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Charlton Heston's Impact On Sci-Fi
An anonymous reader writes "As you're probably already aware, Charlton Heston passed away yesterday. Wired has a piece looking back at Heston's extremely notable work in the sci-fi genre, with roles in films like "Planet of the Apes" and "Soylent Green". 'Heston also roared out some of sci-fi's greatest and most memorable lines, bringing his macho swagger and over-the-top intensity to the screen in movies like 1973's food freak-out flick Soylent Green and the Planet of the Apes series. In a pivotal scene from 1968's Planet of the Apes (see clip), Heston's character, time-traveling astronaut George Taylor, utters the first words spoken by a human to the simian rulers of a bizarro future Earth: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!'"
Heston seemed like he was an eternal presence. From watching the 10 commandments on TV as a kid, then seeming The Omega Man late one night when I was about 12 (back when broadcast TV used to show movies late at night). That eye rolling dialog delivery, jutting jaw, big flashing teeth and the fact they he couldn't keep his shirt on for more than the first 10 minutes of any film made him an icon.
Then again, you see him in the Orson Welles film "Touch of Evil" to see he could underplay it when he wanted to, he just chose not to. In honour of Chuck, I think The Omega Man is due a screening in my house this evening.
Out of all the adaptations of Matheson's novel I am Legend , Heston's The Omega Man was probably the most entertaining. It certainly stands tall above the dreck Will Smith starred in last year.
I think it depends on which aspects of each of those movies you're talking about. As far as the performance of the main character, I think Will Smith turned in a vastly superior performance than Heston (no slight on Heston - I doubt any of Will Smith's work (to date) will stand the test of time that Heston's has). There was no scarier moment in the Heston version that was anywhere near as scary as when Smith goes in the dark building to get his dog. Certainly the special effects of an abandoned New York were nowhere up to the Smith version. The bad guys in the Heston movie were far more effective, I thought, than in the Smith version, though. And both fall down rather badly on the ending, neither of which makes the title of the original story (I Am Legend) make any sense - even in the alternate ending for the Smith movie. I don't know why it's so hard for the filmmakers to understand the title, or why they need to change it, considering noone has yet to make a movie of that story WITH the original ending.
But letting citizens defend themselves against people who have the guns anyway (Law or no law) just makes sense. He was right with the gun control issue as he was when he marched with MLK in the day.
Speaking of which, his speech at Harvard Law is one of my favorite modern speeches:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/charltonhestonculturalwar.htm
http://www.talknerdy.org
The original ending is the zombies win. No producer in Hollywood will ever shoot an ending like that.