Charlton Heston, not a very good actor but in his way a great one, has died. To me, Planet of the Apes is vital, though your mileage may vary. His political trajectory was a little silly, but also in a very fitting way utterly typical of the larger trajectory of American history. His death, we hope, comes at a time when the great backlash of which he was a part is finally receding. Rest in peace.
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Charlton Heston
06 Apr 2008 12:59 pm
Comments (79)
This post has a stray italics tag. It is affecting all the posts below it. You may want to close it.
I'm curious to see if "El Cid" will still be posting here.
Take your stinking italics tag off here, you darn, D.C. blogger.
Oh god. I'm not sure which I hate more: the blogging software or your inability to close your damn tag.
Sometimes starting a comment with and end italics tag works. Let's try. By the way, this kind of mistake wouldn't get past Blogger.
Anyway, the real question of the day: did anybody manage to pry the gun out of his cold, dead hands?
I'm sure all the celebrity death pool people are going nuts considering he was the top choice for most pools - http://www.deathlist.net/
It's hard to believe Kirk Douglas is still alive. Then again, after looking at this picture, I'm not quite sure he qualifies as actually living:
http://www.sbfilmfestival.org/blog/uploaded_images/103c_M-Berl-p-737680.jpg
italics off?
Nope, tried that already, Mr Help.
You fucking suck at HTML. DIDN'T THEY TEACH YOU THAT AT HARVARD?!?!
/Petey
That's what you get for using the "em" tage instead of the "i" tag for italics.
Matt, please, this post has been up for more than half an hour. If you can't be bothered to read your own weblog, why should we?
Maybe this will turn italics off.
Did it work?
Say what you will about his politics - but Heston was better as Marc Antony than Brando.
Soylent Green was vital too. The italics issue is not.
Oh my god! Those italics! I mean, the letters - they're slanted! How can this be? I can't even tell what you're saying! Oh, the humanity!
I liked that Touch of Evil flick, the building on fire one too.
(He was in Earthquake Linus not the Towering Inferno.)
That's too bad because the Inferno was better.
(What about the Ape one Linus? What about that type?)
Everyone loves a good monkey picture but you have to admit the production values were a little too Land of the Lost.
Italics Off! Italics Off!
PERHAPS THIS WILL TURN OFF THE DAMN ITALICS
PERHAPS YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE HIS ITALICS FROM HIS COLD DEAD HANDS
Charleton Heston was a star. I have been trying to verbalize what he brought to his epics in terms of unique qualities, and mostly I can just compare him to actors not quite as successful at mythic heroics, or just different. Gerard Butler in 300, Edward Norton in Kingdom of Heaven, and, gag, John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
Heston's stiffness, shyness, rectitude worked to his advantage. Will Penny, some of his comedies played with his image. But not in the way, for instance, that Henry Fonda played against typecasting for Sergio Leone. Heston was nearly incapable of playing the heavy. So he couldn't bring the complexity to Gordon in Khartoum that the role needed, and that Olivier could do in his sleep.
Heston wasn't great at playing kings, like O'Toole or Patrick McGoohan in Braveheart.
An iconic figure of my youth, obviously, with a set of movies that will be watched forever.
Recommended obscurities for Netflix:Naked Jungle against the army ants, and Dark City by William Dieterle is a good film noir.
Phoebe, But I'm not competent to comment on anything vital!
So, let's see if an open and close italics fixes things.
Tuesday is Soylent Green day, Billie Joe.
Something important must have happened. Matt is talking all slanted, like his world-view has been thrown out of kilter.
Or maybe it's an infinite number of monkees in a room with typewriters emulating Matt.
Stop whining about italics. Who cares?
In the meantime, I also used to think of Heston as kind of a ham, an overactor, constantly striking Great Poses. Then I saw his performances in The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers (in the early 1970s). Absolutely spot-on for the role. He brought a certain amount of menace, subtlety, and gravity to the role--not the overdone "gravitas" he had in the Ten Commandments, but the real kind. The movies themselves are swashbuckling romps, but but everyone does a good or very good acting job in them, especially Heston.
More evidence that Yglesias opposes universal healthcare. Even his font slants to the right! But the little Harvard runt has the gaul to say that people voting for universal healthcare are racists.
Heston was great as Moses and El Cid too. A good man, and a legend. As for his political trajectory, I'm not sure what Matt finds silly about it considering that his key issue, the right to keep and bear arms, is one Matt seems to agree with.
A little bit of self-help would be in order.
Jeez, another recommendation.
The War Lord, 1965. Simply terrific depiction of the Middle Ages, circa 1080, with Heston playing a very low level Norman knight trying to control a small and not very valuable demesne.
