Moses has died. I say this only half in jest, because when you think of the biblical Moses and try to picture him, what image comes to mind? Thought so. When we get much of our religion through popular culture, it is somewhat fitting that Charlton Heston's iconic performance as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments is as good a reference point as any for humanizing the man who brought God's commandments down from the mountain.
Charlton Heston is now remembered as much for his political activism as he is for his performances, and both sides of his life should be appreciated. One of Heston's more famous remarks is that "I have a face that belongs in another century." Many of Heston's most lasting performances were in gaudy Hollywood historical epics where he took on roles of important historical figures, such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur (for which he won an Oscar), El Cid, and many more.
But later in his acting career he forged a new identity in a series of classic and now cult favorite sci-fi/post-apocalyptic flicks. His Col. Taylor in The Planet of the Apes is just as iconic as Moses, but also check out 70's cult classics Soylent Green and Omega Man (an earlier version of I Am Legend).
I admire Heston more than most actors for his political activism, mainly because he went against the Hollywood grain his whole career. Early on he was a liberal activist, marching in civil rights marches and protesting against segregation in the South, as Heston himself said, "long before Hollywood found it fashionable." He was also an early critic of the Vietnam War. But by the 1980's he had shifted to the Right and became one of the few conservative voices in the wilderness in Hollywood. He was an outspoken critic of affirmative action, political correctness ("political correctness is tyranny with manners") and most famously he served as the president of the NRA between 1998 and 2003. I don't agree with all of his views, but I respect Heston for not going with the Hollywood flow and towing their political agenda.
ABOVE: "From my cold, dead hands." Now we can get the gun.
He developed Alzeimer's disease in the early 2000's, around the same time that Michael Moore infamously ambushed him for an embarrassing interview in Bowling For Columbine. He has been out of the public eye in recent years, and passed away on Saturday. RIP Charlton Heston.
1 comment:
I disagreed with a lot of Heston's political views in his later life, but I agree that the hatchet job Michael Moore did on him in Bowling for Columbine was inexcusable. Of course, that's just par for the course for Moore.
Post a Comment