Dargis on Heston
So often when someone dies, it’s hard to do his or her life justice. With Charlton Heston, it was particularly difficult because, especially for people of a certain age, his memory is so caught up in his controversial late life politics.
The media and the Internet have been awash with remembrances, some critical, some fawning. Manohla Dargis has a particularly good one that strikes just the right balance. She doesn’t gloss over his foibles exactly, but she gets to the heart of why he mattered.
About her favorites, the one-two-three punch of Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man and Soylent Green she remembers: “This was the Charlton Heston I first met and loved and the one I still love, the last man on Earth, the raging consciousness, the horrified hero.”
Like him or not, he was one of the last who was larger than life and for that he deserves to be remembered.
Filed under: Miscellaneous
Related Posts: - I Love to Rumspringa
- Disney Buys the Whole Planet
- Happy Birthday New Beverly
- Charlton Heston, Actor: 1924 - 2008
- New Beverly Nights: ’70s Future Shock
As I’ve been busy lately doing other things, this is the first report of Heston’s death that I’ve seen, so these are my first reactions. Yes, he was larger than life. I don’t feel he was a particularly good actor, nor do I believe his political views expressed over the past several years reflect what I believe. I just want to remind people — and myself — that over the course of his career the man stood up publicly for many of the democratic ideals I believe in. For that alone he deserves not only good mention but our respect.
And he was a most beautiful man.
Leave it to Manohla Dargis to say exactly what has to be said and say it beautifully.
Is this link not working? I’m getting a redirect to an empty page off the Mahnola hyperlink.
Nice memorial from Dargis. She always finds an interesting way of pulling great nuances from big pictures. I never thought about how Welles exploited Heston’s looks to craft that character, but it makes perfect sense to me now.
Thanks Craig.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/movies/07darg.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Thanks, Joel. I actually read this directly on the NY Times site so I didn’t realize the link wasn’t working.
I fixed the link. Sorry about that.
You know, for a guy that seems like such an establishment actor, he had some pretty risky, out-there credits, didn’t he? Touch of Evil, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green. You never think of him that way, but it’s true.
Here is a link to a tribute from the SF Chronicles’ Mick LaSalle that takes an interesting angle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/08/DD6C101B0D.DTL