In Donald Sutherland’s 1970s career, the personal and political met in European ‘auteur’ films

Sutherland at the Filmex Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, in 1981. (Alan Light), CC BY

Younger generations today mainly knew Donald Sutherland in his grizzled paternalistic roles, by turns loveable (as in Pride and Prejudice) or hateful (as in The Hunger Games).

But older moviegoers like myself came to know and love him in the cinematically dynamic ’70s, when he hit the scene as an “oddball” Hollywood outsider, with a charisma that was hard to pinpoint, but endlessly compelling.