Kirk Douglas' Favorite Movie Of His Was This 1962 Western

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When Kirk Douglas died in 2020 at the age of 103 (!), he left behind a massive legacy of over 90 films that even the most stalwart cineastes haven't been able to work their way through. Known for his affable smile and intense performances, Douglas is one of Hollywood's most famous leading men, and was the industry's most profitable actor throughout the 1950s. He was also a producing powerhouse, having started his own production company, Bryna Productions, which handled some of his best-known films. Bryna backed the Stanley Kubrick movies "Paths of Glory" and "Spartacus," as well as "The Vikings," "Seconds," "Seven Days in May," and, later on, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Douglas never lost sight of the evolving nature of film, rarely resting on trends or genres. 

In 1962, Bryna also backed a neo-Western called "Lonely Are the Brave." Set in the present day, "Brave" stars Douglas as a Korean War veteran named Jack who has moved off the grid. He has no fixed address, eschews modern tech, and tries to live off the land like an old-timey cowboy. He has become disillusioned with society, and resents America's prison system. Jack deliberately gets himself imprisoned so he can help an incarcerated friend escape, but runs afoul of the law when he also escapes. A long portion of the film follows Jack while he's on the lam. One can see "Lonely are the Brave" as a precedent for Ted Kotcheff's "First Blood." Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, and Michael Caine co-star.

In 2014, Douglas spoke with the Huffington Post about his enormous career, and he said that, of all the films he was involved with, "Lonely Are the Brave" was the one he was most proud of. Douglas expressed a fondness for all the Byrna Productions, of course, but "Lonely" was the highest highlight. 

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Douglas admitted that many of his films were mere jobs, and that both he and history have discarded most of them. One cannot make over 90 movies and have them all be bangers. But Douglas loved all the films he made with Bryna, as well as a few he got to make with his family; Douglas also mentioned his 2003 film "It Runs in the Family" which he made with his son Michael, his grandson Cameron, and his first wife Diana Dill. 

More than anything, Douglas appreciated making movies with some sort of pointed social message; light fluff wasn't his bag. In the HuffPo article, Douglas talked about how "Lonely Are the Brave" hit all of his interests perfectly, and how the shoot was actually something of a challenge. The actor said: 

"As I have said, this is my favorite movie. I love the theme that if you try to be an individual, society will crush you. I play a modern-day cowboy still living by the code of the Old West. Dalton wrote a perfect screenplay — one draft, no revisions. My character gets into a bar fight with a vicious one-armed man. He was actually Burt Lancaster's stand-in, who had lost his arm in the war. It was a tough shoot in and around Albuquerque — high altitude, snow, fog and freezing rain in May! I didn't get along with the director very well; plus, he had no regard for safety." 

Dalton is, of course, Dalton Trumbo, the famously blacklisted screenwriter, attacked by the evil House Un-American Activities Committee. Throughout the late '40s and 1950s, Trumbo had to use pseudonyms to get work in Hollywood. He even had his writing credit removed from his screenplay for "Spartacus" as late as 1960. Douglas didn't care, as the HUAC was in the wrong, and Trumbo was amazingly talented.

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As Douglas mentioned, director David Miller ("Billy the Kid," "Love Happy," "Sudden Fear!") was a bit of a loose cannon. Although "Lonely Are the Brave" was Douglas' favorite movie, he still butted heads with the director, even recalling one instance wherein Miller asked Douglas to do something a little dangerous with his horse. Douglas tells the story thus: 

"When we were shooting on a narrow ledge with a steep drop, he asked me to walk around my horse on the outside. I wanted to be on the inside against the wall, because the horse instinctively would protect itself. Even after I explained, he argued with me, but I had seen too many unnecessary accidents to agree. The best relationship I had on this film was with my horse, Whisky. Of course, the horse couldn't talk back." 

And, because he had made so many Westerns, Douglas knew how to handle horses. Of course, Miller had as well, so it could have been a matter of egos clashing; Douglas wasn't known for being quiet and deferrent.  

All the films Douglas listed for the HuffPo, however, are excellent and worth checking out. He mentioned his fondness for Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole," Vincente Minnelli's "The Bad and the Beautiful" (an excellent Hollywood showbiz drama about how scoundrels break hearts as they expand the art form), and the Walt Disney production of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" wherein Douglas played Ned Land and James Mason played Captain Nemo. Douglas' filmography is, in its own way, a miniature Hollywood education in itself.