Donald Sutherland's 10 Best Movies, Ranked

Summary

• Veteran actor Donald Sutherland passed away in 2024, leaving behind a legacy of excellent performances.
• Sutherland enjoyed a late-career success with his role as the villainous President Snow in the Hunger Games movies. His scenes opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Catching Fire were some of the franchise’s best.
• A consummate character actor, Sutherland’s best movies were horror films, with Don’t Look Now and Invasion of the Body Snatchers standing out as particular high points on his impressive filmography.

The sad news of Canadian actor Donald Sutherland’s passing serves as a reminder of his incredible talents. A veteran of the stage and screen, Sutherland was the kind of performer who was impossible to define, carrying the mantle of a true character actor while also being one of the most recognizable faces in cinema for decades. While it is tragic that he is gone and that fans will not get the chance to see new performances from him, he leaves behind a long legacy of great movies.

While Sutherland is one of the most iconic actors never to be nominated for an Oscar, he starred in a number of Best Picture nominees throughout his career. His best movies showcase the incredible range he had as an actor while also showing his willingness to appear in any type of role. He stole scenes in supporting parts and carried movies in leading roles. He charmed audiences as heroes and terrified them as villains. The best movies from Donald Sutherland’s amazing career serve as a great way for fans to remember him.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Played President Snow

While Sutherland typically avoided the bigger blockbusters, he found the defining role of his later career in The Hunger Games movies. While Jennifer Lawrence became a star thanks to these films, Sutherland added some gravitas and menace in the role of President Snow. Out of the four Hunger Games movies in which he appeared, the second movie, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, was the best and gave Sutherland his best material.

Following Katniss and Peeta’s victory in the previous games, President Snow crafts a plan to have them dealt with as a rebellion begins to ignite in Panem. The movie is a more exciting and fun story with some great new characters added to the mix. However, what makes Catching Fire stand out are some of the best scenes in the entire Hunger Games franchise, when Katniss and Snow face off. These two enemies confront each other in some intense and memorable moments, setting the stage for their more direct showdown in later movies.

National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

Playing Professor Dave Jennings

Sutherland was mostly known for his intense dramatic roles but he showed his funny side in a number of memorable projects. One of the most popular is the iconic college comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. The movie follows a frat house on a fictional college campus during the 1960s that is populated by underachieving and hard-partying students who buck against the dull and restrictive establishment around them.

While the cast of Animal House includes young stars like John Belushi and Karen Allen, Sutherland is a standout as their grounded and intelligent professor, Jennings. In a brief role, consisting of only a couple of scenes, Sutherland perfectly plays the kind of laidback adult who is more mature than the reckless young students but whom they look up to and revere. Animal House‘s hilarious quotes and unforgettable moments have made it a comedy classic and Sutherland adds to its long legacy.

Path To War (2002)

Played Clark M. Clifford

The final movie from legendary director John Frankenheim, Path to War is an HBO made-for-TV that brings Sutherland into a strong ensemble. The political thriller is a fictional imagining of the events surrounding President Lyndon B. Johnson’s efforts in the Vietnam War which ultimately led to the deaths of thousands of US soldiers and Johnson not seeking re-election. The movie stars Michael Gambon as Johnson, Alec Baldwin as Secretary of State Robert McNamara, and Sutherland as political advisor Clark M. Clifford.

Despite being mostly concentrated on people having conversations in the White House, Path to War is a captivating and exciting political drama with some standout performances. Sutherland is the most impressive of all with his quiet yet powerful screen presence as one of Johnson’s most trusted advisors who grows increasingly frustrated with the President’s refusal to exit Vietnam. Sutherland won a Golden Globe for his performance.

Ordinary People (1980)

Playing Calvin Jarrett

Robert Redford was already an acclaimed actor by the time he made his directorial debut with Ordinary People. Starring Timothy Hutton as Conrad Jarrett opposite Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore as his parents, Calvin and Beth, the powerful and intimate drama deals with a wealthy family who sees their ideal life falling apart in the wake of a tragedy. The movie explores how the event and its aftermath affected each family member differently.

While Ordinary People is sometimes unfairly remembered solely as the movie that beat out Raging Bull for Best Picture, that does not take away from its emotional impact. It is a hard-hitting and grounded story of loss and grief. Hutton won an Oscar for her performance while Moore was nominated. Though Sutherland did not receive the same level of accolades, he is very much the heart of the movie as the father desperately trying to keep the family together.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Playing Vernon L. Pinkley

Sutherland is not really known as an action star, but there was a period in his career when he was known for a number of the “team on a mission” movies with the likes of Kelly’s Heroes and The Eagle Has Landed. However, as good as those movies are, Sutherland also starred in the film that largely kickstarted the genre, The Dirty Dozen. Lee Marvin leads a thrilling ensemble in the story of soldiers convicted of murder who are given a chance at redemption with a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in World War II.

