There is a diary about the death of Charlton Heston on the recent diaries list, which is rather short and in my opinion rather inappropriately focusing on his participation in the NRA ("Gun Nut" was used in the diarist's writeup, and the commentators went on and on about his having a "gun in his hand" when he died). I think it is rather sad that someone who had such a vital movie career is only discussed on this site as someone known only for his recent political activity. This was a man who suffered the awfulness of Alzheimer's at the end of his life, and one who produced some very successful films. I wanted to look back at some of my favourites of his films here.
I do not think Charlton Heston was a particularly good actor, believe me. I don't think he was interesting, or subtle, or able to go much beyond what you saw at the beginning. His accent and personality, his pose and carriage, were all consistent. Sometimes it worked, as I would argue it did in the science fiction film "Planet of the Apes." In that he had the task of playing an all-American astronaut type (did you know the writer of the book on which the film is based was French?). His inability to really adjust to a different setting or to project a different personality was good for that role. I think there are some things that work really well in that movie, which was silly but very much a product of its time.
Of course Heston is really well known for his role as Moses in "The Ten Commandments," which is one of my greatest pleasures. The fact that he could not bring himself to shave his hair to get the right "Egyptian" look just adds to his lack of correctness in the role. Where everyone else was trying to be something that fit in the roles, Heston made Anne Baxter look like a fine seductress, and his performance was soooo bad. Deliciously bad. But bad in a commanding way. You were not able to take eyes off of him -- and he and Brynner, whose performance I am really fond of, were really good in that they balanced each other beautifully. The Egyptology really is pretty good for the time (late 1950s) and the sets and costumes and all were well worth watching the film over and over for.
The film Heston won the Oscar for was "Ben Hur". I haven't seen this in ages. I do remember it being a fantastic spectacle, but don't remember him being particularly good in it. Stephen Boyd was told to play that there was a past homosexual relationship between the two friends, but not to tell Heston that this had been the case, that it was something he would not have been pleased to be involved with. And you can see some of that in the way Boyd looks at him. It makes the performances more intriguing -- that I do remember.
Of course, Heston was involved in a whole bunch of other films. "Soylent Green" and "Earthquake" are two that are fun. I appreciated the fact he didn't take his movie star status so seriously that he was unwilling to play a bit part in the second "Wayne's World" film, and he did narration of a whole bunch of things. He was not too proud for that.
But I want to finish with a bit of praise. He was impressive to me in one of his last appearances on film, as the Player King in Branagh's version of "Hamlet" -- it was a role that called for a great voice, a joy in pronouncing the words as they were written. And for that moment, that brief shining moment, I could see a greatness that was hidden in most of his silly roles.