Growing up, there were very few films which actually thrilled me. The "Dirty Dozen" with Donald Sutherland, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine, John Casavettes and Jim Brown was one of them. "The Great Escape" with Steve McQueen and Bronson was another. You can all see a continuity there, which was the heroism of American soldiers fighting fascism in Europe.
In spite of the USA's conflicted history, there was something pure and beautiful about the internalized sense of freedom of American "Citizen Soldiers" who fought the Nazis. Yes, they had racist and other baggage, but they knew right from wrong at a fundamental level, and knew that Hitler and Nazism were evil.
"The Dirty Dozen" embodied that idea, and inspired me with the belief that history makes heroes, and that every person, no matter how personally screwed up, could make their mark in this world and redeem themselves for a life not well lived. When you read the history of America's real life Medal Of Honor winners, you realized that many of them were messed up human beings, crooks, sociopaths, alcoholics, or otherwise conflicted souls. But they found their moments in history and seized them by the collar, and gifted to us in the present the things which we value. And they did it out of reflex without thinking about it. To me, that is a lesson I draw from both the film, and from my study of history. We all have it within us to become heroes.
This is not to minimize the history of our soldiers in the Pacific theater, but because of my personal connection to my father and step-father, both Third Army veterans, this is where my emotions were cathected more than elsewhere.
Sutherland in his role as Pickney embodied the men in the rest of his unit. Conflicted. Sociopathic. Violent at times, and in a way representing the dregs of society. But when called upon to rise to a historical occasion and become something better, to be creative, bold, and hubristic beyond measure, there was something in his and their identities which fueled them and enabled them.
This is what Stephen Ambrose wrote about. This is what the then young genius of an actor Donald Sutherland conveyed in his breakout role which still inspires me to this day. He is one of the last of his generation of actors who stood for something profound, but went unrecognized for decades until he was lost to us this week.
Isn't that the way of many of history's greatest artists? To paraphrase the old popular song, "we don't know what we've got til they're gone."
RIP Donald Sutherland. Eye Of The Needle. Hunger Games. MASH. Klute. All of it, our hidden gem.
I feel like every person in this country who thinks Democracy should win over Fascism needs to realize the heroic thing they need to do at this time in history.
Nobody is going to hand us our freedom from tyranny.
We need to take it from the hands of our oppressors.
To be on the right side of history and for the world to breathe a sigh of relief, we need to come together like never before and collectively save the country from the evil that is trying so hard to get us.
We need to ignore our differences and unite for the one thing we all want: Democracy.
On the day after the election I want to be proud of my fellow Americans and say, "Good job. We did it. Now, lets get to work keeping what we almost lost."