Hi Anne & Arkadin,
I hope that you don't mind if I jump in here with some thoughts, since I share both of your views about Mr. D.'s career.
I know what you mean about
Kirk Douglas' capacity for overacting, but frankly, I find it highly enjoyable in some of his films, especially
The Vikings,
Spartacus and his repressed rage role in
Seven Days in May in which Kirk and his bro' acting-wise,
Burt Lancaster, are at their best together, imo. I think that
The Big Sky had some very good qualities as previously mentioned, but whenever Douglas seems to have been faced with a pretty lame script, as he did in this film, pulling out all the stops dramatically was often his response. Btw, an even more egregious example of Douglas overdoing everything may be witnessed in another frontier story,
The Indian Fighter, also from the '50s.
Some directors seemed to find a way to use his aggressive energy and intelligence and helped him to give some of his best work on film, notably in
Champion, A Letter to Three Wives, Detective Story, The Bad and the Beautiful,
Young Man With a Horn and
Ace in the Hole. Some interesting failures during his early career, in which Douglas attempted some roles that weren't truly commercial at all in nature but were worthy projects for him were
Act of Love, The Juggler, and the later, excellent movie,
Lonely Are the Brave. As I mentioned sometime ago in a thread called
Jumping the Shark, I think Douglas seems to have had two careers, one when he was a fresh young talent and his later movies, when the underlying capacity for preening self-indulgence really comes out and he became a big, honking movie star. Perhaps the biggest artistic sin that
Kirk Douglas committed was making too many movies for too long. I also don't think that he ever truly could've mastered the introspective qualities he probably needed to ever be considered as a great actor by the critical community. God knows he gave it a valiant try in
Lust for Life and came closest in
Paths of Glory, but his physicality always overruled his ability to be still and to portray a true intellectual.
Kirk Douglas, by his own admission in his autobiography,
"The Ragman's Son", was a real first class jerk for several years, perhaps in part due to his own immigrant father's lack of wherewithal and alcoholism. He acknowledged that his highly tolerant second wife and his unabashed love for his sons, as well as his awareness of the difficulty of being his offspring were often the best things about his character and life. Since then, Mr. D. has, it seems, in recent years accepted his infirmities and the loss of one of his sons to drugs with considerable grace. His candid admission of his failings and his diminished strength with age make me want to cut the guy some slack.
From what I've read, he has used his wealth to assist many charities through his active support of Unesco, and has taken a special interest in promoting the arts among the poor in the LA area, and has also returned to the faith of his forefathers after half a century of repudiating formal practice of Judaism. Also, the mother of one of my best friend's from college went to St. Lawrence with him, (where he studied on a gymnastic scholarship), and she always said that he was a delightful guy, always eager to focus his phenemonal energy on any fun or constructive project around school. All in all, I think he deserves some kudos and I've some affection and respect for the ol' hambone. We won't see his like again. And he is the last of his kind.
Kirk Douglas, looking hopelessly smug, but ready for his closeup, in the period when he adopted a not so humble opinion of himself...