Kirk Douglas was one of my favorite actors. He could play any role (except a wimp) and did not mind playing characters that were dislikeable, unlike John Wayne. I read once that Wayne told him not to play Van Gogh in "Lust for Life", but Douglas was willing to take controversial roles. He made a lot of war movies and war movie lovers from my generation have probably seen most, if not all of them. Here is the list:
The Heroes of Telemark
Is Paris Burning?
Victory at Entebbe
The Final Countdown
He was more than just an actor. He made important movies. "Paths of Glory" was a movie he insisted on making. His stint in the Navy in WWII on an anti-submarine warfare vessel made him aware of the horrors of war. Although he volunteered after Pearl Harbor, he did not hate the Japanese and could empathize with crewmen of subs that might undergo a depth charging from his ship. This influenced him making one of the greatest anti-war movies of all time. When Kubrick wanted an upbeat ending, Douglas insisted on sticking with the firing squad.
But my favorite of his movies is "Spartacus". I showed it so many times in my Western Civ class that I have the dialogue memorized. It is an almost perfect movie and he was the main reason for that, not Kubrick. But more than perfect entertainment, it is a historically significant film because he insisted the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo be given screenwriting credit. This was a gutsy career move and helped drive a stake into McCarthyism. Watch the movie "Trumbo" to get a better appreciation for Douglas.
We will not see another actor like him.
The
Final Countdown (1980)
"The Final Countdown" was Douglas' last war film. It is a alternative history science fiction film that also falls
in the war movie genre. Originally, it
was entitled “The Last Countdown” and used the Bermuda Triangle to transport
the aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean before the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand which started WWI. When
producer Peter Douglas (Kirk’s son) got his hands on the screenplay, he changed
it to Pearl Harbor. He hired Don Taylor
to direct. Taylor is familiar to war
movie fans more for his acting in films like “Stalag 17” where he plays
Dunbar. Douglas got full cooperation
from the Navy which saw the movie as a recruiting booster. It allowed Douglas to spend two months on the
USS Nimitz. 48 members of the crew got
acting credits for the film and some had speaking roles. The Navy had no problems with the script and
was pleased with the finished product.
The three Zeros were supplied by the Commemorative Air Force (originally
called the Confederate Air Force). These
were replicas adapted from AT-6 Texans and they had previously been seen in
“Tora! Tora! Tora!” The climactic scene
showing the attack on Pearl Harbor was footage from that earlier film. The rock band Europe was inspired to write
its hit song because it liked the title.
The
movie is set in 1980…at first. The USS
Nimitz is at Pearl Harbor when a civilian observer named Lasky (Martin Sheen)
comes aboard to inspect the ship for his employer who designed it. He must be bad luck because soon after his
arrival the carrier goes through a vortex.
The special effects are cheesy, but satisfactory. Capt. Yelland (Kirk Douglas) calls for
general quarters so the viewing public can see how efficiently run a modern
carrier is. Something is hinky as the
carrier has lost communications with its escort ships. And it is picking up “The Jack Benny Show”. After a bit of head-scratching, Yelland
realizes the date is December 6, 1941.
He now has a decision to make.
Should he change the course of history by destroying the Japanese
fleet? It’s a bit more consequential
than Marty McFly sleeping with his mother.
If you are going to make a time travel movie
involving an aircraft carrier and Pearl Harbor, you need to make it more fun
than this movie. “The Final Countdown”
is too serious, and yet it does not get serious about the implications of
defeating the attack. Yelland does not host
a discussion of the consequences. And
then we don’t get to see if he was right.
The movie’s payoff is a bit lame and proves that the plot existed mainly
to reveal who Lasky’s mysterious boss is.
It’s not worth the wait. The
movie is focused on showing off the ship and setting up the twist ending. To bring drama to the ship a foghornish
Senator (Charles Durning), his curvaceous secretary (Katherine Ross), and a
Zero pilot are brought aboard. The
acting is as wooden as a WWII carrier deck.
Not Douglas, of course, because
he is his usual reliable self. The
character would have been better as a Halsey instead of a Spruance. The best
actor is the USS Nimitz. It’s an awesome
ship and is run efficiently. We see a
lot of procedures including takeoffs and landings. Unfortunately, the Navy did not insist on a
blaring rock soundtrack to goose recruitment.
Instead, the movie relies on patriotic pablum. There’s a lot to be proud of if you are an
American. You certainly would not have
to worry if the Japanese fleet of 1941 were to attack Pearl Harbor again.
To
write this review, I went to the excellent Guts and Glory by Lawrence
Suid to see how much military cooperation the film got. Some of our best war movies had a lot of
trouble getting the Pentagon to help by giving free or cheap use of weapons,
facilities, and personnel. Cooperation
always comes with vetting of the script.
The Pentagon wants a positive portrayal in exchange for the
goodies. Often it will demand changes in
the script. These changes usually dilute
the entertainment potential of the film so sometimes the filmmaker revolts and
goes without cooperation. It is telling
that the script for “The Final Countdown” raised no red flags from the
Navy. This might explain why the
finished product is not as gonzo as the premise. In fact, the movie would have been more
entertaining if it were made by the Scyfy Channel without Navy cooperation.
GRADE = C
103 is a great age.
ReplyDeleteFor me the greatest pleasure of "The Final Countdown" is watching the reactions of people from the '40s to technology from the '80s. It is like "Back to the Future" in that regard, but with military props. (In so doing it also gets to answer the hypothetical question, "how do weapons of one era stack up against weapons of another?").
ReplyDeleteThe Final Countdown is similar to the Japanese anime Zipang which featured the Japanese crew of a JDF ship somehow sail back in time to the Battle of Midway. Whereas Kirk Douglas' character in the Final Countdown has no qualms about joining the World War II US forces to change history (and is prevented from doing so by the temporal anomaly taking the ship back to its own time), the crew of Mirai doesn't consider it obvious that they should join the Japanese side. They are aware that it is a country run by militarists with a mindset very different from theirs. As the Japanese from the present era, they are not at war with the United States. They know that the present day Japan has been built on the defeat of the imperialistic Japan of World War II era. Yet, they are conflicted over their sentiment as Japanese, knowing that millions of their countrymen would die in course of the war.
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend Zipang; it's better the final countdown.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Delete