As someone who tries to occasionally cover current events, I suppose I would be remiss to not discuss the passing of Charlton Heston last weekend. The problem is that I wasn't a huge fan of his work. Maybe I watched the wrong stuff, or maybe his work on film was eclipsed by his work with guns (I'm neither for or against gun nuts so long as they're not shooting at me). Either way, I don't recall being particularly impressed by anything.
In his defense, I can only think of three of his movies off of the top of my head right now, so we'll talk about those, the first being A Touch of Evil. This was good movie, and Heston was okay in it, with the exception of the fact that he was playing a ^#%$ing Mexican! Okay sure, in 1958 there wasn't a big population of Mexicans in Hollywood, or at least they weren't acting, but a spray on tan does not a Mexican make, and try as I might, I really couldn't get past that. I will give him props for not faking a Mexican accent though, as that would have just made awkward into unbearable.
Next was Soylent Green. Frankly I wasn't sure how to feel about this one - the movie wasn't all that interesting to me as I already knew that Soylent Green was people (sorry if I spoiled it for you). As such, I basically spent the movie wondering at what point he was going to discover this and make the famous declaration. The fact that it didn't happen until the end was a major bummer, as I thought the movie would be about the ramifications of such a discovery. I thought he was okay in it, but again, I don't feel like he stood out as brilliant or anything, especially when compared to Edward G. Robinson's performance.
Which brings me to the ultimate example, The Ten Commandments. This was one of the Easter favorites when I was a kid and, for some reason, Bible movies were watched around my house (we were not a religious bunch - thus the oddity). Anyway, all I can ever think of from The Ten Commandments is a bearded Charlton Heston standing with his arms in the air while a trio of women look on in awe as he parts the Red Sea. Again, he just didn't stand out to me as an awesome actor. Of course, who could hope to outshadow Yul Brynner, but still, I felt he was a bit hammy, and he was clearly the star (unless you count the guy in the bush - don't remember who played him).
Now, there are obviously quite a few movies I've missed. Perhaps those would shed some light on this. I've never seen any iteration of Planet of the Apes, another movie full of culturally iconic moments. I've never seen the Omega Man, which is an earlier iteration of the recent I Am Legend, neither of which will be watched until I've read the book. I think I saw Ben Hur when I was really young, but I don't recall anything about it except that it makes for a good punchline about transvestites (not that there's anything wrong with being a transvestite, although I don't think the leather skirts they wore in gladiator movies count as cross dressing).
I'm sure I'll eventually look one of these up (I can almost hear Jasen typing furiously in response to my not having seen Planet of the Apes now) and my opinion of Heston's work will change. Until then, I'm sure he was a nice guy and all, and there will be much applause during next years dead reel at the Academy Awards. Really, what more can an actor hope for?
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