It is not very often a person has a movie star in a family, but two? What about father and son? Then there is the question of whose movie career, as prolific as they both are, has been better.
Cleft chinned Kirk Douglas oozes movie star appeal. And his son Michael is not bad looking himself. Both have had tremendous movie careers. Their longevity in the business is phenomenal and a true testament to their crafts. But whose films are better?
Here is a list of Kirk’s 5 best movies versus Michael’s best movies (according to IMDb):
Michael Douglas - The China Syndrome (1979) 7.4
China Syndrome is a hypothetical sequence of events following the meltdown of a nuclear plant and the name of this 1979 film starring a long hair and bearded Michael Douglas. Douglas plays Richard Adams, a cameraman for reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) who discovers a cover-up at a nuclear plant.
Douglas produced this film that received four Academy Award Nominations. Critics and audiences praised the film for the acting of both Douglas, Fonda, and Jack Lemmon and its riveting scenes that were reminiscent of the Three Mile nuclear incident in Pennsylvania.
Kirk Douglas - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) 7.2
In this action-adventure, Kirk Douglas plays Ned Land the master harpooner, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Professor Pierre Aronnax, and Peter Lorre as Conseil in Walt Disney’s 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea. The film directed by Richard Fleischer sparks a tale of a ship that investigates several mysterious sinkings of ships and crosses paths with the advanced submarine led by Captain Nemo.
The film was a box office hit and loved by critics. It was the winner of two Academy Awards and praised for its special effects.
Michael Douglas - Wall Street (1987) 7.4
Gordon Gekko, arguably Michael Douglas's most iconic role as a Wall Street billionaire who mentors a young Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) in the “ins and outs” of trading only to see his empire fall in the end. Wall Street is a movie that symbolizes the era of the 80s from music, to accouterments ,to the fantastic visual scenery of New York.
Douglas won the award for Best Actor and his role epitomized the quote, “greed, for the lack of a better word, is good.”
Kirk Douglas - The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) 7.8
The Bad and the Beautiful is a romance drama starring Kirk Douglas with Lana Turner as his romantic interest. Douglas plays a crooked movie producer who is caught in a web of treachery and uses Turner’s character, Georgia, along with the movie director and writer for his achievements.
Douglas received a nomination for Best ing Actor but did not win. The film won five academy awards and had an all-star cast that included Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, and Barry Sullivan.
Michael Douglas - Traffic (2000) 7.6
Robert Wakefield (Kirk Douglas), appointed by the President of the United States, has the daunting task of tackling the war on drugs. But the waters are much murkier than he had anticipated. Two DEA agents, played by Don Cheadle and Luiz Guzman, are protecting an informant, and the wife (Catherin Zeta-Jones) of the drug lord that was arrested plans on keeping the family business intact even it means killing the informant.
Traffic won both Best Director for Steven Soderbergh and Best ing Actor for Benicio del Toro.
Kirk Douglas - Spartacus (1960) 7.9
Kirk Douglas plays Spartacus a slave turned warrior who leads a brutal rebellion against the Roman Republic. It also stars Sir Lawrence Olivier as Crassus and Peter Ustinov who won Best ing Actor for his role as Batiatus.
Douglas fired the first director after the first two weeks and hired Stanley Kubrick because of their working relationship from the movie Paths of Glory three years earlier.
The film won a total of four Academy Awards and became Universal Studio's biggest box office film during that time. It was also selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Michael Douglas - Falling Down (1993) 7.6
With a crew cut, white short-sleeved shirt with pocket pens and glasses, Douglas plays William Foster (D-Fens) a man trying to get home to his daughter’s birthday who runs out of patience and fights back against the system of injustice, vigilante-style. Robert Duvall plays LA police sergeant Pendergast, an aging cop who is trying to track and stop Foster on his retirement day.
Falling Down was the number one box office movie in the United States for two consecutive weeks and critics praised Douglas' acting although the reviews of the movie were mixed.
Kirk Douglas - Out of the Past (1947) 8
Starring alongside Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas plays Whit Sterling in Out of the Past. The film centers around Mitchum’s character Jeff who is a private detective trying to escape his past in a small town, but his past eventually catches up with him and he must return to the big city to face the demons he left behind. Douglas plays Whit Sterling a mobster from Jeff’s pasts who hired him to find Kathie Moffatt (Jane Greer).
In 1991 this film was added to the United States Film Registry because of its historical and cultural significance.
Michael Douglas - The Game (1997) 7.8
The Game starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn as his brother Conrad, and Deborah Kara Unger is about a wealthy banker who seems to have everything playing a deadly game of cat of mouse and to his dismay, he figures out that he is not the cat, but the mouse.
Critics liked the movie and praised Douglas’s performance stating that he ran through the gamut of emotions showcasing the versatility of his acting. But unfortunately, the box office reception showed little enthusiasm for the film.
Kirk Douglas - Paths of Glory (1957) 8.4
Set during World War I, Kirk Douglas plays the commanding officer of French soldiers, Colonel Dax. The colonel is charged for his lack of courage to face danger in a court-martial trial because he refuses to lead his soldiers into a suicide mission.
Although critically acclaimed, Stanley Kubrick’s film was not a box office success. But because of its cultural and historical relevance, it was preserved in the United States Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1992.
