|
|
 |
Barry Norman on Kiefer Sutherland - Radio Times, December 2004 |
|
|
|
 |
|
His career has been revitalised by his portrayal of tenacious CTU agent Jack Bauer in hit series 24 - but will Kiefer Sutherland regain the celluloid success he enjoyed in the late 1980s? Barry Norman assesses his chances.
"Nobody wants to be a party pooper, and yet I can't help wondering: how long can it last? I'm thinking of Kiefer Sutherland's current lofty level of success and celebrity as star and producer of 24, the TV series in which, as Jack Bauer, he has thrice saved the world from the likes of nuclear threat, power-crazed businessmen and bio-terrorists, and by all accounts is set to do so again.
It's what happens when the series comes to an end, as it inevitably must, that prompts my question - one, I suspect, that Sutherland ponders, too.
As he has said himself, success in acting is a million-to-one shot and those odds have already come up in his favour twice. The first time was in the late 1980s when he made a good impression as a young thug in Stand by Me, played an outlaw in Young Guns, acquired temporary cult status as a punk vampire in The Lost Boys and, along with Julia Roberts, tried to discover whether there was life after death in Flatliners.
All of these did well enough at the box office for Sutherland to believe that "this is how it's going to be for the rest of my life" - a dangerous assumption to make in Hollywood as he swiftly learned. For suddenly in the 1990s everything went belly up. From co-starring, as a murderous lowlife, with Sally Fields in Eye for an Eye, he drifted in the same year to a bit part in A Time to Kill and thereafter it was all downhill.
Perhaps his reputation had something to do with his fall from favour. In the 1980s he had been part of the Hollywood Brat Pack. There were, rightly or wrongly, tales of heavy drinking and bar fights, plus a chequered love life that culminated in Julia Roberts dumping him days before their projected wedding.
So, for various reasons, he took a year out to join the rodeo circuit while he rethought his career and no doubt his life.
That done, he returned to Hollywood refreshed only to find that he was back where he had left off, making films that passed unnoticed until - the last resort for a young, fading movie star - he turned to television. And the million-to-one shot came up for him again as 24 brought him international fame and a Golden Globe.
But - and here's the crux - though he has made several pictures since then, only one, Phone Booth, was a financial hit and in that he was mostly a voice on the phone; the star was Colin Farrell.
Which returns us to my original point: can it last? Sutherland is now probably guaranteed a lengthy career in TV, but can he still seize the movie stardom that seemed his for the taking 18 years ago? The answer obviously lies in the projects he is offered and what he does with them, although of course it would do no harm at all if that million-to-one shot came up for a third time."
**
Now take a look at our full 24 guide.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Advertiser link |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| EMAIL A FRIEND |
|
| Want to share this page with a friend? It's quick and easy! |
| Email a friend |
|
|
|
|
|
