Wow, I thought he passed away a while ago.
He has gone to the great big shooting range in the sky.
I feel like a fly on the wall at a Rosie O'donnell keg party.
I know he went gun crazy there at the end, and probably wouldn't have had much to say to a walking freak flag like me, but he starred in movies that had a great impact in my life.
R.I.P. Mr. Heston.
Gun comments aside, Charlton Heston made some great movies - and some of them he didn't just play the good "action hero" in all of them. It's kind of interesting to see that tried to expand his roles beyond that.
Watch the film-noirish "Touch of Evil" - he plays a Mexican police officer (a bit strange these days - but not uncommon in the 50's); or "The Big Country" where he's the thuggish ranch-hand who's constantly harrassing Gregory Peck's "good guy" character.
Touch of Evil was brilliant... that first scene... panning around town. Orson Welles knocked that one out of the park.
Totally agree on Touch of Evil, Jade. Not necessarily because of Chuck though. Soylent Green and Omega Man were awesome too. I loved his version of the Player King (though my fav is still Dreyfuss). But Id forgotten his really surprising cameo in Waynes World 2. ha!
Well; looks like all us NRA types have to pick a new president; not sure who we can find with Hestons credentials and integrity; love that guy; he was my president. Sad day his passing; he will be sorely missed; who can step up to fill his shoes, I wonder.
I too enjoyed his movies.
here is one of his speaches put here in remembrace of him that we all need to think for our selves.
Subject: Very good thoughts
'Winning the Cultural War'
Charlton Heston's Speech to the Harvard Law School Forum February 16, 1999.
I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people."
There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best.
There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty of your own freedom of thought ...
your own compass for what is right. Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you ...
the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.
Let me back up. About a year ago, I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old... but I sure as Lord ain't senile. As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that.
I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable.
But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
>From Time magazine to friends and colleagues,
they're essentially saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!" But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction. Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it."
Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs --- the state commissioned announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not..... need not..... tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the
name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia Chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students. Yeah, I know ...
that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes."
Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March sid "black."
But it's a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ...
particuarly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American.....with a capital letter on "American."
Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly,(b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."
What does all of this mean? It means that telling us hat to think has evolved into telling us what to say , so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me:
Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it?
Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression? Let's be honest.
Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe?
It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason. You are the best and the brightest.
You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ...
and abide it ... you are - by your grandfathers'
standards - cowards.
Here's another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers. I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you?
Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me." If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe. Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism.
But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people. You simply ... disobey.
Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course.
Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom. I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King ... who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Vietnam. In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me.
Let me tell you a story. A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so-at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer"- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.
"I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF
I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF
I'M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF
I'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."
It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen,blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.
"SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ...."
Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them.
Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence.
When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said "We can't print that."
"I know," I replied, "but Time/Warner's selling it."
Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner's, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.
When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office.
When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors ...
choke the halls of the board of regents.
When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways.
When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you...petition them, oust them, banish them.
When Time magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month ... boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.
So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobedience's of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this country. If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree.
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Well; looks like all us NRA types have to pick a new president; not sure who we can find with Hestons credentials and integrity; love that guy; he was my president. Sad day his passing; he will be sorely missed; who can step up to fill his shoes, I wonder.
I'll have to go shoot some targets tomorrow in his memory. Or maybe a groundhog if I can find one.
There's not many today with his presence. Probably never has been.
hope some of you read that Cuture War spoiler I put in regardless of you politics; read it in his memory.
hope some of you read that Cuture War spoiler I put in regardless of you politics; read it in his memory.
I did Val.
And of course, reading it didn't change my opinion of him one iota. I'm damn proud to call him a fellow American. I can only strive to be as good of a man as he was.
here is one of his speaches put here in remembrace of him that we all need to think for our selves.Subject: Very good thoughts
Every person who believes in what this country is supposed to stand for should read it.
I just realized I forgot to include "El Cid" as one my favorite Heston movies in there - that was another great one!
Totally random note, which I thought was interesting, Heston made a statement about when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's:
"For an actor, there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring to my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway."