Heston was good as Moses, but it brings up my favorite pet peeves about movies of that era. Why couldn't they ever let a Jewish actor play a Jew? And why was it considered reasonable that Yul Brynner's features were appropriate for both an Egyptian Pharaoh and the King of Thailand?
It's weird that I can't close the ital tag.
I'm curious to see if "El Cid" will still be posting here.
Posted by DTM
Well...
He has passed from this world on the day of Pentecost,
May he receive Christ's forgiveness.
May we all do the same, the righteous and the sinners.
These are the deeds of my Cid the Campeador,
in this place this tale ends.
Who wrote this book, may God give him paradise, amen.
Pedro Abad wrote it in the month of May,
in the era of one thousand and two hundred and forty five years. And the story
Is read, give us some wine, if you have no money, throw over there
Some belongings, for they will surely give you some in exchange for them.
As for his political trajectory, I'm not sure what Matt finds silly about it considering that his key issue, the right to keep and bear arms
I disagree that this was Heston's "key issue" if you look at the totality of his career, politically speaking. Yes, towards the end of his life, that was what he was left with, but he spent the bulk of his political energy on much more important matters.
Insofar as MattY considers Heston's particular political activism on behalf of that cause "silly," it's likely because there have been far more important issues confronting the country than the NRA's extremist hobbyhorses.
In any case, for those wondering why they can't close the tags, this is apparently a side effect of some code intended to prevent commenters from leaving open tags. It prevents us from leaving open tags, ruining the comment thread, but it also prevents us from fixing MattY's screwups.
What I think of first when Chuck Heston is mentioned:
"Well, we have probably a more mixed ethnicity than other countries."
Matt has a gaul ?
It's weird that I can't close the ital tag.
The italics... They're gone... You guys blew it all up! Damn you maniacs!!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
I thought Michael Mooore made a complete idiot of the poor guy in "Bowling for Columbine". Sad, was that before or after the Alzheimers announcement?
It is for his genre films that he is remembered ... Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, & Soylent Green (Science Fiction) ..Ben-Hur, Ten Commandments (Religious epics).
"The War Lord" was a great film, there was also a Western "Will Penny" that he himself thought one of his best.
His political trajectory was a little silly, but also in a very fitting way utterly typical of the larger trajectory of American history.
Along these lines, see his role in Touch of Evil (referenced by others above), where he plays a Mexican cop fighting the corruption and nativism of small town U.S. border justice. It's a role with a distinct political and cultural message reflecting the prevailing liberal sentiment of the day. Heston seems to have always been a product of his time.
Look at the bright side - Heston now has another shot at appearing in Soylent Green.
One can at a time.
My favorite Heston role was as Richelieu in Richard Lester's Musketeers movies. (They were Spielberg's graduate courses in how to make adventure movies, he adds parenthetically.) Heston's huge voice fit the role: big and nasty, with lots in reserve. A great foil to Spike Milligan's squeaking insanity.
Heston's politics were of a piece with the guy: dopey, booming certainty. The politics of unreasonable confidence. He should have lived long enough to play Cheney.
Fred writes: "As for his political trajectory, I'm not sure what Matt finds silly about it considering that his key issue, the right to keep and bear arms, is one Matt seems to agree with."
What's silly - or even tragic - is that a once-great man and an early pioneer celebrity supporter of the civil rights movement ended up using racist gibberish in his role as the Ronald McDonald of the gun-nut club.
Abandoning reason late in life and becoming a total wingnut may well be an indicator that Alzheimer's is coming. Poor Heston. I hope he had moments of clarity at the end and realized his younger self was really something to be proud of.
Uh, having the means to defend oneself IS a civil right, which is why firearm prohibition was practiced by racists against former slaves and their descendents.
Charleton Heston's Omega Man was a much better movie than Will Smith's "I am Legend" (which was based on the same book but with a somewhat different script.)
Charleton didn't get snagged by a snare, for Christ's sake. When the zombies fucked with him, he bowled a satchel charge under the car they were hiding behind.
Note that Charleton Heston's love interest in Omega Man was an Afro-American woman (Rosalind Cash) . Pretty ballsy career move in 1971 with the civil rights movement still a hot button in parts of the USA --especially the South. His movie's depiction of the dirty fucking hippies was unusual as well (competent rational people not zoned out on drugs.)
Charlton Heston was a lovable ham, and brought a unique kind of captivating and winning preposterousness to his roles.
