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    15 Donald Sutherland Movies to Stream: ‘Hunger Games,’ ‘M*A*S*H’ and More

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    Whether in the lead or a supporting role, the actor’s immense talent and range were apparent in six decades of performances.A lithe and seductively charming actor who worked consistently for more than six decades in Hollywood, often as a leading man, Donald Sutherland died on Thursday at 88. As a thinking man’s sex symbol whose versatility made him equally persuasive in irreverent comedies and heart-rending dramas, Sutherland worked with major directors across multiple eras, including Robert Altman, Federico Fellini and Clint Eastwood and looked comfortable in both modern dress and period garb. His unusual height — he was 6-foot-4 — and sonorous voice gave Sutherland an authoritative gait, but he was given more toward gentle-giant sensitivity than masculine swagger. Narrowing his great performances down to 15 films is no easy task — there’s at least another 15 where these came from — but this selection of streamable titles is a testament to his immense talent and range.1970‘M*A*S*H’Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Google Play and YouTube.Kicking off a decade in which counterculture rebellion would seep into American studio movies — and a decade in which, not unrelatedly, Sutherland would become a big star — Robert Altman’s irreverent comedy about a medical unit during the Korean War doubled as a stealth commentary on the then-ongoing quagmire in Vietnam. Sutherland and Elliott Gould embody the film’s coarse iconoclasm and soul as two skilled combat surgeons who fill the downtime between harrowing emergencies with pranks, sarcastic quips and a fair bit of womanizing, often at the expense of the head nurse (Sally Kellerman). A hit in theaters, “M*A*S*H” was a popular long-running TV comedy, but the film remains significantly pricklier.1970‘Alex in Wonderland’Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Google Play and YouTube.The central joke of Paul Mazursky’s clever riff on Fellini’s “8 ½” is that “Alex in Wonderland” was only the second film Mazursky had directed, following “Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice,” and thus he had not nearly the mileage Fellini had accumulated when his onscreen alter ego suffers a nervous breakdown after eight films and major international success. Here, Sutherland has the comic humility to play Mazursky’s hyper-neurotic surrogate, who is rendered nearly catatonic in his panic over his future in Hollywood and whether he should shift to a more commercial direction. It’s an unusual role for Sutherland, whose gravitas makes him more naturally assured, but he’s counterbalanced nicely by Ellen Burstyn as his wife, who manages his ego while exerting a subtle influence over his decision-making.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Donald Sutherland, ‘M*A*S*H’ and ‘Hunger Games’ Star, Dies at 88

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      Donald Sutherland, whose ability to both charm and unsettle, both reassure and repulse, was amply displayed in scores of film roles as diverse as a laid-back battlefield surgeon in “M*A*S*H,” a ruthless Nazi spy in “Eye of the Needle,” a soulful father in “Ordinary People” and a strutting fascist in “1900,” died on Thursday in Miami. He was 88.His son Kiefer Sutherland, the actor, announced the death on social media. CAA, the talent agency that represented Mr. Sutherland, said he had died in a hospital after an unspecified “long illness.” He had a home in Miami.With his long face, droopy eyes, protruding ears and wolfish smile, the 6-foot-4 Mr. Sutherland was never anyone’s idea of a movie heartthrob. He often recalled that while growing up in eastern Canada, he once asked his mother if he was good-looking, only to be told, “No, but your face has a lot of character.” He recounted how he was once rejected for a film role by a producer who said: “This part calls for a guy-next-door type. You don’t look like you’ve lived next door to anyone.”Yet across six decades, starting in the early 1960s, he appeared in nearly 200 films and television shows — some years he was in as many as half a dozen movies. “Klute,” “Six Degrees of Separation” and a 1978 remake of “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” were just a few of his other showcases.And he continued to work well into his last years, becoming familiar to younger audiences through roles in multiple installments of “The Hunger Games” franchise, alongside Brad Pitt in the space drama “Ad Astra” (2019) and as the title character in the Stephen King-inspired horror film “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” (2022).Mr. Sutherland’s chameleonlike ability to be endearing in one role, menacing in another and just plain odd in yet a third appealed to directors, among them Federico Fellini, Robert Altman, Bernardo Bertolucci and Oliver Stone.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Alan Pakula: Going for Truth’ Review: A Hollywood Memorial for a Friend

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      A heartfelt documentary about the director of such celebrated films as “All the President’s Men” has the feel of an A-list memorial service.“Alan Pakula: Going for Truth,” by the director Matthew Miele, is suffused with mourning. The documentary about the titular filmmaker opens with actors — Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Kline among them — recalling how news of his death affected them. In November 1998, Alan Pakula was driving on the Long Island Expressway when a metal pole crashed through his windshield. Piano notes sound beneath Harrison Ford’s especially affecting speechlessness.Even so, what comes as a surprise is how much this documentary honoring Pakula, the director of that dark triumvirate of 1970s films — “Klute,” “The Parallax View” and “All the President’s Men” — has the feel of a memorial service. A lovely one, a deserved one, but more a collection of beloveds gathered to share in who was lost than a rigorous reckoning with a filmmaker who had a sense of what bedeviled this country when he produced “To Kill a Mockingbird,” released in 1962, and whose insights had become even keener by the time he directed his “paranoia trilogy.”There are hints of depth. Robert Redford cites their shared sense of political paranoia. Jane Fonda (“Klute”) says that “he had an affinity for women.” Recollections from Streep (“Sophie’s Choice”), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Bonnie Bedelia echo that sense of Pakula’s empathy. (Clips from Liza Minnelli’s performance in “The Sterile Cuckoo” offer further support.)Pakula’s work with actors or the resurgent meaning of his trilogy could have been documentaries unto themselves. But the viewer might not have gotten an adjacent set of insights from his family, particularly Hannah Pakula, his second wife. Her tender, incisive regard creates an ache even as it offers solace.Alan Pakula: Going for TruthNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More