"BUT what I believe in is not a threat to most of them. It's no going to happen for 300 years! I'm talking about the idea of Ralph Nader. And the idea of ending capitalism. And the idea of saving the environment. And the idea of the government admitting the truth." His voice, that energy, it's at it again.

Then why boher, you ask, if 300 years-

"Why not," Sutherland interrupts. Somewhat angrily, too. "I mean I hope it's going to get better before then. That's the point of the Peace Treaty. It's a positive platform that can get us together. It's an opportunity to gather a lot of fresh opposition to the war. It could be dynamite."

But dynamite and evolutionary change don't seem all that synonymous to you, so you let that end of the conversation drop.

You're a Canadian citizen, you say. Why not just let America go to hell?

Sutherland doesn't even understand the question. "I'm here as a visitor," he says, "but I wish I were a citizen, oh, if I were a citizen . . . ." And the energy has returned and focussed and just longs to break out. "You know, if I were a citizen, I think the whole fact of my paranoia would just work itself out.

"Just as I finished M* A* S* H, my wife was arrested [on charges involving her support of the Panthers] and now I can't go out of the country, because we have no passport. I had spinal meningitis then. My head was really freaked out. Wasn't at all together.

"THAT'S when I met Mazurky." And, at last, the conversation has reached the movie and you can just feel the press agent breathing again as he wipes away accumulated sweat in relief.

"Making Alex was the best working experience I've ever had," Sutherland continues. But then he yawns, even though you know it must be the exhaustion that is setting in. "A film is satisfying to me when its reality represents something I see in the world. Films should provide a kind of information, illumination, and avast amount of entertainment. A lot of films today are just not true.

"No, I don't think in terms of making a personal statement or any of those other ego-trips," he answers in response to your question. "But I do like to participate in films that I feel really should get made."

"You know," he confides, "I play Jesus Christ in Johnny Get Your Gun. I'd like to pursu?e that. Pontecorvo may do a film of The Passover Plot in which I would play Christ. We hope to break the barriers of religious tradition. Show Christ as a political genius. After all, politics emanates out of ourselves.

"If the government as a political enterprise ceases to represent us, it must be removed. Christ had this thing of brotherly love. That's the essence of what the radical parties are now pursuing.

"Of course, it will be difficult to make Christ real," he admits. "There's this story-it may only be apocryphal-but they say that when George Stevens was directing John Wayne as the Roman centurion in King of Kings, Wayne had this line, 'He truly is the Son of God.' After he muffed it a few times, Stevens told him to say it with awe. So, the next take, Wayne says, ' Aw, he truly is the Son of God.'" Sutherland is suddenly off on this wonderful imitation of John Wayne and all at once J you realize how much of himself the man is repressed and set aside to give his political message prominence. For, just as quickly, Sutherland's smile disappears and, again, there he is brooding, gathering up the strength to attack another issue.

And so, as you get up to leave, you try to apologize for playing devil's advocate. But Sutherland appears equally uncomfortable when confronted with your encouragement.

"Yeah, well, I believe the stuff," he says. "That's all that matters."

As you quit the suite, happily to discover the cooler air of the corridor outside, you look back to see Sutherland's six feet four inches silhouetted against the weak sun that now washes through the window. It's after five. But for a flight back home, his day is finished. And you can sympathize with his exhaustion. Because, you think, even if you consider his politics even more confused than you figure your own, at least he's doing something. And, well, maybe if one of the side effects of this war has been to make someone like Donald Sutherland more than just an actor , well then maybe, even amidst the prevailing evil, one finds planted the seedlings of our victory.