If you ask me, Donald Sutherland is a very serious candidate for the GOAT actor of the 20th century.
In terms of performances (obviously), in terms of figure/physique (which, for me, plays a huge role and encapsulates quality and meanings in an unconscious way), in terms of movie choices (which shows an artistic subjectivity on a second level), and in terms of personal/political stance (because it adds a moral factor that plays a role when we talk about the overall mythology of an actor of such scale).
And in terms of pure personal taste, for me, Sutherland of the '70s, that is, his classic interpretative period associated with New Hollywood and a series of pioneering directors of European cinema. For my personal taste, he is in the top 5 along with Burt Lancaster, Henry Fonda, Robert Duvall, and William Hurt (I like noble/melancholic looking actors, I admit).
For me, Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now is a 10/10 movie and a 10/10 performance, and Sutherland's cinematic work reached near perfection again with Robert Altman's MASH*, Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900, and John Schlesinger's The Day of the Locust. These are, in my opinion, 5 movies that everyone who loves cinema, and especially 70s cinema, must have seen. Zero (0) Oscar nominations for all these, by the way, in case you hadn't read something funny on the internet today.
If you have already seen them and want to delve a little deeper into Sutherland's (anyway large) filmography, then an alternative list of films with him as the lead is Alan Pakula's Klute (awesome classic 70s paranoia thriller), the underrated Casanova by Federico Fellini, the beloved cult Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the humanly touching Ordinary People, the super-honest Eye of the Needle, and the TV movie Citizen X.
A great loss overall, but a life full in every aspect. I would like to be more optimistic that new actors of such quality and temperament are emerging, but reality isn't helping either. In any case, RIP.
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