Charlton Heston: Complex Icon (by Gareth Higgins)
Charlton Heston died this weekend at age 84, following Roy Scheider and Richard Widmark as the latest in a series of powerful cinematic actors to pass away -- although Heston was probably best known to a younger generation as the old guy who walked out of a Michael Moore interview in Bowling for Columbine. His was an ambivalent life – living through 14 presidencies (and personally befriending several of the most recent occupants of the office), supporting civil rights when it was unfashionable, switching his political allegiances, and latterly becoming identified with right-wing causes. Not often a subtle actor (although you could do worse than watch his performance in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil as a tribute), he represented a particular kind of vanishing screen presence who, like John Wayne, represented a vision of American greatness that depended far too much on the suggestion of invulnerability.
So, now that he is gone, what do you say about Charlton Heston? Something simple: He shouldn't be judged on the basis of one interview, given after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease to a door-stopping filmmaker known for his pranks.
He should be judged on his contribution to the movies -- doing gravitas better than anyone else, standing as our image of Moses, Ben-Hur, various military captains, the head of the CIA, and ultimately a particular kind of god figure. I never saw a Heston performance that didn't entertain me on some level.
And, in the interests of full disclosure, he should also be judged on his political activity. The simplistic analysis of the relationship between personal freedom and gun ownership offered by the National Rifle Association, which Heston did so much to bolster, seems outrageous to my Northern Irish ears. In his speeches to and on behalf of the NRA, Heston also sometimes seemed to lack empathy for the victims of gun crime, in his attempts to promote his contentious understanding of the U.S. Constitution.
At the same time, he was an early supporter of the civil rights movement, and even picketed a screening of one of his own films because it was being screened in a racially segregated cinema. He also made several films, such as Soylent Green, The Omega Man, and Planet of the Apes, that endorsed environmental and anti-nuclear causes at a time when it wasn't as easy to engage the public mind in these matters.
When iconic film actors die, something strange happens to our cultural consciousness -- for the movies have captured so many of us like no other medium. The very fact that the projected image on a cinema screen is bigger than life makes people like Heston seem both larger than the rest of us, and somehow less human at the same time.
Heston was a man who appeared to try to live with integrity, and while many of his later political positions are troubling to me, looking back on an ambivalent life like his should not inspire judgmentalism at the expense of the recognition that my own life is subject to the very same competing poles -- between private interest and the common good. And finally, if the stories we tell each other shape our attitudes, values, and beliefs about the world, then perhaps we might respectfully recognise that an era of American cinematic myth-making dominated by the notion of never admitting the possibility of error or flaw seems to be being replaced by something more nuanced, and perhaps more capable of leading us into a real promised land: one where we are honest about our weaknesses as well as our strengths.
Gareth Higgins is a Christian writer and activist in Belfast, Northern Ireland. For the past decade he was the founder/director of the zero28 project, an initiative addressing questions of peace, justice, and culture. He is the author of the insightful How Movies Helped Save My Soul and blogs at www.godisnotelsewhere.blogspot.com. He is also one of the judges of this year's Beliefnet Film Awards, which seek to recognise the best films with spiritual themes. Find out more at http://www.beliefnet.com/bfa/
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Comments
Gareth -
One of the best Obits that I have read on Sojo.
It walk on performance in Hamlet was great. He had the ability to make the character - wheather lead of suporting the focus.
Heston also sometimes seemed to lack empathy for the victims of gun crime, in his attempts to promote his contentious understanding of the U.S. Constitution.
I understand your view on this but you might want to read the parts of his speech that never made it on the Big Four. He was even more direct about his distain for those who committed a crime with a gun. Heston was one of the people that taught me it is not the object that is the problem - it is the person behind it. With all of the laws controling our ability to use and purchase guns in the US - ah, the criminal seems to forget to follow them.
Blessings to his family on the loss of a Great Husband - Father - Friend and American.
Bye -
.
Posted by: Moderatelad | April 7, 2008 10:41 AM
Heston was a great actor and human being in many ways. However, in the early 90's his views and activities took a troubling turn. It is fine to be against gun control, but unnecessary to embrace and propogate the extremist and deceptive positions of the NRA. Also, according to this morning's Washington Post profile, although Heston "helped organize the artists' contingent to the 1963 March on Washington, [he] later said the civil rights bills spurred by the march led to a 'tangle of entitlements and reverse discrimination.'" His opposition to affirmative action isn't nearly as troubling as his questioning of the rightness of the movement.
