By Paul Rendell
Donald Sutherland, actor, was born on 17 July 1935 and died after a long illness on 20 June 2024, aged 88. He appeared in many films including the 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now, The Hunger Games (2012) and M*A*S*H (1970). Thirty-nine years ago he visited Dartmoor when he was one of the stars in Revolution (1985). Revolution was a British historical drama film about the American War of Independence, directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Robert Dillon, and starring Sutherland, Al Pacino, Nastassja Kinski, Robbie Coltrane and Annie Lennox.
I was an extra in the film which was filmed in Norfolk, at Bigbury on the south coat of Devon and around Burrator Reservoir including Deancombe valley. I did meet a few of the actors while on set at Burrator including Sutherland, Pacino and Lennox. Annie and I stood together watching black smoke drift across the Deancombe valley, while they filmed a battle scene. I was dressed as a British soldier and she said to me something like, ‘I’m glad this is not a battle, I would hate it if real’. One day Donald was at the food tent with me and few other extras when he said something along the lines of, ‘If there’s one lesson I’ve learnt from Hollywood it’s that anyone who promises a sure-fire hit is lying. Al Pacino and I were sitting on top of a hill overlooking the reservoir a few days ago when he said ‘I’ve never said it before in my life but this one really, I believe, will be a flop. It is chaos.’’ The film was indeed a big flop and Goldcrest, the production company, lost a lot of money, yet Hugh Hudson said it would be a big, big hit. Goldcrest were behind other major films including The Killing Fields, Gandhi and Chariots of Fire. At the time Hudson lived at Walreddon Manor, near Tavistock. There were many problems with the making of Revolution. A large marquee which was used to feed the hundreds of extras caught fire. At once there was a danger of fifteen propane-gas cylinders exploding as the flames swept through the 60-foot long tent at Burrator. However, the fire service managed to get them out before they exploded.