Out There

 When I heard last week that Donald Sutherland had died, I started reeling in his filmography. The Dirty Dozen. Kelly's Heroes. M*A*S*H. And I noticed the line of war movies. Then it occurred to me: He was anti-war as the day was long. He was, as they say, an Oddball who was stuck in one man's army looking for a way to get out. What cemented this notion forme wasn't just those featured roles, but rather a cameo he made in Dalton Trumbo's classic Johnny Got His Gun. Sutherland played Christ in the color sequences of the film. This tale of World War One and all its atrocities kicked open a door in my mind. I saw this before I saw M*A*S*H and it prepared me for the ironies I was going to face about the horrors of armed conflict. Seeing it after the first couple seasons of the TV series made me appreciate the movie just a little more.  

It wasn't long before I stumbled onto Klute. Donald wasn't a soldier or a dirty this time. Just a conflicted cop trying to save the life of a high priced hooker, played by Jane Fonda. It was these two stars' off screen association that captured my interest, not that the suspense of the film did not. They worked together on what was essentially an anti-USO show, touring initially around the United States, then traveling to The Phillipines, Okinawa, and Japan. The FTA Show, as it was known, was the antithesis to Bob Hope. It provided a place for GIs who were fed up with the war in Vietnam to laugh at what was happening to them. It was a cultural milestone in American Patriotism. 

Donald Sutherland's career continued after that. He continued to play offbeat and eccentric roles, a couple of which were in two of the scariest movies made in the seventies: Don't Look Now, and the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He was also initially the "star" of Animal House. Sutherland got the job because years before he had befriended a young man who was working as a gofer on Kelly's Heroes who eventually grew up to be hot shot comedy director John Landis. Such is the stuff of film legend. 

Along the way, he appeared in more than one hundred fifty films, including Ordinary People, where he played Calvin Jarrett, the father caught between his suicidal son and his unforgiving wife. That one left a mark for me that has lasted. 

So as usual, this comes as a belated thank you for all the Terra upon which Donald Sutherland stomped. He will be missed.