Kirk, Michael Douglas open up in documentary

updated 6:12 p.m. ET Aug. 11, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - “I’m telling a story you’ve heard before,” Kirk Douglas announces to his son, Michael, as the younger man steps into his father’s living room.

“Tell it like it’s the first time,” Michael Douglas replies, gently teasing his 88-year-old father and co-star in a new HBO documentary detailing their careers and, with intriguing candor, their relationship.

Their style of affectionate banter is on display in “A Father, A Son: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” along with a glimpse at the push-and-pull tension between a father who has conquered an industry and a child who follows him, eager to make his own mark.

Add a rags-to-riches tale, old Hollywood glamour, beautiful wives, affairs and divorces to the mix and the result is irresistible, an intimate look at a family much scrutinized by the media but taking this chance to tell its own story.

Kirk Douglas was the more eager of the two to get involved, relishing the idea of an honest record as family heirloom. The film debuts 8 p.m. ET Saturday on HBO.

“You were a little reluctant,” he reminds his son. “But I told him, ‘We’ll have something to show the kids.”’

‘Tell the truth’
Actress-filmmaker Lee Grant, a longtime friend of Kirk Douglas and his co-star in the 1951 movie “Detective Story,” proposed the project and then captured the men and those close to them in forthright on-camera conversation.

“I think there was a longing in both of them to do a film together,” Grant said. “The film they did (2003’s “It Runs in the Family”) was not a successful one. And I think there was this unfulfilled longing for Michael to do something for Kirk, to pay him back for all the encouragement that Kirk had gone out of his way to give him.”

The actors credit Grant’s skill as a filmmaker and their trust in her as a friend with drawing them out. But she said they were ready to be frank and encouraged others taking part to do the same.

“Kirk and Michael said, ‘Say the truth. Don’t pretty it up. This is our lives. The way to give it dignity is to tell the truth,”’ Grant told The Associated Press.