I once heard him say in an interview that he felt that he had stayed the same politically, but that the political world had changed around him. But that's not entirely true. There is no question that he underwent some sort of political conversion later in life, completely changing his views on gun control, for example, and becoming strangely anxious about the plight of the beleaguered Caucasian male. But his views weren't one-dimensional. He defended people's right to speak out, and spoke out strongly himself for the things he happened to believe in. All in all, I would say it was a life well-lived.
Re MoeLarryandJesus's comment "What's silly - or even tragic - is that a once-great man and an early pioneer celebrity supporter of the civil rights movement ended up using racist gibberish in his role as the Ronald McDonald of the gun-nut club "
------------------
Sigh.
Charleton Heston argued that the Second Amendment gives the American people the right to possess firearms as part of the Constitutional checks and balances.
So that if a President ever tried to overthrow the Constitution and become a murderous , fascist dictator, then the American people could shoot his ass.
After 8 years of Bush-Cheney, does Charleton's view still seem all that crazy??
Don Williams asks: "Sigh.
Charleton Heston argued that the Second Amendment gives the American people the right to possess firearms as part of the Constitutional checks and balances.
So that if a President ever tried to overthrow the Constitution and become a murderous , fascist dictator, then the American people could shoot his ass.
After 8 years of Bush-Cheney, does Charleton's view still seem all that crazy??"
If Heston had just been a gun advocate that would have been fine. I think he went overboard on occasion in that role, but I have no problems with gun ownership.
Unfortunately he didn't stop there, and he became a full-fledged member of the Bush/Cheney right, with all of the nasty shit that includes.
In the 2000 campaign he went around saying that Gore would "take our guns away." That was pure Bush-level bullshit. But of course he was on the way to mindloss at the time.
Shorter moelarry&jesus: People who disagree with me are mentally ill.
Sigh.
Re MoeLarryandJesus's comment "he became a full-fledged member of the Bush/Cheney right, with all of the nasty shit that includes"
----------
Ah , I understand now.
It does seems hilarious that NRA's Wayne LaPierre would argue --during the CLINTON administration -- that we need guns to deter the future rise of a dictator -- and then Wayne turned around and spend $MILLIONS to install George W Bush in office.
I didn't hear any gunshots ring out when George W scrapped the Fourth Amendment ban on warrentless searches, the 1000 year old right to habeas corpus, the right to trial by jury and the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Did You?
Heston did some great acting in POTA, Treasure Island, Julius Caesar and Will Penny. And he was a magnificent bastard in Naked Jungle and Major Dundee.
I thought an that greedy capitalist Micheal Moore in his interview in "Bowling for Columbine".
Trivia: Heston had an uncredited cameo in the awful remake of Planet of the Apes starring Mark Walberg. He played an old ape who had a sort of "damn dirty humans" rant.
Charlton Heston was a lovable ham, and brought a unique kind of captivating and winning preposterousness to his roles.
In that sense, you could say that he was the same in real life. Who among us does not have a cranky but lovable uncle who, if you catch him at a bad moment, will rant and rave about how Hillary and the UN are going to take away his guns?
As far as I'm concerned, he took a strong stand in the civil rights movement, which was important and when it counted. The 90s-era black-helicopter-raving that the NRA became around the time it retained Heston as its spokesman has been nothing but an amusing fringe distraction within the body politic. On one hand, we should warn against the sort of hubris of a "captivating and winning preposterousness" when we take our stands. On the other hand, Charlton Heston got lucky in life... such hubris did good when it mattered and was important, and didn't do that much damage when it became off-the-wall.
ML&J,
"What's silly - or even tragic - is that a once-great man and an early pioneer celebrity supporter of the civil rights movement ended up using racist gibberish in his role as the Ronald McDonald of the gun-nut club."
Is this the 'racist gibberish' you were referring to?:
In the last chapter of his autobiography Heston tells a story deriving from his appearance in Minnesota on behalf of Grams. In the course of his remarks on behalf of Grams, Heston said: "We have to get back to the values and perceptions of those wise old dead white guys who invented this country." Grams's hapless opponent and her friends in the media tried to create a brouhaha out of the remarks, as Heston recalls, branding him with what he calls "the familiar P.C epithets." Heston had moved on to appear on behalf of another Republican candidate outside Minnesota before the controversy erupted, but he took the time to tape a response:
"Let's see now," I said, "they were wise, they were old, thery're dead, they were white guys, and they invented this country. Which word in that sentence don't you understand?"
"Touch Of Evil" wouldn't have gotten made if not for Heston. And, unlike Kirk Douglas - Heston was actually good in some movies, "Planet Of The Apes" proof of it. And, also quite unlike Douglas, Heston never felt a need to make classless remarks about his female co-stars. RIP, Mr. Heston.
David writes: "Shorter moelarry&jesus: People who disagree with me are mentally ill."
