Anti-hero as icon

Kirk Douglas (1916-2020), one of the unlikeliest superstars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, opened up new creative possibilities for lead actors with his choice of roles and his craft.

- SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

THE scene is a boxing arena and the crowd wildly cheers the entry of Midge Kelly, the defending middleweight champion. Confident, smiling and basking in his popularity, Midge Kelly enters the ring. But his handsome face, with its set jaws, dimpled chin and ruthless eyes, in a close-up seems to be concealing some dark secrets that are apparently tearing apart the champion from inside.

Champion (1949) is about the story of a man’s moral descent as he ascends to the top of his field, pitilessly discarding those who had helped him on his way. The role of Midge Kelly, played by Kirk Douglas, created one of the first anti-heroes in Hollywood. At a time when the success and popularity of an actor were believed to depend on his screen image, Kirk was among the first to break away from the mould. In another scene from Champion, when the girl whom Kelly used to facilitate his quick success threatens to expose him, he grips her hand, and even as the girl winces in pain, breaks into a slow cruel smile and, gently massaging her hurt hand, tells her in a low, even voice that he will put her in the hospital “for a long, long time”. The champion gently taps her on the chin with his deadly fist before casually walking out of the room.

The unstated violence in that scene, particularly when seen in contrast with the earlier portrayal of the protagonist as a happy-go-lucky, lovable hobo, is horrifying. Champion earned Kirk the first of his three Academy Award nominations and catapulted him to stardom.

Kirk was one of the biggest and unlikeliest superstars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, when glamour ruled supreme and stars dazzled as never before and never since from the silver screen. With his death on February 5, at the age of 103, the world of cinema lost the last great link to that “golden” period.