Donald Sutherland’s portrayal of Oddball in 1970’s Kelly’s Heroes is one of my all-time favorite performances. His character was straightforward and never pretentious about his role as a tank commander in the best war heist movie: “I only ride ’em, I don’t know what makes ’em work.” But his Dude-like abiding had its limits when money was involved: “We see our role as essentially defensive in nature. While our armies are advancing so fast and everyone’s knocking themselves out to be heroes, we are holding ourselves in reserve in case the Krauts mount a counteroffensive which threatens Paris… or maybe even New York. Then we can move in and stop them. But for 1.6 million dollars, we could become heroes for three days.” He played up to people’s expectations when they framed him as crazy: “Woof, woof, woof! That’s my other dog imitation.” Nevertheless, he was almost always upbeat, especially when he was backed by someone putting it on the line, too: “Crazy! I mean like so many positive waves maybe we can’t lose! You’re on!”