R.I.P. Chuck.
They've been playing that one all day on TV. <:\
I feel like a fly on the wall at a Rosie O'donnell keg party.
Lmao
He was the Action man
Love his movies.
I'm a bit confused by the speech attributed to him, though.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Love his movies.
I'm a bit confused by the speech attributed to him, though. ** spoiler omitted **
Disagree. He specifically states he's willing to face the consequences of his actions. To wit: "Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner's, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk."
But at the same time, shouting him down with statements that are untrue, while perfectly allowable in his world, do not make them any more true, or make his statements automatically invalid.
I can say that a Nick Louge product was too graphic. You can reply "oh yeah? Well you're a little mamma's boy living in her basement playing with your Samantha Carter figures!" Just because you say that doesn't make it true, nor does it make mine false.
RIP Mr. Heston, now you'll know what Moses really thought of your part ;-)
But at the same time, shouting him down with statements that are untrue, while perfectly allowable in his world, do not make them any more true, or make his statements automatically invalid. Just because you say that doesn't make it true, nor does it make mine false.
Absolutely correct. But my point is that your statement cuts both ways. Statements or positions are not automatically true and valid simply because Mr. Heston may have espoused them. Ice-T knew he'd face backlash from concerned citizens, but he put out the album anyway. (What happened to his career after that? Has anyone ever heard from him again?)
Again, I'm not saying that Ice-T isn't an idiot, and that a bunch of slavish fans believing his murderous nonsense isn't sad. What I'm saying is that he and ol' Heston weren't all that dissimilar -- slavishly believing everything Mr. Heston, or anyone else, says is equally silly to me.
But at the same time, shouting him down with statements that are untrue, while perfectly allowable in his world, do not make them any more true, or make his statements automatically invalid. Just because you say that doesn't make it true, nor does it make mine false.Absolutely correct. But my point is that your statement cuts both ways. Statements or positions are not automatically true and valid simply because Mr. Heston may have espoused them. Ice-T knew he'd face backlash from concerned citizens, but he put out the album anyway. (What happened to his career after that? Has anyone ever heard from him again?) ]
Well after his copkiller song scandal he did an HBO special called Pimps Up, Hoes Down. I highly recommend it as an emetic. I couldn't stop saying that to people when I didn't know what to say. Four straight months of...
"Rone? What do you think?"
"Pimps up, hoes down!"
He did a bunch of movies where he shot at people in the late 90's.
Now he plays a detective on one of those cop shows my grandparents watch. A man who was an actual pimp in real life at one point is now playing a detective.
The Ice in his name refers to his stealing (icing) lines from other rappers and integrating them into new songs, in new ways. So, in rap terms, he's like the guy who made a career of saying, "A great man once said..."
hope some of you read that Cuture War spoiler I put in regardless of you politics; read it in his memory.
A very fitting homage to Mr. Heston, Valegrim. Thank you so much for posting it. :)
Well after his copkiller song scandal he did an HBO special called Pimps Up, Hoes Down. I highly recommend it as an emetic. I couldn't stop saying that to people when I didn't know what to say.
My God, I think I saw that. Proof positive that his career was over, to me.
He did a bunch of movies where he shot at people in the late 90's.
I must've missed them. Or forgotten them. Or paid vast sums of money to have the particular brain cells in charge of remembering them surgically removed. Either way.
Now he plays a detective on one of those cop shows my grandparents watch. A man who was an actual pimp in real life at one point is now playing a detective.
Now that's just sad.
The Ice in his name refers to his stealing (icing) lines from other rappers and integrating them into new songs, in new ways. So, in rap terms, he's like the guy who made a career of saying, "A great man once said..."
Righto. Much like Mr. Heston borrowed his "culture war" tag-line and associated "call to arms" against other Americans from Bill O'Reilly. (or vice-versa, maybe Bill stole it from Charlton Heston. Again, either way.)
Jade, thanks for the informative and amusing updates, by the way. Whenever I need a fount of informative trivia, it's a comfort to know that you're out there, just waiting to answer the next question from a buffudled pop culture failure.
