The Passing of Charlton Heston

As a Mormon I sometimes feel a little reticent to revel my religious affiliation to new acquaintances because it is such a ‘loaded word’, I feel a little of the same when discussing the fact that I am a Charlton Heston fan. The loaded concepts around Mr. Heston are many, that he was a gun nut, a crazy right winger, that he had a ‘prophet’ complex, was prone to corny choices for movie roles, or just wasn’t a very good actor. There was a time when I was a big fan of Heston politically, I’m here referring to the later conservative Heston, the younger liberal Heston is mostly forgotten, though I now more closely relate to him. I am still a strong supporter of the second amendment, though not at all a gun person, and I think a lot of what the actor/NRA president had to say was worthy of discussion, indeed I think he was largely right on a lot of issues, though his style of communicating these points could have been more ecumenical.

Heston is sometimes viewed as the William Shatner of the big screen, and he did play some “hockey” parts in the De Mile epics and sci-fi adventure films of the late 60’s and 70’s. But he was kind of hypnotic to watch. In the crowded cast of Airport 75 he still stood out, and his performance in Ben-Hur was the equal of Lancaster and Douglas. I always felt that Heston was a good person, well meaning and consistent, which is why his attack by Michael Moore in ’Bowling for Columbine’ still stands in my estimation as one of the scummiest things the film maker has ever done (and I generally like Moore). Heston will be missed, even though he had been out of the public eye for years suffering from Alzheimer’s, he was still part of the national conversation and zeitgeist, I found myself in a conversation about Heston as recently as last Thursday. Indeed I just might have to watch Soylent Green again before the week is out.