Charlton Heston, A Hollywood Classic
Charlton Heston, an actor known for his square-jawed heroes, especially in biblical epics like “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur” died last weekend. He was 84 years old.
I have mixed feelings about Charlton Heston. His movies and his acting style were of a classic Hollywood era. Many of those films were the kind of movies that represented Hollywood around the world as the supreme leader in entertainment for years.
I recognize some of the dated weaknesses of “The Ten Commandments,” namely Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price and Anne Baxter, but it’s still on many levels a very entertaining movie and a monumental achievement of its time. “Ben-Hur” is a better film and part of the reason is the movie star presence Heston brings to it.
Getting away from biblical epics, I love “The Big Country.” Heston is just one of the many stars in that one, but his nuanced portrayal of a loyal ranch hand who begins to question his boss’s motives is just what it needed to be.
In the 60’s Heston happened upon a role in a film that was destined to be another Hollywood classic, “The Planet Of The Apes.” Who can forget the Hestonian delivery of the line, “Take you hands off me, you damned dirty ape!” Here was the Charlton Heston hero totally out of his element and subjected to humiliations that Moses couldn’t have even conceived of.
In his later years, Heston became a shill for the NRA and there’s already been talk in the blogosphere about finally taking that gun out of Heston’s stone cold hands. But on the other hand, he was a supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and participated in the March on Washington.
But I choose to let the NRA stuff go and think about the memorable roles of his that I grew up with. Even when the movies like, “Skyjacked,” “Earthquake” and “Airport ‘75,” were so bad, they were good.
R.I.P. Chuck.