During the same time, however, he took CBS records to task for producing and marketing such cultural trash as Ice Cube's "song" about cop killing, reminding us liberals that perhaps some of our own should have been speaking out a little louder against the crap foisted on our culture by the entertainment industry.
All in all, like everyone else, a complex human being. And as with Woody Allen, Richard Wagner, Roman Polanski and Miles Davis, we are challenged to draw a line somewhere to determine the degree to which we can appreciate the art while denouncing certain actions and views of the artist. And fortunately, in light of the moral shortcomings of the artists listed above, the problematic aspects of Heston's last two decades seem pretty benign and forgivable.
Posted by: I and I | April 7, 2008 11:46 AM
I had a similar response to Heston's passing. http://tinyurl.com/48cbk9 I liked your piece especially for reminding us that human beings are complex. It illustrates the danger of dividing the world up into good guys and bads.
Posted by: JimII | April 7, 2008 12:05 PM
Oh noes, da evil gunzzsz
Posted by: aaron | April 7, 2008 12:28 PM
Hi Gareth,
Been checking your site all day as I knew you'd have an interesting take on it, and I'm glad to see you didn't disappoint. Thanks for this.
Matt
Posted by: MattPage | April 7, 2008 3:07 PM
Thanks Gareth for your insightful viewpoints.
I read another interesting article on Heston's death that began this way:
"'Last December, Bob Dylan literally stopped the music on his [weekly XM Satellite radio show] "Theme Time Radio Hour" show to honor Charlton Heston.
Following the soulful tune “Eve’s Ten Commandments,” Dylan mentioned Heston’s iconic role as Moses in the well-known biblical epic and added, 'Charlton gets a bad rap for his strong conservative beliefs and involvement with the NRA, but truth to tell, he was a strong advocate for civil rights, many years before it became fashionable….'
Dylan ticked off Heston’s accolades, including the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, and then added, admiringly, 'Never mind the fact that he’s in a couple of our favorite movies, including ‘Touch of Evil,’ ‘The Big Country,’ ‘Planet of the Apes’ and of course ‘Soylent Green.'"
The article also mentioned the song "Cop Killer" and how Heston went to a stockholders meeting of Time Warner who had released the song on a label owned by that giant corporation. Heston stood before the group and dramatically read the lyrics as only he could do in his distinctive voice.
You can read the entire article here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9405.html
Posted by: jackfate | April 7, 2008 3:28 PM
I appreciate the eulogy here, but I don’t see where Heston led an “ambivalent life” in the sense that he had mutually conflicting views or positions. I think to characterize his life as such may reflect a failure to recognize that private interests and the common good are not always “competing poles”.
Posted by: Jeff Fairchild | April 7, 2008 4:49 PM
I find the charicture of conservatives that Gareth presents here unbelievable. Why is it hard for liberals to imagine that someone like Heston, who was a staunch supporter of the Bill of Rights, is a staunch supporter of civil rights? It is as if no liberal can't imagine anything other than the false charicture of conservatives they project.
Posted by: Paul C. Quillman | April 7, 2008 7:50 PM
I think you mean 'caricature', Paul. Just a heads up, there.
As for Gareth's point that humans are complex and our lives full of contradiction, well and good, but I will not stop disagreeing with a man just because he dies.
Incidentally, my favorite story about Charlton Heston goes like this: Heston starred in a play directed by Sir Lawrence Oliver on Broadway. (I believe this would have been in the mid 70's, but don't quote me on that.) The show apparently had some issues. Whatever. Opening night, Mr. Movie Star Charlton Heston hosts the cast party. Big, catered thing. Waiters, raw oyster bar. Very nice. Then the early editions arrive with the reviews. The critics hated the show. Universal pannage. While the rest of the cast are still reading and commiserating, Heston signals to the caterer who immediately packs up all the food and booze. By the time the party attendants are told to leave by the management, Heston is already gone.
LOL. Classy dude.
Posted by: MG | April 7, 2008 8:08 PM
"LOL. Classy dude." - MG
Classier than telling a silly story meant to make him look bad the day after he dies.
Posted by: Eric | April 7, 2008 8:14 PM
MG,
Low shot.
Jeff
Posted by: Jeff | April 7, 2008 8:38 PM
Aaron is my favorite poster here.
As far as the Michael Moore question goes, he was asking Heston a question to which he did not know the answer. He then mocked Heston for his response, without offering an alternative response.
