Sunday, April 06, 2008
Charlton Heston dies
A spokesman for the Heston family has announced that Charlton Heston died yesterday: he was aged 84.
His seems to have been an absolutely fascinating life, being an acting student, a radio operator in B-25 bombers, a struggling actor and then one of the most recognised actors in a series of massive roles, later returning largely to stage acting.
He also supported an eclectic series of causes, from civil rights, supporting Martin Luther King and picketing a screening of one of his own films because it was being shown in a segregated cinema to the National Rifle Association and saying of himself “They don’t come any more Right-wing than me.”
Overall a most interesting person, I will finish with a quote he made about himself “I have lived such a wonderful life. I’ve lived enough for two people”
Turgon @ 01:00 PM
Hate to see you go, get the hell out!
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 02:56 PMa genuinely interesting man, with principles which he wasn’t frightened to express- compare him with the modern movie “stars” who are afraid to have a view on anything- except Scientology of course
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 03:09 PMA true screen legend - still working as an actor as late as 2003 [his last appearance in film or TV] after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2002.
Personal favourites - Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and The Omega Man.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 03:42 PMFrom his cold, dead hands.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 04:33 PMThree crackers Pete I have to agree.
But Dave has a point - I hope somebody is doing just that right now.Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 04:40 PMWho can forget the Cork band Stump and their classic ‘Charlton Heston put his vest on’?
About the right-wing business and the NRL, it was a quirky feature of American life that one could be ferociously right-wing about just about everything and still identify with causes traditionally beloved of the left (and vice versa). Heston was a good friend to the black Civil Rights movement. Born-again patriot Johnny Cash opposed the Vietnam war. I wonder how much of that freedom of thought has been lost in the USA under the neo-cons.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 04:48 PMI agree with An Lochlannach.
While the Silver Screen is probably the most vacuous of pastimes, we have so genuinely few stars left.
There are still a few on this side of the pond - Connery, Hopkins, Caine et al - but Heston is probably the last of the golden era, with a couple of notable exceptions such as Kirk Douglas.
Thankfully De Niro, Pacino and a few others are still there - but after them, what’s left? Tom Cruise and John Travolta?
Has been and will be much missed from the screen and theatre....
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 05:41 PMWill never forget:
“Get your paws off me you damn, dirty apes!”
Cannot relate to the NRA rubbish. Then again I’m not American. Didn’t know who’s side to take when Michael Moore set him up in “Bowling for Columbine” though.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 06:47 PMInteresting to see that the NRA nonsense was balanced in (at least) his earlier CR supprting days.
Well done for the latter - *shakes head* at the former.
I have NEVER watched Ben Hur all the way through. has anyone? :)
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 06:56 PMJo
re: Ben Hur
Absolutely. Excellent film. If you have the patience, a lot of the ‘classic epics’ are actually excellent Saturday afternoon fodder, and some, like Spartacus, are considerably better than that.
On the NRA point, I think Heston was probably a libertarian, though I don’t know if he would have recognised himself as one - equality for everyone after that, get your paws off me you damn dirty State. Seen through the Civil rights prism, the Apes becomes a far more interesting film.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 07:10 PMFIlm Fan,
Thankfully De Niro, Pacino and a few others are still there - but after them, what’s left? Tom Cruise and John Travolta?
Both De Niro and Pacino are well past their sell-by date at this point. Benicio Del Toro, Mark Ruffalo and Johnny Depp put in great performances (even if Depp gets involved in some seriously dodgy movies). There is always a new wave breaking.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 07:50 PMJo: “Interesting to see that the NRA nonsense was balanced in (at least) his earlier CR supprting days. “
Why should that suprise you? Integration started under Eisenhower. As for the so-called NRA “nonsense,” are there any other parts of the US “Bill of Rights” you’d you think should be jettisoned?
There is no such thing as a dangerous weapon. There are only dangerous people. Gun-control simply disarms the law-abiding individuals, leaving criminals armed.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 07:54 PM>>Absolutely. Excellent film. If you have the patience, a lot of the ‘classic epics’ are actually excellent Saturday afternoon fodder, and some, like Spartacus, are considerably better than that.<<
Totally agree. I can’t watch films on my own, the missus and I have different tastes, enter stage left my oldest boy and daughter. We love nothing more than watching an auld epic, brilliant. Heston what a great actor, perhaps lucky with his parts. A flawed individual sure, but we all are.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 08:25 PM>>There are only dangerous people. Gun-control simply disarms the law-abiding individuals, leaving criminals armed.<<
Sure cross the border into Canada and contrast the kill count. Guns make people who may make hard work of killing(if that is their intention) into efficient killers.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 08:29 PMPrince Eoghan: “Sure cross the border into Canada and contrast the kill count. Guns make people who may make hard work of killing(if that is their intention) into efficient killers. “
Access to firearms does not cause violence, Eoghan, else Vermont would be a free-fire zone.
