Charlton Heston

Despite my enjoyment of much of Tim Burton's 1994 fantastic biopic Ed Wood, I've never been able to forgive the cinematic libel it commits near the end. My general principle concerning fictions about real people is that anything goes that plays, so I must consider my response here as completely emotional. It's in that scene near the end when Johnny Depp's Wood rushes into Musso and Frank's for a composing drink and happens upon his idol, Orson Welles (played by Vincent D'Onofrio). After an awkward introduction they take to trading war stories, or, more to the point, complaints. Wood moans about producers who put their buddies in his films, even "when they're not right for the part."

"Tell me about it," D'Onofrio's Welles replies. "I'm supposed to do a thriller at Universal...but they wanted Charlton Heston to play a Mexican!"

It's a cheap laugh line, and a not a particularly effective one, either, and I remember my back going up the very first time I saw Burton's film.

Because for one thing, any self-respecting cinephile knows that it was only through Charlton Heston's intervention that Welles directed Touch of Evil in the first place. Welles had only been contracted to co-star in the picture as corrupt bordertown cop Hank Quinlan. When the producers contacted Heston for the lead role of Mexican narc "Mike" Vargas, they told him, "We've got Welles," to which Heston replied, "Any picture Welles directs, I'll make." Which sent producers scurrying back to Welles, who rewrote and directed the picture for no extra fee.

The Ed Wood libel also rankled because Heston is so good in Evil. He is simultaneously limber (as when he beats the rattling elevator up a few flights of stairs to his hotel room for a meeting with some law enforcement bigwigs) and stiff, unbending—his sense of propriety is such that it makes him a rather awkward match for his lush, eager new wife (Janet Leigh). And his self-righteousness is such that it makes him, eventually, the least sympathetic figure in Welles' perverse morality play. It's only when he loses that self-righteousness, that control, and snarls "I'm no cop now!" and smashes up a bar in rage, that he brings us back to his side. Throughout this film's journey, Heston gets all the notes right.

But finally, it rankled because Charlton Heston was really the first heroic movie actor to make a substantial impression on me, well before I really knew anything about screen acting, before things like screen acting really registered as such, even. I mean, yeah, I was a fairly precocious eight-year-old when Planet of the Apes came out, but not that precocious. But I grew up fast enough to snicker a little bit at the sight of Heston mouthing the words of Country Joe McDonald's Woodstock stage patter in The Omega Man, but I still teared up at his character's quasi-crucifixion at the end. Between Apes, Omega and Soylent Green, Heston became to certain late-Baby-Boomers what John Wayne was to their dads. Only in those films Heston was the John Wayne of the dystopia—the inescapable dystopia. He was, then, a pre-adolescent's first effective intimation of Sisyphus.

Hence, my emotional attachment to the actor. (One that only strengthened after I met him and Leigh at a Premiere party celebrating the reconstruction of Touch of Evil back in 1996, at which he was unfailingly gracious and eager to talk movies.)

It's funny—a few years back, one could really surprise people by pulling out that Michel Mourlet bit about Heston being an "axiom of cinema;" now, thanks to the internet, almost everyone knows it. What we ought to acknowledge on his passing today is that Mourlet's pronouncement, dismissed as almost pathological hyperbole at the time and for some time after, was accurate.

One ought to recall what a good sport he could be, too—check out his work in Richard Lester's Musketeers films, the delicious fun he has with the role of Cardinal Richelieu. Enjoy him relishing a nice thick slice of ham he's cut for himself as the Player King in Branagh's Hamlet. Or his cameo as "Good Actor" at the end of Wayne's World 2, in perhaps the movie's only worthwhile bit, both a deft piece of self-parody and an acute summation of the qualities that made him so compelling.

And then look at Anthony Mann's El Cid, and be awed.

Comments

[Mark]

Awe is exactly the right word to describe El Cid. An amazing piece of filmmaking, and Heston is the rock the film is built around. Hard to believe he's dead - his films have conferred a kind of immortality on him. He was a true Hollywood legend.

[Tim Lucas]

Well-said, Glenn. Speaking of his gift for self-parody and generosity of spirit, I thought it was awfully kind of him -- after Burton's mention of him in ED WOOD -- that he agreed to play Tim Roth's father in Burton's unsuccessful remake of PLANET OF THE APES. Heston's uncredited cameo was the highlight of the picture for me, and he gave a surprisingly strong performance in what was surely planned as nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek joke.

[bill]

Great piece, Glenn. One of my favorite performances by Heston was as Long John Silver in his son Fraser's made-for-cable adaptation of "Treasure Island". I don't know why more people don't know the film, or why it's unavailable on DVD; it's great stuff.

[Axel Kuschevatzky]

His role in the unjustly forgotten George Pal movie The Naked Jungle (1953) was what really made it for me.
He played a bitter widower in a chocolate plantation in an unnamed South American country, fighting a massive ant invasion. He was a great human hero, vulnerable yet manly enough. I saw the movie for first time when I was around eight years old en TV.