This is Moore's style... Ask difficult questions, and lampoon the responses. This worked well in "Roger & Me", when Moore was a passive observer of a maudlin spectacle.
But this interview was an attempt to illicit a certain response. This is not prank, but manipulation. Moore wanted something to mock, so he got it. For this he won his first and only Oscar.
Posted by: kevin s. | April 8, 2008 2:18 AM
Charlton Carter Heston was by all reports a nice person and he is well-known for his movie acting.
More than that, what can one say? We only know him, which is to say we don't, by the illusion that shadows on a wall are him and convey relationship, which they don't.
Views are diverse and the reasons he had his are no more sublime than those of millions of others, nor do they carry any more intellectual or spiritual weight than theirs.
Like Charlie Chaplin to Albert Einstein in a limousine being jostled by a crowd outside a Hollywood premiere, after Einstein asked him, "But what does it mean?" we can answer what Heston's fame as a movie star specially conveys: "Nothing."
Posted by: Sojourner Truth | April 8, 2008 2:41 AM
I appreciated your commentary, but must take issue with your characterizing Mr. Heston as ambivalent. I saw him interviewed several times with regard to his support of the NRA and he was anything but ambivalent.
Posted by: Carol | April 8, 2008 6:11 AM
See - this is why I don't think it is worth me hangin' around. Besides the moderator never posting some of my responses and thus making me look bad. The view of some on this site because Heston was an 'actor' but also a conservative - he is fair game to be mocked. I wonder what these same people would say about Barbar S or Merryl S when they pass and look back at their activism. Let me answer - it will almost be a cannonization.
later -
.
Posted by: Moderatelad | April 8, 2008 8:44 AM
Heston was a great screen actor--the last of his kind in many ways. He was a star in the old sense of the word and yet he had a foot in the more modern celebrity as activist world as well. This is a good obit and it covers the essentials. It's hard to understand the issue of guns in the U.S. from an outside perspective. It's just as hard to understand it from an inside perspective. Heston did take on the NRA's mouthpiece role and he used it to state the position that most of the members of that group wanted him to state. It's important to understand that not all gun owners in the U.S. are NRA members and many don't follow the extreme party line the NRA often takes. Like Mr. Heston's life, it's a complex picture.
Posted by: Richard J | April 8, 2008 9:48 AM
Posted by: lloyd crump | April 8, 2008 1:41 PM
So - I take it that you high five the moderator for not posting some of my replies and believe that this site should be a haven for liberals only.
Your kind rally against the Kennedy's and Fawells of the world and show no respect for diversity of thought.
Just want to know if I got it correct. I have rallied for many on the otherside when unkind things were said about them. Supported them in their ideals even if I did not agree with them. Now - you want to show me the door.
What a crock -
later -
.
Posted by: Moderatelad | April 8, 2008 3:23 PM
Just my little input:
Charlton Heston, like all 3-dimensional humans, had a complex life. One day, in my church library, I picked up a charming and touching book entitled Letters to My Grandson: Charlton Heston. It literally brought me to tears at times. Anyone who ever read this would know that ultimately what he valued was his family and his faith. He didn't always do this perfectly. He also did a pretty fabulous job narrating the Bible: I had this as a book on tape.
I enjoy reading all opinions here, but get uncomfortable when people get hateful. Not feeling God so much then.
Keep challenging us all! I need some refining by fire...
Posted by: LisalovesGod2 | April 8, 2008 4:26 PM
Gareth,
Well done.
Jeff
Posted by: Jeff | April 8, 2008 6:11 PM
"...supporting civil rights when it was unfashionable, switching his political allegiances, and latterly becoming identified with right-wing causes."
Gareth, I hate to tell you this, but civil rights WAS a right-wing cause. It was the left-wing southern Democrats who caused segregration to last so long.
Posted by: Dale | April 10, 2008 3:20 PM
". . .era of American cinematic myth-making dominated by the notion of never admitting the possibility of error or flaw . . . ."
With your opening and closing on this erroneous depiction of Heston's filmic roles (as ewll as of the larger era), I wonder just how knowledgeable and balanced you opinions are?
Are you unaware of Heston's "Major Dundee"? How about his Gen. Charles George Gordon in "Khartoum"? And what about his Norman knight in "The Warlord"?
These are just a few of Heston's several finely nuanced characters that cannot be reasonably categorized as "never admitting the possibility of error or flaw."
Posted by: Chum | April 16, 2008 5:31 PM
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