Just some of them.
Fred quotes and asks: ""What's silly - or even tragic - is that a once-great man and an early pioneer celebrity supporter of the civil rights movement ended up using racist gibberish in his role as the Ronald McDonald of the gun-nut club."
Is this the 'racist gibberish' you were referring to?:"
Why, no, Freddie, though I believe Heston did make more inflammatory comments along the lines of what you posted, I'm referring to his mumblings about America's "mixed ethnicity" being responsible for our sorry history of extreme violence. Of course a racist like you probably thinks he was right.
Good Lord, this website continues to slide into the abyiss. Another Dem loss, kudos.
ML&J,
Heston was marching with MLK for Civil Rights before you were a gleam in some preternaturally obnoxious drunk's bloodshot eye. If you want to tar the man as a racist, you'll have to try harder.
According to his nurse, Charlton Heston died shortly after watching the UCLA Bruins lose to the Memphis Tigers in their Final Four match-up.
"Chuck got all worked up, he was really into the game,” said nurse Shelley Reynolds.
“You maniacs,’ Heston screamed, the realization finally dawning that his team had lost, ‘you blew it! Damn you!’"
Heston then retreated into the fog he's called home the previous five years. He died three hours later, his cold dead hands entwined around a pump-action rifle.
(from Sportsmansdaily.com)
Agreeance, "Progressive Dem".
What's this website coming to when we can't celebrate death of a reactionary like Heston? Sure, he marched with MLK and supported Civil Rights and was a liberal democrat until the 1970s, but where was he on all the important issues - like Gay marriage and hand guns?
Damn. When Matt refuses to gloat over the death of an 84 year Oscar winning actor, it just proves that fascism is around the corner.
Re trevor
Not surprising that an antisemitic fucktard like Mr. trevor wouldn't look favorably on Kirk Douglas.
Back in '59, I was 5, and my parents couldn't find a babysitter, so they took me to see the newly released Ben Hur.
I've had recurring nightmares about being chained in a sinking galley ever since . . .
Fred writes: "Heston was marching with MLK for Civil Rights before you were a gleam in some preternaturally obnoxious drunk's bloodshot eye. If you want to tar the man as a racist, you'll have to try harder."
Fred, I know that besides being a racist you're also a fucking idiot, but even you should have noticed that I gave Heston full credit for his early involvement in the Civil Rights movement. That's why it's even more of a tragedy that he ended up saying things that a shitbag like you would applaud.
Your daddy wiped the best part of you off with his Klan hood.
Re Che's comment "Heston then retreated into the fog he's called home the previous five years. He died three hours later, his cold dead hands entwined around a pump-action rifle"
-----------
Now THAT's a vile, vicious, insulting smear.
No rifleman would ..er..be caught dead with a pump-action rifle.
Pump action rifles are pieces of shit normally consigned to carnivals and used to further handicap the rubes trying to win teddy bears.
Third the comments about Heston as Richelieu. He underplayed it beautifully and never took a step wrong.
"One should be careful about what one writes...and to whom one gives it."
Except for the swordplay, both movies are magnificent.
The last excellent Heston performance was in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, as the Chief Player. Roger Ebert said of it at the time: "How many great performances of his have we lost while he visited Planet of the Apes?"
2nd the Hamlet.
Re rcocean's comment " but where was he [Heston] on all the important issues - like Gay marriage"
-----------
Have you ever seen Ben Hur? (made in 1959?)
Hint: Screenwriter was Gore Vidal.
"Or maybe it's an infinite number of monkees in a room with typewriters emulating Matt."
Sorry, only takes one for Matt.
Only Charlton Heston story I know is an interview with British actress Stephanie Beacham who played his wife on the evening soap "The Colby's". She told Terry Wogan on British TV that the day after Heston was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, he called her up and told her, "Before my mind really goes, I wanted to tell you that I love you."
Beacham said in an earlier interview with Wogan that Heston was "grown up" - in that he took the ridiculous "Colby's" soap seriously, and she couldn't. Wogan asked her if she ever had the urge to go over to the Colby fireplace and burst out into uncontrollable laughter, and she said, "We do. That's why I said he was grownup, because he doesn't."
Say what you will about him, but was an ardent proponent of civil rights back when it was still a somewhat risky position to take as a Hollywood actor. (Ditto, alas, for his latter conversion to Reaganism and his advocacy that the 2d Amendment was the most vital of them all--he famously said that he might never work in Hollywood again, but then he'd also never get a speeding ticket, either.)
Guy followed his principles. He was the sorta guy I could disagree with and still respect.