A yes, the Michael Moore bit blaming Heston on Columbine was cheap and under the belt. I really like Moore´s movies, but how can a spokeperson be responsable for Americas lack of gun control? Even if you didn´t like Hestons polital views (like me) the guy deserves respect.

[addison dewitt]

Not to reopen an old argument, but here are Heston and Paul Scofield leaving us just weeks apart. Think of the contrast.

You have one irresistible movie actor who had intelligence and taste and dreamed of being taken seriously onstage as a Shakespearean performer. He never was.

You have one legendary stage technician with a great Shakespearean reputation who -- okay, maybe for the money -- tried movies. He never became important to us on the screen as he had been to London theater audiences.

Me, I think they're a perfect illustration of the difference between great theatre actors and great movie presences. But I miss Heston more. Hearing he's gone makes me want to watch 55 Days at Peking again, or really pretty much anything he was in.

[Glenn Kenny]

To Addison: Hear, hear. I bow to no one in my cries for a decent DVD of "55 Days At Peking," an underrated Heston film, an underrated Nick Ray film, an underrated Ava Gardner film, an underrated David Niven film, for whoever's sake! And yes, Axel—"The Naked Jungle," available in a good Paramount SD DVD, is an unusual high point in the Pal/Byron Haskin/Heston body of work. C. H. had a Papa's pride in the work of son Fraser, and yup, Bill, that cable version of "Treasure Island" was damn solid. And Tim, both C.H.'s generosity of spirit and performing ingenuity were on display in his small role in Burton's "Apes" remake.

To say he will be missed understates the point. We've already been missing him. Good or bad, what he represented was central to so many of the things we value.

[Campaspe]

I liked Ed Wood but that line damn near ruined it for me too. Excellent tribute to Heston.

[Ian W. Hill]

The ED WOOD bit has always gotten on my nerves, for the same reasons. Glad I'm not alone. We can THANK Heston for the fact we have Welles' film - and for all the negative talk of Heston playing a Mexican, well, that was Welles' idea as well (at least according to the man himself, who said he did it to make the character interesting in SOME way - but Welles can't always be believed, of course).

Interesting the scene you point out as the one that gains audience sympathy for Vargas, as Welles felt that was the scene when Vargas, the good cop, goes bad and begins to resort to Quinlan-level techniques to get things done. But then, Welles was never one to make the "good" and "evil" characters very obviously good and evil.

I love Heston's work in some of the quieter scenes of TOUCH - he may be seen as "wooden" by many but there's subtle stuff going on there, actually (the way he, with difficulty, tries to be respectful of Quinlan while letting him know the evidence has been planted, as he is on Quinlan's turf and surrounded by his cronies, is lovely).

Judging from the reactions across the blogs today, it seems that he was much loved, even from those who disagreed so much with his politics. Good.

55 Days at Peking DVD will be avalaible soon in The Miriam Collection (as others Bronston produced movies, including alrady avalaible El Cid).

[D Cairns]

I think Welles' script changes to Touch of Evil have been well-documented, so we CAN believe him in this instance -- he did make Heston's character Mexican.
It's worth reading Heston's published filmmaking diaries, he's very thoughtful and informative about his work.

[matrok]

OK but how about that scene in the doco about gays in Hollywood (The Celluloid Closert? or something) where Gore Vidal explains that they built this elaborate subtext into Ben Hur - Marsala (?) has the hots for Ben - lots of double entendres and symbolism etc, and ole Charlton never suspected a thing?

[Lord Henry]

He also fought as much as he could for Peckinpah on MAJOR DUNDEE, another underrated film.

[addison dewitt]

Vidal has been telling that story about BEN HUR for decades, but to my knowledge no one else involved has ever confirmed it. As always when nobody steps forward to back Gore up -- he usually waits until they're all dead anyway -- it should be taken with a pillar of salt. Even if it's true, I don't believe his claim that Heston would have freaked if he'd known, since I doubt playing Stephen Boyd's unwitting love object would have flustered him a bit.

As for MAJOR DUNDEE, there's a lovely story that Heston handsomely offered the studio his own salary to prevent them from firing Peckinpah once the shoot went over budget. To his incredulity, they took him up on it, and he ended up making the movie for free.

I also very seldom regret not getting to meet screen icons face to face, but Glenn, I've got to say I envy you spending face time with Heston. The only time I ever laid eyes on him in person was when he gave one of his Second Amendment stemwinders at some Republican convention I was covering, and he was never at his best in that role. His greatest asset -- his poise -- always went right out the window.

[gorilla Bob]

I totally agree. I love his performance in Musketeers, but then I'm partial to Richlieu, considering what an idiot the King was. And I agree about Ed Wood, I didn't like that slur against Heston either. I don't care what an actor's poliics are, it's their work that interests me. If I can forgive Jane Fona's left stupidity during the 60s (even as a kid, I knew there was something wrong there), I can certainly forgive Hestorn's right wing obtuseness.

[James Byrne]

Spielberg obviously based Indiana Jones on Charlton Heston in SECRET OF THE INCAS.