Posted on 05/06/2003 9:30:41 AM PDT by Fractional-American
A couple of folks pointed out to me that some of the terminology in the original article might be cannon fodder for media communists who want to smear this site the same way they keep smearing Heston. I've reworked the article, but I'll only post the link so nobody with an agenda can blame the site for it. To summarize, I was saying that I had fallen for the media portrayal of Heston without having all the facts, and that the more I learn about him (primarily from this site) the more I feel he merits admiration and respect. Plus, I don't think it's fair for packs of 35-and-under media goons to gang up on an old man like something out of A Clockwork Orange, particularly when his mind and body are both failing him because of Alzheimer's. I didn't even know he had Alzheimers until a few weeks ago. I think the media are taking advantage of his illness because he may not realize what they are trying to do to him. My brain is at least as messed up as his and sometimes I can forget where something is when it's right under my nose, or start walking upstairs and forget why in mid-climb. It must be horrible for him to know he has an incurable condition that is killing his brain. He ought either to be portrayed accurately or left alone by the media.
Can FReepers submit some links or photos that portray him in a sympathetic and realistic light? Such as the ad for The Omega Man, which a kind person submitted and of which I wasn't even aware (I was born in 1970)?
and another kind individual submitted the Harvard speech.
"Soon they'll be breeding us like cattle! You've got to warn everyone and tell them! Soylent green is made from people! You've got to tell them! Soylent green is people!!!"--Detective Thorn
The site shows that filmmakers give characters certain REAL medical conditions (e.g., albinism) to reinforce the notion of evil. I think this is what they are doing with Heston, except they are using his mental condition (as well as his age). There are some pages that show realistic, sympathetic portrayals of characters with "defects" as well. Sometimes they get it right.
dog
The Greatest B Movie of All Time
Can FReepers submit some links or photos that portray him in a sympathetic and realistic light?Here is ALOHA RONNIE's favorite Charlton Heston role:
...HESTON is EL-CID...
To summarize, I was saying that I had fallen for the media portrayal of Heston without having all the facts, and that the more I learn about him (primarily from this site) the more I feel he merits admiration and respect.Plus, I don't think it's fair for packs of 35-and-under media goons to gang up on an old man like something out of A Clockwork Orange, particularly when his mind and body are both failing him because of Alzheimer's.
I didn't even know he had Alzheimers until a few weeks ago.
See also, from:
'Bowling For Columbine' throws a gutter ball
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | October 18, 2002 | Michael Medved
Posted on 10/18/2002 2:14 PM PDT by arualAs a work of cinematic entertainment and political provocation, Michael Moore's widely acclaimed new documentary "Bowling for Columbine" qualifies as a substantial success. Despite its outrageously incoherent, even contradictory, ideological agenda, the movie offers an engaging surface that displays frisky originality, frequent wit, skillful editing, wildly ambitious scope and often impassioned advocacy.Moore goes beyond the role of mischievous, irreverent blue collar fatso that he popularized in his previous films (most notably "Roger & Me") and his short-lived television show ("TVNation"). This time, Moore promises nothing less than a penetrating exploration of "the fearful heart and soul of the United States," and in the course of guiding us on that journey he comes across as irresponsible, demagogic, shamelessly manipulative and, in the end, unspeakably cruel...
-- snip --
...Racial issues provide the movie with a grand finale that counts as one of the most despicable (and riveting) cinematic exercises ever featured in a major release. The filmmaker and on-camera star concludes his non-linear voyage by pursuing an interview at the home of Charlton Heston, Hollywood legend and president of the NRA.
The resulting confrontation is almost unbearably painful to watch, as Heston begins the interchange looking robust, masterful, confident and charming and then, under Moore's blatantly unfair and needling questioning, slowly crumbles to the sad status of a frail old man. At first, Moore demands explanations for Heston's appearance at NRA rallies in Colorado and Flint, Mich., shortly after the gun-related tragedies there. Then he moves on to try to force his prey into a corner over America's persistently high homicide rate (without acknowledging the dramatic declines of recent years).
Finally, with Moore flaunting his favorite example of "safe, peaceful" Canada, and pushing relentlessly for some basis for America's more numerous murders, he forces a reluctant, uncertain suggestion from Heston. "I don't know," the great actor begins, and then tentatively mentions the greater racial diversity in the United States.