The movie also stars Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, and football legend Jim Brown. However, Sutherland is able to stand out in the big cast as Pinkley, the oddball of the group. The movie helped launch Sutherland’s Hollywood career while also delivering an exciting throwback action movie with refreshingly complicated protagonists and a thrilling climax.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Playing Mr. Bennet

There have been many adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, but this version remains one of the most beloved. Directed by Joe Wright, the 2005 adaptation of the classic novel sees Keira Knightley stepping into the role of Elizabeth Bennet, an intelligent and independent young woman living with her mother, father, and sisters. With the pressure of finding a suitable husband approaching, Elizabeth meets the brooding and complicated Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen).

The movie is an engrossing romance with beautiful photography and a sweeping score. Knightley and Macfadyen have terrific chemistry as the two potential love interests who continuously dance around each other and their feelings. However, Sutherland has perhaps the most charming role as Mr. Bennet, who cares deeply for his children, leading to the heartwarming final scene with a terrific performance from Sutherland.

Klute (1971)

Playing John Klute

In the first chapter in what would become known as director Alan J. Pakula’s “paranoia trilogy,” Sutherland starred in Klute as the titular private eye, John Klute, tasked with solving a missing person case. When high-profile Pennsylvania businessman Tom Gruneman suddenly disappears, his boss and wife hire his detective friend John Klute to discover his whereabouts. The only lead Klute has to go on is Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda in an Oscar-winning turn), a savvy sex worker with whom Tom was last seen.

Though Sutherland has the lead role, Fonda steals the show, winning the Oscar for Best Actress for her intense yet grounded performance. However, Sutherland’s performance should not be overlooked as his commanding and intelligent herogives a great co-lead for Fonda to play off. The movie is a terrific and smart thriller that feels quintessential to the gritty ’70s crime drama era.

M*A*S*H (1970)

Playing Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce

Another one of the Best Picture Nominees that Sutherland starred in, M*A*S*H became a hugely influential dark comedy in Hollywood. From Robert Altman, the movie is set during the Korean War and stars Sutherland and Elliott Gould as two surgeons working at an American medical base who spend their time breaking rules and trying to have fun in the midst of war.

Though the classic sitcom is the more famous version of this story, it would not have happened without the huge success of the movie. Sutherland is a hilarious lead to the story as “Hawkeye” Pierce, a role that Alan Alda would play on the small screen as part of the M*A*S*H cast. The movie is funny and entertaining with its madcap feel, but it is also insightful and sharp in its satirical edge which uses the Korean War to comment on the more recent Vietnam War.

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Playing John Baxter

Sutherland has stepped into the horror realm on a few occasions, but this psychological thriller is one of his most disturbing and unsettling movies. Nicolas Roeg’s startling mystery Don’t Look Now is widely hailed as one of the best European horror movies of the 1970s. Sutherland costars with Julie Christie as an American couple retreating to Venice following the tragic death of their young daughter. Once John and Laura Baxter arrive in Venice, they’re soon tormented by cryptic visions of a little girl in a red raincoat ambling throughout the city.

Long before the days of the so-called “elevated horror” trend, Don’t Look Now offered a serious and layered scary movie that also dealt with subjects of grief and depression. Sutherland gives a heartbreaking performance as the broken man whose obsessions lead him through the dark streets of Venice. It all culminates with Don’t Look Now‘s ending which remains one of the most shocking and memorable horror movie conclusions.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

Playing Matthew Bennell

It is difficult to do a worthwhile remake in the horror genre, but even more rare for it to surpass the original. Such was the achievement of the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Set in San Francisco, the story concerns a race of alien seed-pods that land on Earth and slowly begin to subsume and replicate human beings as soulless, empty vessels. Sutherland stars as a lab scientist who slowly uncovers the mystery surrounding the alien pods.

The movie is a gripping slow-burn story that treats the invasion not as an action-packed ride but as a gradual process that, once begun, seems impossible to stop. Sutherland adds to the engrossing tone of the story with his role as a grounded and intelligent hero. Seeing him and his fellow survivors piece together the mystery and discover they are being surrounded is incredibly exciting. As with Don’t Look Now, the ending of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has cemented its classic status.