RIP Charlton Heston

[Jeemie]

According to the "Breaking News" banner on msnbc.com

Now there's a LINK.

[Ritterskoop]

Roomie says now they can finally get that gun.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

He was a wonderful actor.

[Jeemie]

Roomie says now they can finally get that gun.

I have to admit that was the first thought that crossed my mind, but didn't say it.

[AlphaDummy]

I have to admit that was the first thought that crossed my mind, but didn't say it.

My first thought upon seeing this was a quote from Nietzsche.

[SportsFan68]

My first thought was a series of images of Moses -- "let my people go!"

[ulysses5019]

And this is the quote I thought of......

"Soylent Green is people!" Ooops, my bad. I gave away the plot of the movie.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

And this is the quote I thought of......

"Soylent Green is people!" Ooops, my bad. I gave away the plot of the movie.

Gee thanks.

[silverscreenselect]

The thing that surprised me about Heston over the years was how willing he was to poke fun at his own image. He had a very good sense of humor and although he was serious about his political beliefs, he never took himself too seriously.

People are split about Heston's overall acting ability but really, since the Ten Commandments, he always had to deal with the image of himself as larger-than-life God-like hero that the public approached every film with. He and his directors were really forced into playing his roles the same way. Frankly, there are a lot of movies of his where his portrayal was just on the edge of parody, and it would have been so easy to completely camp it up but he avoided turning the roles and the films into complete jokes.

After Will Smith's I am Legend came out, I watched the DVD of The Omega Man (Heston's version of the film) again and he is perfect in the role, somewhat of a camp film but never outright silliness.

If you look at him in some of his less showy roles, he does show some real acting talent. Will Penny is a terrific, underrated Western in which Heston plays a very un-Heston like role. He was just rarely offered such roles because everyone wanted Heston the icon instead of Heston the actor.

Regardless, his passing marks the near end of the era of the larger than life Hollywood star. Kirk Douglas is about the only remaining survivor of that generation (I don't consider Paul Newman the same type of actor, he always played against the star image). None of today's stars project anywhere near the same screen image that Heston, Douglas, Wayne, Stewart, Bogart and the rest of them did.

[earendel]

Roomie says now they can finally get that gun.

That was my first thought as well - now they can pry that gun out of his cold dead fingers.

[Sir_Galahad]

His passing marks the end of an era. I can't think of anyone today who would have the screen presence to be able to play Moses, El Cid, Ben Hur or Michelangelo - nevermind all four. Can you image Brad Pitt or Viggo Mortensen or Val Kilmer in those roles. All good actors to be sure but nowhere the stature of Heston.

[nitrah55]

Orson Welles said that Heston was the nicest actor he'd ever worked with.

Heston did poke fun at himself- I particularly that mock-portentious voiceover he did at the beginning of Disney's Hercules, which ended with him saying, "You go girl," to the chorus.

A few years ago, I stumbled over a story about Heston being asked to support a boycott of Jane Fonda's films. According to the story, he refused, because he thought that an artist's work should be respected separate and apart from the artist's politics. I have not been able today to confirm that story, but I like to think it's true.

You might disagree with Heston, but no one could part a sea like him.

[Deaf Mini]

My first thought was, once again, "He was still alive?" They need to keep a DORA list on the front page of the paper for people like me!



You know--the clueless ones.....

[1OfLBsMerryMen]

My first thought was, once again, "He was still alive?" They need to keep a DORA list on the front page of the paper for people like me!



You know--the clueless ones.....

I had an MM from way back on the Love Boat called the_REAL_Charlton_Heston, one of my few throwaway MM's that I don't think I ever used again. I can't even remember what I was responding to when I created it....

[silverscreenselect]

His passing marks the end of an era. I can't think of anyone today who would have the screen presence to be able to play Moses, El Cid, Ben Hur or Michelangelo - nevermind all four. Can you image Brad Pitt or Viggo Mortensen or Val Kilmer in those roles. All good actors to be sure but nowhere the stature of Heston.

Brad Pitt played Achilles a couple of years ago in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy. Neither his performance nor the film was a smashing success, although, to be fair, the movie plays better in the longer director's cut on DVD than the theatrical version the studio eventually put out there.