I first understood why people hate Michael Moore when I saw him ambush Chuck in that movie. I'm not even saying Moore didn't have a point, but he could have been a lot nicer about it, instead of babbling about his love for guns to disarm the guy, then BAM coming out of the bag on him, like a bratty kid.
To me, Planet of the Apes is vital, though your mileage may vary.
I cried the first time I saw the statue of liberty scene (I was a kid at the time). I agree completely with Matt's characterization of Heston as an actor. In his own way, he was great.
Just in passing, since I haven't seen it mentioned much on blogs, Richard Widmark also died last week.
The Bedford Incident will just amaze you, if you haven't seen it. Widmark plays the kind of part Hackman played with Denzel, but Widmark was beter.
Doubt Hat's post on Heston is worth reading, as is the essay by Richard Dreyfuss he links to: "Charlton Heston, RIP". Excerpt from Dreyfuss's essay (written when Heston was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's):
Self-consciousness is the anticipation of being silly and often is the spoiler for many actors. Charlton Heston had no such problem. He would dive into the story with what I can only call measured abandon and make me believe. And it was fun watching him.
It has become fashionable to characterize his politics; almost as if his politics were a separate thing, like Diana's popularity. People are either defensive or patronizing (if not contemptuous). I can only say I wish all the liberals and all the conservatives I knew had the class and forbearance he has. Would I be as patient or serene when so many had showed me such contempt, or tried to make me feel stupid or small? I doubt it, truly I do. This is dignity, simply and completely. A much more important quality than political passion at the end of the day, and far more lacking, don't you think?
Phoebe writes: "I first understood why people hate Michael Moore when I saw him ambush Chuck in that movie. I'm not even saying Moore didn't have a point, but he could have been a lot nicer about it, instead of babbling about his love for guns to disarm the guy, then BAM coming out of the bag on him, like a bratty kid."
Oh, bullshit. Heston was a highly paid NRA flack who ran around the country in 1998 saying America "didn't trust Bill Clinton with our 21 year old daughters and won't trust him with our guns," and in 2000 falsely portraying Al Gore as some gun control extremist, which he was not. Heston wasn't "ambushed," he wasn't a victim, he was just experiencing the downside of his lucrative career.
That Heston made some great - really great - films during his first career doesn't give him a blank check to be a liar and a GOP shill in his second. Sure, it now appears he may have been ill at the time, but Moore didn't know that when he was, pardon the expression, shooting the film.
His political trajectory was a little silly
How many Americans were murdered by firearms last year? 30,000? If not for the National Rifle Association that number would probably be less.
"How many Americans were murdered by firearms last year? 30,000? If not for the National Rifle Association that number would probably be less."
Hard to say. My objection to the NRA is that they throw up this completely false smokescreen about how every Democrat "wants to take away OUR GUNS." That's so far from the truth that it's comical. Guns outnumber people in this country and few Democrats even bring the issue up anymore.
George Clooney derided his Alzheimer's much as Man-Mountain Moore did. Neither one is worthy of tying Chuck's shoes.
And that "silly trajectory" or whatever is called growing up. Hope it happens to MattY someday.
Coming to the party late, I'd just like to note that "silly" is probably the wrong term to describe Heston's political style; hysterical covers it so much better. After all, hysteria always helps the discussion of any intractable political conflict. To take the edge, off there was a lot of that going around during the Cold War.
Coming to the party late, I'd just like to note that "silly" is probably the wrong term to describe Heston's political style; hysterical covers it so much better. After all, hysteria always helps the discussion of any intractable political conflict. To take the edge off there was a lot of that going around during the Cold War.
"What's silly - or even tragic - is that a once-great man and an early pioneer celebrity supporter of the civil rights movement ended up using racist gibberish in his role as the Ronald McDonald of the gun-nut club.
Abandoning reason late in life and becoming a total wingnut may well be an indicator that Alzheimer's is coming. Poor Heston. I hope he had moments of clarity at the end and realized his younger self was really something to be proud of."
PERFECTLY SAID!!! It's enough, though, to make you wonder whether what he did as "his younger self" was genuine; or whether it was yet another role in his storied career. One thing is for sure, though -- he TOTALLY lost touch with reality when he embraced the NRA as fanatically as he did. And I do not believe that this loss of touch with reality and his embracing of the NRA nutcases was Alzheimer's-enduced. He said and did what he believed -- "from the abundance of the heart -- the mouth speaks." But may he RIP.
Comments closed April 20, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
I'll never forget attending an NRA rally of his at CU Boulder where, halfway through a dreary speech, a student dressed in an ape outfit stood up and started howling and waving around a fake gun.
Posted by SAO | April 6, 2008 1:03 PM