Violence has a stronger correlation to population density than access to firearms. If gun law worked, Washington DC should be a utopian paradise.
Similarly, look at what gun-laws wrought in London—a spike in violence so large the gov’t tried to bugger the statistics to hide it, with surges in both gun and knife crime.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 08:37 PMWould it be wrong to to make a comment about his gun and prying it out of his now cold dead hand?
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 10:30 PMWell said Dread.
The beta male, nanny stater’s, nose rings and all, have no idea what a real man is like. Charlton Heston was a great man, father, husband, American patriot. A man with the courage of his convictions. Once again, the socialist whiner sect goes against reason and verifiable evidence to try and despoil a wonderful example of the human spirit. The facts support that the Constitution and the NRA are right. But the nancy boy cowards won’t punish the criminal. They blame an inanimate object. Tsk, tsk. You poor EU hostages can only defend yourself with witty remarks, and ironic sarcasm.....pity.
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 10:30 PMA bit hard to commit a Dunblane or a Hungerford, a Hoddle street or any of the various US massacres with a knife Dread.
I’m sure you have loads of useful and well thought out examples like Switzerland of responsible gun ownership. Bottom line though is that without firearms nutters find it more difficult to kill.
London is an extreme example, the government doesn’t even know how many people there are there, yardie gangs, Albanian people traffickers, you name it. people desperate to make a quid and don’t care how they get it. On top of this, youths, mainly from ethnic backgrounds new and old running wild, drugs etc......
Posted by on Apr 06, 2008 @ 10:37 PMBen Hurr, Agony & Ecstasy, Greatest Story Ever Told, Planet of the Apes. nuff said.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 12:09 AMCartouche
Here’s two lists of movies. Here’s your new wave.
Donnie Brasco, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleepy Hollow, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Snatch, Way of the Gun, Sin City, Collateral, All The King’s Men, Zodiac
Personally, I like them all. Great movies. The three you mentioned are good actors.
Here’s that other list, more a timeless sea, than a new wave:
The Agony & the Ecstacy, Khartoum, El Cid, Ben Hur, The Vikings, Spartacus, Heroes of Telemark, The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, Dr Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia
*That’s* the difference. It’s not nostalgia for a time gone by. It’s just an honest-to-God reflection of a time when big movies were truly epic.
*That’s* the real star quality.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 12:22 AMOh yeah, forgot that he was in The 10 Commandments.
The Agony and the Ecstasy, he played well off Rex Harrison as El Duce.
Lawrence of Arabia is probably the best film I ever saw… and I dont even like war movies.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 12:52 AMRIP Charlton.
Personal favs are ‘55 days at Peking’ and ‘Touch Of Evil’.
as regards the golden era.....Cool Hand Luke is still with us, and hopefully for a while to come.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 01:24 AM“Gun-control simply disarms the law-abiding individuals, leaving criminals armed. “
They’re already largely disarmed, trying to find a pistol is no different to looking for the car keys.
When Hoods squirt they do the clip, the home owner is probably out ther aiming, or lying face down with a third ear
It’s like Englewood at night, you can’t shoot what ya can’t see and if it doesn’t have a Starbuks it is probs armed to the teeth.
700 murders in ten years, for a district of Chicago! A 25 gurlgun ain’t gonna do it.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 01:24 AMThere was nothing remotely “eclectic” about the causes he supported, they all boiled down to the same point; liberty and equality for all and freedom from an overbearing state.
It’s remarkable how people seem to believe they are “liberals” when they believe that freeborn citizens should be forcibly disarmed by agents of the state and in their place the only people with the right to self defence should be government forces.
It’s absurd to believe that the rights of the individual to protect his life, his liberty and his property from oppression, be it from government or non-government agents is somehow a “right wing” belief.
Hitler disarmed his citizens, so did Stalin, so did Pol Pot, you haven’t got too many free citizens in North Korea but then they don’t have any personal weapons either.
Up until about 1900 the UK had virtually zero gun control, was there a wild west free for all then? Northern Ireland had the toughest gun control legislation in western Europe was our wee province a haven of peace and security? Since gun ownership was effectively criminalised following Dunblane gun crime in the UK has sky-rocketted.
When you outlaw guns only the outlaws have guns.
As for modern day actors, can anyone tell me which actor, with the exception perhaps of Anthony Hopkins, plays anyone other than himself in movies today? None of them actually act.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 02:34 AM“As for modern day actors, can anyone tell me which actor, with the exception perhaps of Anthony Hopkins, plays anyone other than himself in movies today?”
I think the acting in South Park is good.
Posted by on Apr 07, 2008 @ 03:00 AM