Mr. Moore pounces on this statement, and virtually accuses Heston of racism – never acknowledging (or telling his audience) that the current president of the NRA enjoyed a personal friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King and participated more prominently in the civil-rights movement and its marches than any other major Hollywood star. Unwilling (or unable) to make this point himself, Mr. Heston merely disconnects his microphone, gets up out of his chair and walks away from Moore and his camera – a wounded refugee seeking shelter in another wing of his own home.
Even without Charlton Heston's courageous announcement of his own battle with Alzheimer's symptoms (an announcement which Moore, of course, never references), this appalling interview would represent a new low in a manipulative filmmaker's checkered career. While posing as a rebel, a loner and crusader for common sense, Mr. Moore remains a totally conventional and thoroughly predictable leftist, particularly in his ill-concealed distaste for America and ordinary Americans. He never bothers to challenge politically correct assumptions, and typically dispenses with any untrendy or unpopular idea – such as Heston's connection of high murder rates to the nation's racial composition – as if it remained so obviously idiotic that it required no rebuttal.
As a matter of fact, the suspicion voiced by Mr. Heston that our homicide rate relates directly to our unusually diverse racial makeup proves more right than wrong. The most recent Department Of Justice statistics indicate that African-Americans commit murder at a rate more than eight times higher than white people, and now represent the majority of U.S. homicide arrests (while only 12 percent of the total population). In other words, if you isolate the murder rate among white people only, on both sides of the border, the difference between the U.S. and Canada almost entirely disappears.
That fact may produce discomfort, and certainly demands serious explanation (with reference, in part, to this nation's persistent history of racism) but it deserves acknowledgment before Moore's movie succeeds in trashing the exalted reputation of one of the most decent and respected actors and activists in Hollywood history. Charlton Heston has enjoyed nearly 60 years of stable, loving marriage (a rarity anywhere, but especially in Tinseltown) and earned the respect and affection even of colleagues who disagree with him on every political proposition.
The French may embrace Michael Moore's America bashing screed (they unanimously awarded it the "55th Anniversary Prize" at the Cannes Film Festival), but citizens of this country will remember Heston's work in movies and in politics long after this sly but ultimately nasty little film has been forgotten. In the end, the wandering, discursive and intermittently brilliant "Bowling for Columbine" amounts to a cinematic gutter ball...
CLICK HERE for the rest of the thread
I don't think I could watch it now. He reminds me of my father, my grandmother and my animation professor at SFSU (author of Forbidden Animation, which poleaxes political correctness in the animation industry), all of whom had debilitating strokes. The media are hyenas savaging a helpless disabled man who can't defend himself.
FRee dixie,sw
Even some liberals think that Heston has been unfairly criticized. I posted this a week or so ago in the thread that discussed Heston retiring from the NRA, but some might've missed it:
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August 20, 2002, 9:00 a.m.
He’s Not Moses, but He’s Something Else
My tribute to Charlton Heston.
By Richard Dreyfuss
I am shy around movie stars. True, if odd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth and all I can think to say is I loved you in ... So it is with Charlton Heston.
In his presence I seem to nod idiotically like one of these doggies in the back of rear windows of cars. He always tries to make my agonies a bit smaller since he is such a gentleman. We've talked about children and gun control but usually it's hopeless and I just end up trying not to stare.
It's a serious and silly business, acting. Grown people running around pretending the clothes they're wearing are their own, pretending the words they're saying are their own, pretending that they're not pretending. That stuff can really make you feel silly if you're not careful. A thousand times more silly if you're wearing a toga or staring offstage at a burning bush that isn't there. But as silly as it might be at times, acting has awesome power to mirror our reality and give shape to our best and most noble pictures of ourselves.
When I was a kid and yearning to act, there were scads of actors whose work I admired and tried to emulate: (Spencer) Tracy and (Charles) Laughton, Paul Muni, Irene Dunne, and Jimmy Cagney. There were also Errol Flynn and John Wayne and Charlton Heston.
I thought, being cocky, that I could be something like Tracy, something like Cagney, something like Laughton (well maybe not Laughton). I watched them all. I knew I would never be as sexy as Flynn, never as heroic as Wayne, never as mythic as Heston. I never thought for a minute I could be like Heston.
