Ulysses (1954)

AKA: Ulisse

Kirk Douglas stars as Ulysses, king of Ithaca. Punished by the gods for his role in the Trojan War, he is sentenced to wander the seas, continually knocked off-course and deprived of his memory. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope hangs on to hope that he's still alive, whilst fending off a league of suitors at home. This Italian-American co-production is a serviceable, condensed version of Homer that hits on many of the highlights, including the cyclops Polyphemus.

You know what I miss? The '50s version of buff, which still seemed attainable.

3 Trojan horses out of 5

Paths of Glory (1957)

Stanley Kubrick's powerful anti-war film takes place in France, 1916. To the military higher-ups the lives of men in the trenches mean less to them than their own career. To Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), an officer and liaison between the two parties, the lives of his men are everything. When an order is given for the soldiers to traverse a no mans land for a suicidal attack on the enemy, Dax is forced to pick sides at the expense of his own career.
The contrast between cowardly desk-sitters and men with boots in mud and blood is both shown and felt, thanks to Kubrick's dynamic composition. When later those same cowards hide truths behind formal language, ascribing notions of innocence and guilt to subjectivity (affected, it seems, by rank) we can choose to experience the struggle as onlooker or sympathiser, but an unwavering performance by Kirk makes it feel uncompromisingly real.

4 battle lines out of 5

Saturn 3 (1980)

Not the third part of a trilogy, the film's title refers to an orbiting space station within which the majority of the story takes place; positioned near Saturn's third moon, its role is to provide food research for an overcrowded Earth.
Sitting pretty in the isolation is old man Adam (Kirk Douglas) and his three-decades younger lover Alex (Farrah Fawcett). Adam's dirty old man utopia is threatened when a visitor from Earth (Harvey Keitel) arrives, bringing with him a robotic device that could make the existing duo's role obsolete.
The darkly lit corridors and believable space suits are great, but I won't pretend for a second that it's a good film. It's pretty terrible, especially the acting of all three stars, but for some reason I'm still able to enjoy it. As such, the scoring below is very much on the generous side.

2½ direct inputs out of 5

Spartacus (1960)

A slave trained by Roman oppressors to fight to the death as a gladiator in their barbaric games takes his fate into his own hands. Spartacus, the slave in question, applies what he learned in the arena to a cause greater than himself. His words and deeds give voice to the feeling in all slaves' hearts.
It certainly deserves its many accolades, but I have reservations when it comes to scoring. Being wholly subjective, many of the relationships point toward something greater than they themselves deliver upon. It's almost as if the message overpowers some of the emotions, whereas in a perfect world they would've been equals. If the film didn't repeatedly push my thoughts in that direction, then I'd no doubt be awed by it completely, but something ingrained in either it or me keeps me from giving it the full 5 stars.

4 stand up guys out of 5

The Fury (1978)

Following the perfection of Carrie (1976) with another story about powers of the mind was perhaps a questionable idea, but that’s what De Palma did. He brought Amy Irving back for more, too, placing her on a different side of the fence. Many of the stylistic turns you associate with him are in place alongside a few fascinating new ones (that spectacular scene on the stairs!).
The parent/child relationship that’s much more than surface deep is also one of best friends between the characters played by Kirk Douglas and Andrew Stevens. Douglas’ motivations stay resolute as he moves from busy beach to busy street, doing his best to avoid detection by a secret government agency. It's a fine 70s thriller, but there's a small handful of scenes that border on superfluous or could've been more tightly wound to better effect.

3½ bleeders out of 5