Skip to main content

Kirk Douglas, In Memorium

Kirk douglas photo signed.JPG

Seventy years ago America was on the precipice of becoming a full blown police state. 
       Many lived in fear that they might be suspected of having ties to the communist party and be called in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). If this happened, they would be asked to name other people who might be categorized as subversives. If they refused, as many did, they could expect to lose their jobs and serve some time in prison.
       In 1950 Howard Fast, a novelist, was called in front of HUAC. The committee asked him to for the names of donors to an orphanage Fast had set up, an orphanage for the children of Americans who had fought with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Fast refused, and was sentenced to a few months in prison for contempt of Congress.
      After he was released, Fast wrote Spartacus, a novel about a Thracian slave who leads other slaves to revolt against Rome. It's a loosely veiled critique of HUAC. No publisher wanted anything to do with it, so Fast self published. The novel sold well, and with the contemporaneous success of the Roman epic Ben-Hur, Kirk Douglas decided to turn it into a movie.
      For the script, Douglas hired Dalton Trumbo - who, like Fast, had ties to the Communist party and who had refused to testify in front of HUAC and had spent time in prison for it. Trumbo planned to pen the script under a pseudonym, but Douglas insisted that his real name appear in the credits.
      When Spartacus was first screened in cinemas, the American Legion picketed the movie, calling it un-American. President-Elect Kennedy crossed picket lines to see Spartacus, and by publicly watching it he repudiated the blacklist. Kennedy named Spartacus his favorite film, and would go on to screen it again in the White House movie theater.
     Kirk Douglas publicly rehabilitated the careers of Howard Fast and Dalton Trumbo when doing so was unpopular. He did it because he knew it was right. 
      He went on to make many more movies that asked us to question authority, that reframed ideas of masculinity, and called for us to reject cynicism and to create a better world. Over the years, I have written several articles about his movies - in fact the very first entry I ever wrote for this blog nine years ago began with a quote of his from Paths of Glory. His work, both on and off screen, was informative for how I wanted to carry myself as a grown man. 
    He made it to 103, but Kirk is now with us no more. QEPD Spartacus, Colonel Dax, Issur Danielovitch... he'll be back, and he'll be millions.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Still Don't Like Spielberg

Sorry. Four years ago I wrote an article about my issues with Steven Spielberg, particularly taking aim at Schindler’s List and AI , mostly from the Kubrickian critique I had developed at the time. As time has passed and I have seen hundreds more films to greater contextualise the man and his work, I decided it was time for a re-evaluation of Spielberg on my part. After all, the age of the “coffee table” Hollywood drama seems to be winding down, as studios continue their unfortunate output of sequels, reboots, and superhero franchises. I sometimes pine for the days when Hollywood at least made an effort and created Oscar bait - independent films dominated awards season this year, with American Sniper being the only studio film nominated for Best Picture. So this week I watched four films I had never seen before from Spielberg’s back catalogue, in the hope of being able to soften my stance towards him. With détente declared, I watched Amistad , a film grounded in the little...
4 comments
Read more

The Actor/Director

When I was a kid I used to watch Home Movies on Adult Swim, a show about kids who try to make movies with a hand held camera. I remember the main character, who was the director, saying at one point that he was going to switch roles with his friend and become the actor, because every director wants to act, and every actor wants to direct. Hollywood keeps proving this statement true. Spike Lee regularly appears in his own movies, Tarantino has done it, Kevin Smith wrote Silent Bob for himself, David Lynch acted in Twin Peaks, Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Fritz Lang, the list goes on of directors who have appeared in their own films. Then there are those who have had full time jobs as both actors and directors, most notably Orson Welles and Clint Eastwood. Both of them can be studied in either context, and often appear in their own work. But what I’m getting to are the actors, who make it big in Hollywood, and then try their hand at directing. These films are what interest...
5 comments
Read more

After Hours

During the entire decade of the 1980’s Martin Scorsese chased after the success of his earlier years. He released Raging Bull in 1980, generally agreed upon to be one of the best films ever made, but failed to achieve another success on the same level until Goodfellas in 1990. The King of Comedy bombed hard at the box office, After Hours also failed to live up to commercial expectations, The Color of Money saw him jump into mainstream film making, and The Last Temptation of Christ barely succeeded in making back its budget, but very successfully pissed a lot of people off. It’s arguable that the most successful thing Scorsese created during the 80’s was the Michael Jackson Bad music video, although I won’t be the one making that argument. What I find most influential of this decade of work is the film After Hours. Starring Griffin Dune, the film marks the first time in over ten years a Scorsese film was not headlined by Robert De Niro. Dune, for his part, plays the part in way similar...
Post a Comment
Read more