There are some performances that could not possibly be acted by anyone other than who played them. Even though we hear stories about (Ronald) Reagan being cast in Casablanca, we know in our gut it just couldn't be right, couldn't happen. God gave Bogart the role. God gave John Wayne Red River. And God cast Charlton Heston as Moses. And Ben Hur. God I think cast Heston as God, because (if I'm not mistaken) his voice is the voice of God in the Ten Commandments, playing against himself. They say Cecil B. DeMille did the voice, but it sounds like Heston to me. I believe it anyway. Makes a better story.
Millions of Jewish kids grew up with the confusion that A) Charlton Heston was Moses B) Charlton Heston was not Jewish. I believe that films like Ben Hur were conceived because Heston was there to make them. He allowed these stories to be told because he was there to play the parts. Ben Hur starring Robert Montgomery. (Please.) Tyrone Power as Moses. (I don't think so.) With all due respect, and I have loads of that, Heston is inescapable. He was necessary. There would be no Chariot Race worth its salt without him. I would never watch Heston on TV because he was too big. It would be like watching the promos to the Incredible Hulk, with the giant bursting through his shirt. He was too big for television. TV is small, it's manageable, it's less. Heston was almost too big for the 20th century, let alone TV. But in the darkened mysterioso of the movie theatre, Charlton Heston was "just right."
When I saw Charlton Heston as a kid, he took me far, far away, to places few actors could go. The only other American actor so comfortable outside of this era was Wayne, and Heston could time travel farther. Both held the magical alchemy that made me forget the commonplace of here and now completely. John Wayne allowed us into our American past. Heston, because of his perfectly male face, the depth of his voice, the measured almost antique rhythm of his speech, the oddly innocent commitment that allowed him to dive without looking into the role, took me farther, before the common era, as they say.
Somehow he was able to cut the myriad strings that connect us to our current lives, so he could inhabit our imagined past and imagined future so perfectly. So well did he do this that his discomfort was obvious when he played in the Now (actually, make that my discomfort, because he more than likely had a ball in the rare instances when he played something current). If it wasn't the past it was the future. I could never have gotten to Ancient Rome without him, nor Ape City.
Is so and so a great actor? A good actor? A bad actor? Speaking as an expert it's a stupid question. The actor either gets you to where you have to go, or not. Heston did; priceless. He could portray greatness, which is no longer an artistic goal; he could portray a grandeur that was so satisfying. What he was able to personify so perfectly for us was a vision of ourselves called heroic. Is this out of favor? Out of step? Antique? Yes, antique as in gorgeous, incredibly valuable, and not produced anymore but this is a critique of the world, not him (hopefully we will one day come back to all that).
As someone who has seen Ben Hur two million times I am totally grateful.
Self-consciousness is the anticipation of being silly and often is the spoiler for many actors. Charlton Heston had no such problem. He would dive into the story with what I can only call measured abandon and make me believe. And it was fun watching him.
It has become fashionable to characterize his politics; almost as if his politics were a separate thing, like Diana's popularity. People are either defensive or patronizing (if not contemptuous). I can only say I wish all the liberals and all the conservatives I knew had the class and forbearance he has. Would I be as patient or serene when so many had showed me such contempt, or tried to make me feel stupid or small? I doubt it, truly I do. This is dignity, simply and completely. A much more important quality than political passion at the end of the day, and far more lacking, don't you think?
It is a terrible, terrible, terrible thing that Charlton Heston is going through this (earlier this month, Heston announced he had been diagnosed with symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease), but I confess that there is a part of my heart where I am grateful for the opportunity to let him know what he's meant to me.
It will make him smile that I'm writing this on National Review's website (among other publications). Come to think of it, it is kind of funny.
— This piece was originally published by United Press International.
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While you're at the video store, grab a copy of "Khartoum" as well. If they have it.
This is probably true (I see too much of it in my own black neighborhood, and I'm afraid to go out of my flat now because of my "black" dog fighter neighbors who stole and killed my dogs), and I think it's due to the fact that so many black people in the US (why, I don't know) live in overcrowded cities where people are practically stacked on top of each other. We've seen all the riots in urban areas of China, Indonesia, Europe, Africa, and South America so why should the US be any different? When any species of social animal becomes overpopulated and overcrowded the society begins to self-destruct. Mice, chickens and rabbits usually start eating each other (which makes me wonder if Soylent Green wasn't intended as a prophetic warning?). I have ZERO sympathy for people who have my skin color and use that as justification for preying on other people of the same color. They do it because they can get away with it.
dog
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