The only actor now who comes close to Heston's stature in this type of role is Russell Crowe. If Gladiator had been made in 1960 instead of 2000, Heston would have been a natural. However, Crowe hasn't been able to translate his command for that type of role into any sort of box office success. Master and Commander and Cinderella Man were two perfect roles for him that should have done much better at the box office than they did.

[Sir_Galahad]

His passing marks the end of an era. I can't think of anyone today who would have the screen presence to be able to play Moses, El Cid, Ben Hur or Michelangelo - nevermind all four. Can you image Brad Pitt or Viggo Mortensen or Val Kilmer in those roles. All good actors to be sure but nowhere the stature of Heston.

Brad Pitt played Achilles a couple of years ago in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy. Neither his performance nor the film was a smashing success, although, to be fair, the movie plays better in the longer director's cut on DVD than the theatrical version the studio eventually put out there.

The only actor now who comes close to Heston's stature in this type of role is Russell Crowe. If Gladiator had been made in 1960 instead of 2000, Heston would have been a natural. However, Crowe hasn't been able to translate his command for that type of role into any sort of box office success. Master and Commander and Cinderella Man were two perfect roles for him that should have done much better at the box office than they did.

I liked Cinderella Man but was bored with Master and Commander. I liked Gladiator as well but thought this was role that would have more been suited to Kirk Douglas or even a Victor Mature (who did play such roles in The Robe and Demetrius and the Gladiators) than Charlton Heston if it had been made years ago.

[NellyLunatic1980]

I've had Heston on my Ghoul Pool lists for years. My description of him has always been "Bad actor, gun nut". (But to his credit, I did like his performance in "Soylent Green", which otherwise would have been just a cheesy sci-fi movie.) So what if he won an Oscar for "Ben Hur". Any actor would've won it for that role. Hell, even Jim Nabors would've won the Oscar if he had played that role. And he never would've had to play Gomer Pyle.

I've known for about 10 years that Chuck has been suffering from Alzheimer's. That was around the time that he stood before some right-wing clusterf**k and denounced gays, man-hating feminists, Latinos, and Blacks, whose mission he claimed was to subvert American values. David Duke was so choked up by that speech that he put it on his website.

I was never exactly sure why he was upset over "teh gay", especially when you consider that 1) he played obviously-gay artist Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and 2) Gore Vidal co-wrote the screenplay of "Ben Hur". Even the character Ben Hur himself supposedly had a gay relationship in his teenage years, if you look into that movie hard enough.

That's all I have to say. I don't want to go into the gun thing.

[silverscreenselect]

I've had Heston on my Ghoul Pool lists for years. My description of him has always been "Bad actor, gun nut". (But to his credit, I did like his performance in "Soylent Green", which otherwise would have been just a cheesy sci-fi movie.) So what if he won an Oscar for "Ben Hur". Any actor would've won it for that role. Hell, even Jim Nabors would've won the Oscar if he had played that role. And he never would've had to play Gomer Pyle.

I think that Heston was a better actor than he's given credit for, again, based on his performance in the smaller films when he wasn't playing Heston. Unfortunately, a lot of producers and directors didn't want Heston to play the character he was portraying, they wanted him to play Moses or Ben Hur. So if he was a pilot in Airport 1975, somehow his mere casting would elevate the role and the film. That led to a number of "stiff" performances and roles (and films) that sometimes bordered on camp. Again, I don't think it was Heston's fault as much as how he was directed in the roles.

If you want a better look at the man as actor rather than icon, I think Will Penny is perhaps his best work. The Mountain Men with Brian Keith is good too, in part because Heston's son wrote the screenplay and was able to cast him as more of a folksy rascal than the typical epic hero.

One of my favorites is The Big Country with Gregory Peck. Heston deliberately took a smaller, less glamorous role, not an out-and-out villain but not a guy who instinctively does the right thing either, the sort of role that was more usually played by Stephen Boyd types. The scene in which he and Peck have a long, drawn out fistfight (which was parodied in the current Leatherheads) is a classic bit of cinematography.

[tanstaafl2]

I've had Heston on my Ghoul Pool lists for years. My description of him has always been "Bad actor, gun nut". (But to his credit, I did like his performance in "Soylent Green", which otherwise would have been just a cheesy sci-fi movie.) So what if he won an Oscar for "Ben Hur". Any actor would've won it for that role. Hell, even Jim Nabors would've won the Oscar if he had played that role. And he never would've had to play Gomer Pyle.

