Intimate and surprisingly candid, actress-filmmaker Lee Grant's HBO documentary chronicles two generations of Hollywood success in the Douglas dynasty—89-year-old Kirk and 61-year-old Michael—who willfully cooperate (along with most of their extended families) in this revealing film (warts-and-all, even though Grant is a close family friend). Film clips spanning the length and breadth of Kirk and Michael's stellar careers are smoothly interwoven with home movies, photographs, and revealing present-day interviews. Through triumphs (including Academy Awards and international honors for political activism) and tragedies (such as the death of Kirk's youngest son, Eric, from an accidental overdose), Grant shapes the Douglas saga, from the chronic infidelities of father and son (both resulting in divorce from their first wives) to the hardship of Michael's struggle to emerge from his famous father's Hollywood shadow. Their longstanding dispute over the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (one of Kirk's pet projects, which Michael ultimately co-produced without Kirk's involvement) remains a sticky point, and Michael openly acknowledges that Kirk was not a good father in the early years. What finally emerges is a decades-long process of forgiveness and reconciliation, with father-son conversations that today glow with mutual love and respect, strengthened by Kirk's tenacious recovery from a stroke in 1996. DVD extras include an interview with Grant and bonus featurettes. Recommended. Aud: P. (J. Shannon)
A Father…A Son…Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
(2005) 95 min. DVD: $24.98. HBO Video (avail. from most distributors). Color cover. Closed captioned. ISBN: 0-7831-4063-0. Volume 21, Issue 3
A Father…A Son…Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
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