Spasibo i do svidaniya...
Born Issur Danielovitch in New York 103 years ago,
to immigrants from what would be modern-day Belarus, the great, the legendary,
the extraordinary Kirk Douglas took his final bow this week. Born into
destitution, hunger and humiliation, the son of a ragman, rag and bone as we
call it, Kirk grew up with seven women, his father often absent. In a 1989
interview conducted entirely in French with the noted film critic, Christian
Defaye, he lamented this lack of a male role model in his young life. Just a
father figure to give him a pat on the back from time to time, saying ‘well
done, Son’. He gave this as the obvious reason that he was an attentive father
to his own four sons. I’m sure growing up with so many women gave him many
skills that a lot of men don’t have regarding communication and so on, but for
a son to grow up without a father is tough and ultimately despite that, or
perhaps as a result of it, Kirk defined in many ways the best that masculinity
has to offer; strength, integrity, decency and humour. So many films;
Spartacus, Gunfight at The Ok Corral, Van Gogh, The Vikings and so on.
Hollywood legend doesn’t even tell the half of it. John Wayne once apparently
wasn’t happy with him for taking on the challenging role of Van Gogh, feeling
Kirk was supposed to be a hero and not playing people like that. He said “John,
it’s a role that excites me, it interests me, we’re actors and we’re all
playing a role. I’m not Kirk Douglas, you’re not John Wayne, it’s just a role”.
They weren’t friends as such, their political views being so diametrically
opposed but they had great respect for each other. It’s true that such a part
was a brave move in career terms and it apparently almost drove him crazy such
was his dedication to being an authentic Van Gogh on-screen, but bravery seems
to define him. Bravery against the odds. As a Jew, a poor man and a foreigner –
amongst many foreigners of course – Kirk knew discrimination, hunger and
ill-treatment that modern generations couldn’t begin to even consider dealing
with. In these times of self-indulgent victimization and manipulative identity
politics, try going through what he (and countless others did) and see how you
do? Perhaps, ultimately the combination of hunger, indignity, anger and just
being an extraordinary human being - physically, intellectually, culturally and
emotionally – i.e. he had a bit of luck of his side as well, gave him that
edge.
Like all movie stars he had that
unique, indefinable presence on the screen. An intensity, a force, an energy
and a danger at times. Spartacus from 1960, perhaps his most famous role, a film his own
company produced, does have almost everything and his performance too. All of the qualities I’ve already mentioned but also tenderness;
love for his onscreen wife, the delightfully English Jean Simmons, love for his
surrogate son, Tony Curtis, love for his fellow slaves. If you haven’t seen it
in a while, watch it. It was partly the inspiration for Gladiator, which may or
may not be a reason to watch it but do watch it. Personally, I love Gladiator.
The Vikings, one of my favourites, from 1958, shot in beautiful technicolour by
the great Director of Photography, Jack Cardiff, is wonderfully old school yet still fresh, with a great
cast. When movies were purely about entertainment, well and about making money,
of course. In the excellent documentary
of his life, ‘Cameraman’ from 2010, Cardiff talks about the film and some of
the amazing experiences and challenges he had, both technically, from a
lighting perspective and personally from working with Kirk. Kirk even chose to
be interviewed for it, something he had stopped doing, such was his respect for
Jack Cardiff. I think it was mutual. ‘Cameraman’ was actually, produced by
friends of mine and I make no apologies for plugging it. And the scenes with
Kirk Douglas are amongst the most memorable, maybe because I love ‘The
Vikings’, but either way, I recommend both the film and the documentary.
I could go on, but I won’t, I’m just
going to watch more of his films, more of his interviews and read his
autobiography. Long live Spartacus.
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