comment #1

Hickenlooper says ...

What I'll always appreciate the most about Heston was his sense of loyalty. Whether you agreed with him politically or not, the man had integrity and the courage of his convictions. When most of Hollywood steered away from the Civil Rights Movement, Heston was in the South Marching with Dr. Martin Luther King. When Universal Studios thought Orson Welles was a complete wash-up, it was Heston who fought to have him rewrite and direct 'Touch of Evil,' perhaps Welles' finest film and one that would never have been made without Heston's fierce determination. God bless the man -- especially for having a black girlfriend in The Omega Man. How cool was that?

comment #2

Edward says ...

Well said, Hickenlooper.

comment #3

Mgmax says ...

I had to write some notes for Jim Thorpe All-American once and I hadn't seen the film and had nothing particular to say about Burt Lancaster (who starred in it), so I just wrote a parody of the Mourlet piece:

"Burt Lancaster strides the earth like a tiger, a tiger that has learned to swim, to smoke cigarettes and read a newspaper. He is an apostrophe..."

Nevertheless, I agree completely that any shot of Heston is truer cinema than Hiroshima, Mon Amour.

And I agree, well said, Hickenlooper; I am sure we will have Heston detractors for several days, offended that the good liberal Charlton Skywalker became the evil Darth Heston, seeing it in those simpleminded terms, unable to grasp that Heston was true to his inner compass and a conception of liberty and personal responsibility that remained rock-solid constant even if its outward political manifestations evolved from a liberal's sense that people needed help in the name of justice, to a conservative's conviction that too much help from above cripples. Heston was hardly the first or the last to "switch" between those opposing viewpoints without actually moving much at all.

comment #4

Rich S. says ...

Heston defined the term "film icon." He was in all of the huge, sprawling productions, but still somehow managed to be bigger than all of them. People say he used to teeter closely on the edge of self-parody, but just watch a movie like Troy and see how badly it needed someone with Heston's presence. He was one of the last of the Hollywood titans.

comment #5

Mgmax says ...

Truly, the age of the better actor has passed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SUtVy-wXwE

comment #6

lipranzer says ...

See, I applaud Heston for supporting Welles like that (and I believe I read he also spoke up for Peckinpah when he was quarreling with the studio over MAJOR DUNDEE, which also counts in his favor), but while I admire his ability to make fun of himself, I never really thought he was that great an actor. And no, it had nothing to do with his politics - I revere both John Wayne and James Stewart as actors, and both of them were as conservative as Heston became in later life, for example.

comment #7

lipranzer says ...

I should add I did like him in both the Welles film and the Peckinpah film, and I do like PLANET OF THE APES and consider BEN HUR the only other respectable biblical epic of the 50's and 60's besides SPARTACUS. But that's about it for me.

comment #8

Movie fan09 says ...

"It is in this sense that one can say that Charlton Heston, by his very existence and regardless of the film he is in, provides a more accurate definition of the cinema than films like Hiroshima mon amour or Citizen Kane, films whose aesthetic either ignores or repudiates Charlton Heston. Through him, mise en scene can confront the most intense of conflicts and settle them with the contempt of a god imprisoned, quivering with muted rage."

god i love film.

comment #9

austin111 says ...

I abhorred Heston's later in life support of the NRA, an organization which represents a stubborn point of view of the constitution that borders on the absurd. Still, I thought he was one of the finest of American actors with a presence, voice, and physicality which combined to give him absolute authority onscreen. The films in which he appeared were rarely classic, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't.

comment #10

steven says ...

he is charming,although he is aged.But i still think he has a boy heart ,i met his profile on "
LOVINGRICH COM" seeking for a girlfriend.

comment #11

bmcintire says ...

"It is in this sense that one can say that Charlton Heston, by his very existence and regardless of the film he is in, provides a more accurate definition of the cinema than films like Hiroshima mon amour or Citizen Kane, films whose aesthetic either ignores or repudiates Charlton Heston."

God, I pity the state of cinema.

I fully expect the same bullshit to be quoted about Will Farrell once he kicks. Simply insert whichever then-hallowed films that are deemed to be above the heads of the masses at that point.

Sure, we all grew up with him, but we all grew up with Hostess brand snacks as well.

comment #12

lionsfan says ...

He was a generous actor as well as a great one, as his comments about so many of his fellow actors in "In The Arena" will establish.

Even in a subordinate role "The Big Country," he set a standard for coiled energy coupled with intelligence and an obvious yearning for something better and less complicated. Just watch "Three Violent People," there he's dominant onscreen merely by the angry furrowing of his brow," or "Arrowhead," where he embodies all the nasty feelings of Americans re Amerinds yet nonetheless remains, if not exactly wholly sympathetic, at least understandable. And he spoke beautifully, a close second to the jsutly acclaimed voice of Alexander scourby.

He also swaggered amazingly in "Counterpoint," and seemed to carry solely within himself there all the majesty and pride embodied in "high art." So many roles he played, it's simply impossible to imagine any modern actor essaying them even one-tenth as convincingly. Those who will not miss him are merely fools and nitwits.

comment #13

Mgmax says ...

Philip Johnson once called Frank Lloyd Wright-- in the 40s, when Wright was still working-- "the greatest architect of the 19th century." He meant it as a slam but 50 or so years later, the 19th century humanism and craftsmanship in Wright's work survives better than the inhuman glass and steel of so much 20th century modernist architecture.

Heston was the last great actor of the 19th century.

comment #14

topbroker says ...

I believe that the Mourlet quotation (one of my favorites in all film history) is also cited by J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum in their book . They rightly note that it is sort of a gay fan-boy thing, albeit expressed very tonily..

comment #15

topbroker says ...

The Hoberman/Rosenbaum book is Midnight Movies. I tried to bracket the title and the system just edited it out.