Douglas was also later given the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award and honored by the Writers Guild of America for his blacklist-breaking action. Douglas later stated, "I think one of the most important things in my career was the breaking of the blacklist." Others clearly agreed, like the American Civil Liberties Union, which honored Douglas with a Bill of Rights Award for his "courage and conviction" in the matter. Variety explains that the actor went against the blacklist by demanding that "Dalton Trumbo (one of the Hollywood 10) be credited for his screenplay on the film Spartacus." According to Encyclopedia Britannica, The Hollywood 10 was a group that was jailed after resisting questioning by Congress about their alleged communist ties. It wiped out lives."ĭouglas decided to fight back. People committed suicide, people died, people suffered. I don't think we have ever had a period so dark as that.
KIRK DOUGLAS SPARTACUS MOVIE
It was the most onerous period in movie history. He added, "People couldn't work if they were on the blacklist. Speaking with The JC, Douglas said "the writers" were particular targets. and soon after I was on my way to Hollywood with a meaty role." What are friends for if not to launch you on the path to Hollywood stardom? Bacall mentioned to Wallis that he should catch Douglas' performance. "Shortly after the play opened, Betty attended a cocktail party for the famous producer Hal Wallis," Douglas wrote. After he nabbed the lead in a theater production, his friend made sure to talk him up to an industry connection. That sort of unassuming kindness was one of her most endearing characteristics."īacall even helped Douglas land his first significant film role. She didn't say anything, but she talked her uncle into giving me one of his two thick coats.
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That winter, Betty saw me shivering in my thin overcoat. "I was on my own in New York with meager funds. We were both studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts," Douglas wrote in a piece for The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. I'ts Kubrick's goodbye to Hollywood and like everything else that the master said or do, he really meant it."I met Betty when she was 17 and I was 24. As a final blow, the scene is enveloped in a sticky, corny music theme. But the cutesy love scene between her and a shiny muscular, coiffed Spartacus is truly terrible. Jean Simmons makes the reason to survive totally believable. The slave Spartacus survives brutal training as. Laurence Olivier manages to give a multifaceted portrait of weakness, fear and greed. With Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton. To be fair, there are some spot on, brilliant pieces of casting. A campy idea never seen in a Kubrick film, before or since. In "Spartacus" Tony Curtis, plays Antoninus, a teacher of the classics.
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He used the star and his wife to talk about the dreamlike powers of betrayal. Even the casting of Tom Cruise made a lot of sense. When he needed actors to be at the very pinnacle of his universe he went to Peter Sellers, Malcolm McDowell or James Mason. The same can be said of Keir Dullea, in 2001, a robotic non entity in a showdown with a voice. He would cast a Ryan O'Neil as Barry Lyndon for instance so he can blend perfectly with the magnificent tapestry, without adding any colours of his own. The casting of his movies was part of his master plan. The cast is unbelievable but it's clearly not Kubrick's. It is sad an embarrassing to realise how low we've fallen. Look at the fight between Douglas and Woody Strode and compare it to the ones in "Troy" or "Gladiator" for that matter. Some fight sequences unequalled in the history of film. A terrific script by black listed Dalton Trumbo. "Spartacus" is more Douglas than Kubrick.
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One of the worlds most iconic movie stars, Kirk Douglas has distinguished himself as a producer, philanthropist, and author of ten works of fiction and memoir. By the time Douglas called Kubrick to "take over" "Spartacus" Douglas was already a huge star with too much saying in the matter. From Kirk Douglas, Hollywood royalty and bestselling author of The Ragman’s Son and My Stroke of Luck, comes the candid story of the making of Spartacus, the blockbuster film that broke the blacklist. I mean, Kubrick never returned, never! With "Paths of Glory" Kubrick gave Kirk Douglas, not just his best part as an actor, but his best movie. I don't believe for a minute that it was a cordial parting of the ways. I would have liked to be a fly on the wall.