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

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

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

South Africa: A Study of History and Film

                                   For a long time now I have had a fascination with South Africa. I cannot say if it is through knowing South Africans, through taking two college courses that focused on South Africa, or just a natural interest aroused by the idiosyncratic nature of the country. The parallels between South Africa and America are well documented – as Robert Kennedy said in 1968, both can be described as a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which once imported slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of th...
1 comment
Read more