Jade, thanks for the informative and amusing updates, by the way. Whenever I need a fount of informative trivia, it's a comfort to know that you're out there, just waiting to answer the next question from a buffudled pop culture failure.
Without the vent of sharing my stores of strange knowledge with the pop-culture befuddled, my brain would begin to devour itself. It is your very need of Ice-T tidbits that keeps me alive.
Ice-T tidbits
This sounds like a snack I would not want to buy.
And oh, God, that kangaroo dance in Tank Girl. WHY?!?!?!?!?
And oh, God, that kangaroo dance in Tank Girl. WHY?!?!?!?!?
We're all still trying to come to terms with it, Trey. We're here for you. We're here.
Much like Mr. Heston borrowed his "culture war" tag-line and associated "call to arms" against other Americans from Bill O'Reilly. (or vice-versa, maybe Bill stole it from Charlton Heston. Again, either way.)
OK, correction: they both borrowed their material from James Davidson Hunter (although the original slogan originated in the German Kulturkampf between the German Empire and the Catholic Church).
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He did a bunch of movies where he shot at people in the late 90's.I must've missed them. Or forgotten them. Or paid vast sums of money to have the particular brain cells in charge of remembering them surgically removed. Either way.
Only one I remember was Johnny Mnemonic. 'Course, I was a callow youth in the 90's, so I probably missed a couple.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!
A pointless change from a great book (Make Room, Make Room, by Harry Harrison). Soylent green is soybeans, lentils, and green algae. But that's not exciting enough for Hollywood, so they took a great novel about overcrowding (and there being no magic solution), and made it an action flick.
Bah :)
A great action flick. And it gave Edward G. Robinson one hell of a final performance when, in character as Sol Roth, he experiences his own final send off.
He died two weeks after filming wrapped.
"Some people have youth, some have beauty - I have menace." -- Edward G. Robinson
...says "White Pride" is a noble virtue, you'd better not censor him?
Didn't the quote say, "But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist." Seems like he just said that it is as valid as any of those others (which would include it might being as invalid as they are also).
I for one, am very proud to be white.
Sure the Indians invented the deadly chakram but it took white man ingenuity to transform it into a green plastic toy enjoyed by park youth and border collies around the world.
And sure the peoples of southeast asia cultivated tea, but it took white man ingenuity to quote pithy sayings on the side of every box.
"That s#!t is genius!" -- The Jade
Didn't the quote say, "But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist." Seems like he just said that it is as valid as any of those others (which would include it might being as invalid as they are also).
Yeah, I like your interpretation a lot better than mine. And I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, because he was far more polite to Michael Moore than I would have been in his position. So I'll happily concede that one (as long as "white pride" in that context doesn't include an acceptance of pointy hats or cobweb/lightning bolt tattoos).
But boycotting Time because one of the Y2K people was shown holding a crucifix? That seems a bit much; I know it's de rigeur for all the people on the "right" side of the "culture wars" to claim that Christianity is "under attack," but this example seems to be looking for an instance where maybe one wasn't intended.
And we've got Neil Sedaka...
And we've got Neil Sedaka...
Don't forget Donovan! "Superman or Green Lantern ain't got nothin' on me..."
And we've got Neil Sedaka...Don't forget Donovan! "Superman or Green Lantern ain't got nothin' on me..."
How could I? Way doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooown, below the ocean....
"They call me Mello Yello." Best soda ever, aside from maybe Ting. And Schweppes Bitter Lemon. Mmmmm, lemons....
"They call me Mello Yello." Best soda ever, aside from maybe Ting. And Schweppes Bitter Lemon. Mmmmm, lemons....
When life hands me lemons I punch life in the f#%$ing nose and scream, "Lemons?! You think you can pay what you owe me with lemons?!"
Then I fashion the rinds into a makeshift noose and demonstrate why they call me The Imp-roviser.
Michael Moore? Ice-T? Charlton Heston? Bill O'Reilly? Keanu Reeves? They're all idiots in their own special little way.
That can be applied to everyone. Except you and I of course.