Charlton Heston used to be a liberal. He admired Martin Luther King, Jr., and attended the historic March on Washington in 1963. Like a lot of men of his vintage, he became more conservative as he grew older. As his movie roles grew more scarce, he fed his actor's ego by taking on the role of president of the National Rifle Association. At the time of his installment into that office, the NRA was teetering on the brink of dissolution, bankrupt and losing members. For about three million dollars a year, he traveled around the country promoting gun ownership and losing his soul in the process. One week after the tragedy in Columbine, the NRA showed its sensitivity to the horror by holding a convention in nearby Denver, where I believe Mr. Heston performed his classic move of holding up a rifle from the Davy Crockett era and saying he would give it up when it was pried "from my cold dead hands." At the same time parents were dealing with the eternal grief of surviving their children, Heston was playing Moses, trading tablets for a flintlock. I don't know if he knew how many illegal weapons came into our cities due to the pressure applied by the lobby he fronted. I don't know if he cared. I DO know that somewhere out there is an actor whose career is on the downside and will trade his conscience for money. To have a DNA so chock-filled with neediness that trading lives for lucre is a sad legacy, one that erases all the acting awards and honors that defined his earlier vocation, when he only pretended to enjoy killing.
His politics are immaterial to his artistic legacy, which was quite rich. I didn't agree with his somewhat fanatical beliefs when it came to guns, but that doesn't diminish how great of an actor he was.
Watch this clip from one of his last films, Kenneth Branagh's film of Hamlet, then try and convince me that he couldn't act anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nonx0JmrcQ
In fact, if I knew how to make a You Tube, I'd love to take the Wright soundtracks in context http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ and put it with this footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id-yfB3I_R4. And I wouldn't mind making it full circle, putting in Pearl Harbor footage along with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, putting in Rev. Wright talking about the psalm with the Rivers of Babylon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U9T92BKSGw.
Violence begets violence. Martin Luther King preached nonviolence. Rev. Wright carries on trying to wake his congregation up to another truth about America by recognizing the shame others see. "America's chickens are coming home to roost. Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that, y'all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador [Edward Peck] whose eyes are wide open and who's trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised." The whole sermon is actually wonderful: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-wright-transcripts-webmar29,0,5774556.story Amen.
This is how I will remember Charlton Heston best, not the NRA gunman.
It also amazes me that you go after Hillary and Bill everyday on here, for the way you think they have failed America and served themselves, but when someone suggest that Heston (an Actor for Christ's sakes! ) might have been selling out in his later years for the money and the spotlight, and to have people still look up to him, well-I'm just more than a little surprised. Again. Actors take a chance when they pick a cause. Whether they step on a stage to act in front of a camera, or up to a podium to testify before Congress, they are painting a big red target on their ass, and the chance they take being received by others is the same: you can't control people's perceptions of you. If your an actor, and you want to be remembered for your acting, shut up. Otherwise, don't complain.
Most of the male blogger's on Huff Po want to be the next Keith olbermann, or that dude who does 'Fox Attacks'...and they think by 'turning up the heat' and being more extreme, they can achieve that goal of being the next big liberal media truth czar. Mr. Greenfield, your journalistic soul was compromised, so you could appear more 'buzz-worthy'. don't quit your day job
This author is using the same tactic. It must be hard to get recognized in this industry ,judging by the tactics they will use to get attention. Who is feeding their ego, Mr Greenfield?
Please try to keep SOME journalism standards when posting. A ten second google search isn't asking too much.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/wackoattacko/heston.php
The oddest of all the smears thrown at "Bowling for Columbine" is this one:
"The film depicts NRA president Charlton Heston giving a speech near Columbine; he actually gave it a year later and 900 miles away..."
Um, yeah, that's right! I made it up! Heston never went there! He never said those things!
Or....
The Truth: Heston took his NRA show to Denver and did and said exactly what we recounted. From the end of my narration setting up Heston's speech in Denver, with my words, "a big pro-gun rally," every word out of Charlton Heston's mouth was uttered right there in Denver, just 10 days after the Columbine tragedy...
As for the clip preceding the Denver speech, when Heston proclaims "from my cold dead hands," this appears as Heston is being introduced in narration. It is Heston's most well-recognized NRA image – hoisting the rifle overhead as he makes his proclamation, as he has done at virtually every political appearance on behalf of the NRA (before and since Columbine). I have merely re-broadcast an image supplied to us by a Denver TV station, an image which the NRA has itself crafted for the media, or, as one article put it, "the mantra of dedicated gun owners" which they "wear on T-shirts, stamp it on the outside of envelopes, e-mail it on the Internet and sometimes shout it over the phone."
After his death his walk with Dr. King surfaced . No point of speaking ill of the deceased, but I am curious what could transform a person so much ...
On the contrary most of us try to be a better person with time..
May he rest in peace.
RIP