I've known for about 10 years that Chuck has been suffering from Alzheimer's. That was around the time that he stood before some right-wing clusterf**k and denounced gays, man-hating feminists, Latinos, and Blacks, whose mission he claimed was to subvert American values. David Duke was so choked up by that speech that he put it on his website.

I was never exactly sure why he was upset over "teh gay", especially when you consider that 1) he played obviously-gay artist Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and 2) Gore Vidal co-wrote the screenplay of "Ben Hur". Even the character Ben Hur himself supposedly had a gay relationship in his teenage years, if you look into that movie hard enough.

That's all I have to say. I don't want to go into the gun thing.

Sounds like a bit of revisionst history on your part. So it would appear you aren't part of the right-wing clusterf**k. It would appear instead perhaps that you are part of the left-wing clusterf**k? In any case neither opinion is necessarily right and neither opinion is necessarily wrong. It is just that, opinion. Heston was entitled to his as much as you are entitled to yours.

But did he really denounce gays, man-hating feminists, Latinos, and Blacks as you so adamantly claim? I suspect the speech that you refer to was his Keynote Address at the Free Congress Foundation, a bastion of the right-wing clusterf**k, in 1997. So I think it not unreasonable to let everyone have an opportunity to read it for themselves if they choose and decide.

http://rexdarteskimospy.blogspot.com/20 ... -2008.html

Sections of note:
The gay and lesbian movement is another good example. Many homosexuals are hugely talented artists and executives... also dear friends. I don't despise their lifestyle, though I don't share it. As long as gay and lesbian Americans are as productive, law-abiding and private as the rest of us, I think America owes them absolute tolerance. It's the right thing to do.

On the other hand, I find my blood pressure rising when Clinton's cultural shock troops participate in gay-rights fundraisers but boycott gun-rights fundraisers... and then claim it's time to place homosexual men in tents with Boy Scouts, and suggest that sperm donor babies born into lesbian relationships are somehow better served and more loved.

Yep, really slamming the gays. Or this:

The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of wise old dead white guys who invented our country. Now some flinch when I say that. Why? It's true... they were white guys. So were most of the guys that died in Lincoln's name opposing slavery in the 1860s. So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is "Hispanic pride" or "black pride" a good thing, while "white pride" conjures shaved heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule? I'll tell you why: Cultural warfare.

Hmm, yes he really slams the Latino and Black population.

Oh wait, the whole subject of the speech is his opinion that the Clinton administration and the Democratic party by extension were giving favor to one perspective over another for essentially the sole purpose of pandering to the side they perceive will give them the best chance of getting elected. Sounds like business as usual in the world of politics. On both sides.

Such demands have nothing to do with equality. They're about the currency of cultural war - money and votes - and the Clinton camp will let anyone in the tent if there's a donkey on the hat, a check in the mail or some yen in the fortune cookie.

Is there in fact a cultural war going on in this country? That is one thing that would appear to be an absolute certainty. I need only to read this bored to see that!

Another website notes:
A critic writing an anti-Heston op-ed newspaper piece wrote, "(Heston) denounced the 'fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition' and railed against 'men-hating feminists,' Latinos and blacks who are out to subvert public values.

"What's worse," continues the critic, "David Duke -- on his website -- gave the speech a featured spot, and Duke urged Heston's words be 'put in the hands of every American."

Note the adroit playing of the David Duke card. David Duke did place excerpts of Heston's speech on his website. But neither the anti-Heston critic nor David Duke's website quoted portions of Heston's speech that failed to suit its purposes.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder070998.html

Well now, that rather sounds like the course of your post as well. Cite and interpret what suits you but lets not be bothered with the full context. Perhaps you took your opinion from the critic who was already shaping it to suit your own perspective (and no doubt part of our non-biased, non-liberal main stream media) without bothering to read the speech itself?

I think much of what Heston says here is hyperbole and a clear dislike for the Clinton administration who he certainly felt were seeking to subvert his personal values, which, as both sides are want to do, he associated with his perception of "American values". Some of his opinion I share to a degree and many I don't.

But did he provide a blanket opinion that denounced gays, man-hating feminists, Latinos, and Blacks as having a mission to subvert American values? I don't think so. That he was one of the first celebrities out front in the 60's publically supporting equal rights for all seems to suggest otherwise.

