Donald Sutherland’s ‘JFK’ Performance Made Him a Stand Out With Just One Scene (2024)

In the 1970s, Donald Sutherland embodied some of the coolest movie star energy imaginable. With a run of performances in movies like M.A.S.H, Klute, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Sutherland carved out an impressive filmography packed with performances that have stuck with us for years. The later stage of his career is best known to audiences for his prominent, incredibly villainous performance as President Snow in The Hunger Games franchise.

In between these two eras, Sutherland lent his talents to a small, but pivotal supporting role in Oliver Stone's JFK, released in 1991. JFK follows Kevin Costner as District Attorney Jim Garrison, a real-life historical figure who investigated the Kennedy assassination, and found the circ*mstances of the event to not line up with the story put forth by the government. Costner, and a massive ensemble of well-established stars, circle this conspiracy for three hours, and in the center of the movie lies one scene with Sutherland that cuts to the central themes of both JFK, and many of Stone's evergreen narrative obsessions.

JFK

R

Drama

History

Thriller

New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.

See Also

JFK | Rotten TomatoesJFK movie review & film summary (1991) | Roger EbertThe Nine Movie Roles—and TV Cameo—That Defined Donald SutherlandDonald Sutherland, Star of ‘MASH,’ ‘Klute’ and ‘Hunger Games,’ Dies at 88

Release Date

December 20, 1991

Director

Oliver Stone

Cast

Kevin Costner , Gary Oldman , Jack Lemmon , Walter Matthau , Sally Kirkland , Anthony Ramirez

Runtime

189 minutes

Donald Sutherland Leaves a Major Mark on 'JFK' With Minimal Screentime

JFK is a massive movie. The cast includes Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, John Candy, Kevin Bacon, and many more well-known, extremely talented individuals. While Stone's movie boasts a three-hour runtime, there is no room for this entire ensemble to hang around for the whole movie. Sutherland only appears in one scene, as Mr. X, an anonymous character with a high-ranking history in the United States government.

Mr. X meets Garrison in Washington, and they sit on a park bench where the two men discuss Kennedy, and the circ*mstances of his death. Mr. X reveals to Garrison that his work involved secretive operations such as assassinations, coups, and major coverups perpetrated by the United States. Garrison expresses his skepticism about Kennedy's assassination, and Mr. X embarks on a lengthy monologue where he states his belief that Kennedy was killed in an organized effort to put Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office. He explains how this coup implicates the CIA, FBI, Johnson himself, the American mafia, and even the Secret Service, all as co-conspirators who set out to dethrone Kennedy because of his desire to pull out of the Vietnam War.

Mr. X is based on a real-life figure, L. Fletcher Prouty, who served as the "Chief of Special Operations" during Kennedy's presidency. This role lends some credibility to the idea that Sutherland's character would know a lot of what he is talking about, and in real life, Prouty did routinely criticize America's role in many foreign affairs and argued that the CIA was working in the interests of some secretive world powers. Garrison is new to the world of conspiracy theories, and he gets an absolute masterclass in them from Mr. X.

In 'JFK,' Donald Sutherland's Character Cuts to the Heart of Oliver Stone's Distrust in Government

Oliver Stone is an outwardly spoken, political filmmaker. He has devoted many of his greatest works to re-examining the history around Vietnam, Kennedy's death, and the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush in the White House. Stone's career charts a years-long obsession with uncovering and questioning the dark secrets that built the American Empire, and Mr. X in JFK brings all of these secrets out into the light.

Sutherland, who stepped into the role after Stone originally envisioned Marlon Brando for the part, lays out a stark, unsubtle, and dense monologue about all the American government's shadowy exploits. The sequence where he and Costner meet in the park is a pivotal turning point for the movie, as Sutherland's onslaught of information is a tidal wave that proves the daunting scope of what this investigation is up against. Garrison is in the dark about how deep the rabbit hole goes, and Mr. X

Stone's experience in Vietnam changed the course of his life and is explored directly in his film Platoon. But Vietnam remains a central focus of many of his films. Stone sees the war, and its effects on the lives of his generation, and America's political state, as be something of an original sin of modern American governing. Connecting Kennedy's assassination to a desire to pull out of Vietnam furthers Stone's view of it as a monumental turning point in United States history, and Sutherland's character is central to this idea.

JFK is not necessarily a factual account of Garrison's investigation. The film embraces conspiracy theories in a manner that feels more complicated to wrap your arms around in a post-QAnon world, but it also reckons with a legitimate break in the public's trust of the American government, one that Stone revisits throughout his career. JFK is about Kennedy's death, but under the surface it is really about trying to understand the things that America does not want its people to know about, making it a deeply effective political thriller. Maybe there isn't a Mr. X working in the shadows, with all the answers about the country's darkest secrets, but it makes for a tense, thrilling, turning point in the film. The scene is central to the film, and rests entirely on Sutherland's shoulders.

Sutherland was the caliber of actor who instantly makes any movie he's in a lot better. With such a short span of time in JFK, the movie briefly becomes his as Costner sits and lets Sutherland work his magic. In this brief encounter, Costner and the audience will cling to every single word out of Sutherland's mouth as gospel, so much so that you'll start questioning everything. It is a powerful, compelling piece of acting from Sutherland, a real gravitational force that grounds the sprawling, historical story surrounding it. Sutherland does masterful work that stands out in a massive movie full of recognizable stars, and proves exactly why he was such a valuable presence in any role. JFK remains one of the most discussed popular movies of the 1990s, and this one scene stands out thanks to the gravitas and endless allure of Sutherland's screen presence.

JFK is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

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