Goddamn. Three in a row. Widmark, then Dassin, and now Heston. Although I am a fan of all of their works, I grew up watching most of Heston's movies, so this one hits a little closer to home. Throughout his career he played Jews in both The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, a Mexican in Touch of Evil, and a Spaniard in El Cid (apparently, at the time, there weren't enough Jews and Latinos in Southern California to play these parts). Heston started his career playing bigger than life heroes in lavish Hollywood epics including the aforementioned The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur. Always playing the rugged hero, Heston would eventually make a series of both disaster movies and futuristic dystopia movies including The Omega Man, Soylent Green, and Earthquake. I don't know why but it seems that every dystopic Hollywood movie that was made in the late sixties and seventies was required to star Heston.
Most modern movie goers will also remember him as the Alzheimer's victim who was bullied by Michael Moore in the gun documentary. Ok, that was an unnecessarily snide comment, but I brought it up to make a point. Most people will remember Heston more for his politics and his views on gun control rather than his body of work, which is unfortunate. Although he was not the greatest actor, the man had screen presence and he made damn entertaining movies. Try to watch a Heston movie and not get excited.
Here are a few clips to remember him by.
(One last clip. I know the whole fake trailer thing is played out and this clip is pretty old but, hey, it makes me giggle.)
4 comments:
You should include his speech from the Branagh Halmet. He was brilliant in that...
Yes. I agree entirely. Heston's body of work has totally taken a back seat to his recent politics. Part of the problem is that (other than small parts for James Cameron, Oliver Stone and Tim Burton) Heston didn't really do any significant acting from the 80's onwards. So there's a whole generation who really only know the guy for his politics and/or for his appearance in "Bowling for Columbine".
Oh, and by the way, Omega Man and Soylent Green aren't really disaster movies. Airport '75 and Earhquake are. Or were you using the word in the non-genre defining sense?
I was using the word in a non-genre defining sense, which is why I wrote "disaster related movies" rather than "disaster movies". It was probably a mistake. I have always found it interesting that Heston starred in a plethora of both disaster movies and futuristic dystopia movies during this period. I thought I could lump the two together, but they are really distinct genres. I will reword it now to avoid further confusion.
Would Planet of the Apes be considered a disaster movie? I think it'd feel like one to anybody forced into a cage and poked by talking apes. That's also the role which I best remember Heston in.
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