial to "I Vitelloni". . I like Stardust Memories better than 8 1/2.
Sutherlands JFK monologue really stands out for me. The best 12 or 15 minutes Oliver Stone ever did.
"when, in its apotheosis, he gallantly “seduces” a celebrated mechanical sex doll, he’s pathetic and heartbreaking"
I remember this sense from him, and nothing else about the movie.
It's hard for me to choose favorites; his roles in the aformentioned Don't Look Now and Animal House are two of mine, along with Ordinary People (his struggling father is my favorite thing about that movie) and Citizen X. What occurs to me as I think about him now is how easily he always stood out in big casts, even big casts full of scenery-chewers (The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes, M*A*S*H, JFK). His characters always stuck with you, which is surely the mark of a great actor.
I'd forgotten Ordinary People that is an incredible movie. Everyone perfect I think.
I never saw KELLY‘S HEROES until a few years ago. I thought his kinda-anachronistic tank commander was annoying AF at first, but looking back, he was clearly the best part of that very odd film.
You are correct sir! I love that movie. I think it's some of his best work, but I love war movies and am biased.
Although I've heard it described as really at "Caper" movie and I think that might be more accurate now that I think of it. Kind of an Oceans 11 in khaki.
Good observation. I never thought of it that way (not a category I think of) but you're exactly right.
Yeah, that voice was iconic. RIP.
https://youtu.be/5TpR9xtPkUg?si=rJgUoqAFS5ZtsUiW
Well, if they gave out Academy Awards for best voice-over in an orange-juice commercial, they'd have to retire the category after that performance.
He was great in Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting" video, and he didn't say a word.
As Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice: bemused, detached dad watching the swirl of life around him, but coming through in the clutch when it mattered.
I highly recommend you listen to Keith Olbermann's reminiscence in today's Countdown. I did not realize they were close friends. I did not realize Donald Sutherland was a baseball fan, a baseball fanatic to be fair. Keith sent him a CD of Red Barber calling a game at Ebbets, and he wrote Keith a wonderful reply, ,which Keith read. I know that broadcast, know it well, and as Donald Sutherland described the game I knew exactly where in the game he was, what Red would say, etc. etc. For a moment, I was sitting with Donald Sutherland swapping stories about a game we both knew like the back of our hands. I knew he was a brilliant, brilliant actor, but I never dreamed he could be someone I felt I could have shared hours with talking about our beloved game. I knew we lost a great artist, but now I feel like I lost a personal friend. I did not think yesterday when I heard I could be sadder about the loss, but now I am much much sadder. Donald, I hardly knew ye.
Seconding this!