Ok, maybe the man hating feminists just a little bit. But that seems reasonable...

[VAdame]

Gotta admit, my first thought was also "Hey, we can get his gun now!"

My sister thought, "Oh, now he can be Soylent Green!" (Cause it's made of people! It's PEOPLE!)

My brother is just glad Mr. Heston is in a place where the d@mn dirty apes can't get their stinkin' paws on him!

And one of my coworkers is just having a great time imagining the first meeting in Heaven between Chuck & the real Moses!

[ne1410s]

People are split about Heston's overall acting ability but really, since the Ten Commandments, he always had to deal with the image of himself as larger-than-life God-like hero that the public approached every film with.

My mom said that Warner Baxter's career was ruined when he played Jesus. Couldn't shake the image. Christopher Reeve was always Superman to me no matter the part he played. Not fair.

[VAdame]

And Shortpacked Comics actually went there:

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20080406.html

[Spock]

I read his autobiography "In the Arena" in about 1996.

That is the first book I had ever read about stars/movies and movie-making so I learned a tremendous amount from it.

That reading alone helped a lot when watching J! and WWTBAM.

I have read others since-but the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty quickly.

[SportsFan68]

"Major Dundee" is airing on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow night, but even if I got TCM, the women's basketball finals wouldn't be over.

I was amazed the first time I saw it -- couldn't believe it was Charlton Heston. I remember a character slowly unraveling, with Richard Harris and Jim Hutton propping him up. Maybe that's not the way it was. I'd like to see it again now that I'm older.

[silverscreenselect]

"Major Dundee" is airing on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow night, but even if I got TCM, the women's basketball finals wouldn't be over.

Major Dundee is a fascinating study in film making if nothing else. As has been noted in Heston's obituary, he was unable to participate in some of the rallies in support of the Civil Rights Act because of his commitment to making this film, which was Sam Peckinpah's first major work. Unfortunately, the picture was taken from Peckinpah and edited by about fifteen minutes.

The restored version is available on DVD. It's fairly easy to tell which is which. If there's a song sung by Mitch Miller and the Boys over the opening credits, that's the theatrical version. The studio ordered that bit of silliness to make the movie more marketable, and the DVD cuts it out.

The longer version is not Peckinpah's original cut, some of which footage is lost forever, but it is a more complete drama and fills out Heston's character considerably. Heston tried to use what clout he had to let Peckinpah finish the film the way he wanted, but eventually the studio pulled the plug on a movie that went way over budget, was considered too violent for the time, and never had a finished screenplay.

The film is a perfect example of Heston's status as larger-than-life icon. Ironically, that's what the role called for. Dundee the character has a larger-than-life reputation that doesn't square with the way the actual man acts, as his troops eventually find out to their dismay. Heston is perfectly cast in the role. Dundee is a flawed anti-hero who uses the film's mission (to rescue some children who have been abducted by Apaches and taken to Mexico) as a chance to square himself with the army who has reduced him to a jailer in the middle of nowhere and restore his reputation, but his character flaws keep getting in the way. He isn't a good man and leader who's in a bad spot because things happened to him; he's an SOB who wound up where he was because he was such an arrogant jerk and, given a second chance, repeats many of the same mistakes all over again.

Needless to say, this was not what the studio wanted to see in a Charlton Heston western, and because of the budget and script problems, the film was taken away from Peckinpah and the theatrical version has a very confusing last third, sacrificing continuity in an attempt to make it a more straightforward Western.

Pecknpah's original version of the movie is gone forever (about 40 minutes longer than the theatrical version) but about 15 of that was restored for the DVD and it is somewhat of an improvement, a more interesting character study. This was one of Heston's most complex characters and it's easy to see why he would be attracted to a film that might have let him break the Moses mold if it had been completed as intended and been successful. From what I've gathered however, without someone to finish the script off as it should have been, it never would have fully worked. The best way to describe it is that the theatrical version was a mis-marketed occasionally successful attempt at a traditional Western, the DVD version is about 60% of a character study of a dislikable opportunistic anti-hero and Peckinpah's original version would probably have been about 80% of a masterpiece.

The movie is best seen for showing hints of how Peckinpah was able to learn from his experiences and use them to create his unquestioned masterpiece, The Wild Bunch.