Slashdot Mirror
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!'"
It's hard to get much better than Planet of the Apes (even the sequels were decent). Heston was decidedly great even in his Biblical films though, such as the Ten Commandments and Ben Hur.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
He also fought for our rights to carry phasers and other types of disintegrator rays.
I can't think of a single person in hollywood today who's voice alone has his presence. Even hearing him read cop killer was something.
An I.T. motto in the hands of an idiot is a dangerous thing...
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.
*Pries the musket from his cold, dead hands*
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.
He also was associated with the civil rights movement long before it became the fashionable thing to do in Hollywood.
:)
Heston saw no difference between campaign for personal freedom and the means to defend those freedoms.
I can just imagine him going up to Moses and saying "Well, what did you think? Did I do you justice?"
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
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.
I'm not going to say what I hope happens to your grave!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Extremist? Not really. Sure, he was against gun control in most forms, but he was also pro-union and pro-civil rights. He was not the right-wing nut that some people claim him to be.
One of my favorite stories from him was when, during the Rodney King riots, one or more fellow actors (he would not name them) called and asked if they could borrow one of his guns. He said, no, you can't, but you're welcome to come over to my place until things settle down.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Let's not forget his acting in "Wayne's World 2" as "Good actor."...
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
Oh, I wouldn't mod you down. Everyone's entitled to an opinion, no matter how silly.
I think you'll find a lot of actors with kinda bizarro political views on all sides of the spectrum. And a good number of them are quite politically active.
I'm old enough to remember some people saying such sentiments about John Wayne when he died. I'm sure some people on the other side of the political spectrum will say similar things about Jane Fonda, or Streisand when they die.
In short: They're pooterheads.
These are actors. Yes, they've been politically active. Lots of people are. But unlike Reagan or Schwarzenegger they've not run for political office.
Yes, you may disagree with them. But, Isn't singing and strumming happy tunes to their death a bit much?
To blatantly steal a quote from Sergeant Hulka in Stripes "Lighten up, Francis."
NRA extremists
How do you define an 'NRA Extremist'? Is it anybody who believes the citizenry should be able to defend itself from a tyrannical government? Is it the kind of person who is 840 times less likely to commit gun crime than the general population?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Define fascism any why you like...you will anyhow.
But history tells a different story. It was in both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy a combination of state and corporation. Corporations did what the state told them to or were taken over outright. Fascist were more then socialists in name. State takes over corporations in fascism as in all forms of centrally planned economies (in mixed economies like Europe and the USA some industries are run as government planned and often owned monopolies). When corporations take over the state it's called 'Corporatism'.
For examples of corporations running states outright a jaded eye could look at the recent history of sub Saharan Africa or the history of the English empire. Not pretty either but nothing like the body count leftism in general has built.
'Progressivism' as it's currently defined is simply the latest name for old school socialist thinking. Socialism does have an inherent concentration of power issue. Government run industries are almost always monopolies.
In any case as long as we keep ourselves well armed we as Americans will be too expensive to govern with too heavy a hand. That was the ultimate purpose of the second. It had nothing to do with hunting, everything to do with enabling at least the threat of the next armed revolution.
Go to the range folks. The gun is useless if you can't practice gun control.
Charlton Heston would have wanted you to go to the range soon. I'd say to take your kids with you, but this is /. Damn am I on topic? WTF am I doing?
Take a safety course if you're getting your first weapon. Start with a 22LR pistol or rifle.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
When you look at his life in its entirety, it makes perfect sense. What it comes down to is that Charlton Heston became involved with the NRA for the same reason that he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King--to him, it was a civil rights issue.
You can debate the right and wrong of the American right to keep and bear arms until the cows come home, but like it or not, the men who founded our nation had certain beliefs about what constituted the natural rights of men. They wrote some of these rights into our Constitution: free speech, a free press, freedom of religion, the right to be secure from intrusive government searches, the right to a trial by a jury of your peers, the right to bear arms, and more. Heston was a man who believed in those rights, and was willing to lend his fame to various causes in support of them. That's really all there is to it.
So, feel free to think less of him for it (I'm sure that while he disagreed with what you had to say, he would have defended to the death your right to say it) but while you're doing so, also think about the notion that if you start to pick and choose what rights you think people ought to have, and try to redefine those rights out of existence, then someone else later will have an easier time of stripping the citizenry of the rights that YOU yourself hold dear. One need look no further than the current occupant of the white house to see such a process in action.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
and you think owning a gun is going to allow you to defend yourself against the US military ?
It sucks for we USA but that seems to be working just fine for the insurgents in Iraq. 20 billion dollars a month in occupation is being spent trying to suppress an insurgency that is armed with little more than homemade explosives and automatic weapons. If that does not give you an idea as to the efficacy of the right to keep and bear arms in keeping out a government that you do not like, then nothing will.
This is my sig.
It was the height of irony when Charlton Heston appeared as an ape in the "Planet of the Apes" remake...and gave an anti-gun speech.
No, it wasn't. He wasn't giving an anti-gun speech at all, in that role. He was showing (as an ape) the fear and loathing of the intellect that could make the guns...
Heston spent many years pointing out that people who fear the gun are too chickenshit to admit that it's really other people they fear. His ape character was a really good, (classically Heston!) over the top indictment of the irrational habit of blaming the tool and/or the symbol, rather than the person who uses them in a way you dislike. It was brilliant, and the only irony to be found is in the mis-comprehension of what he chose do with it by so many people who saw it.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
When asked what she would do if someone broke into her home to rape and murder her and her children, her response was simply, and genuinely: "I've decided that that won't happen to me."
I guess you think that sounds pretty nutters doesn't it?
What if her response had been, "What are the odds I'll be able to retreive my gun, unlock it, load it, and successfully fend off a murderer/rapist?"
What percentage of people who have a gun are actually able to use it in these circumstances they imagine it will be so useful in? Any real statistics out there?
What if her response had been, "What if I had a gun, and it was stolen while I was out, and used to shoot a small child?" or "What if I had a gun, and one of those children you were so concerned about accidently shot the other one with it?"
Again, what percentage of people who have a gun are involved in accidental / misuse / etc?
In other words, what percentage of guns end up actually used to prevent a crime vs end up being used to commit one and/or are involved in accidental shootings?
What if the number involved in crimes / accidental shootings significantly exceeds the number that actually actively prevented crimes... ??
In any case, I recently had a conversation with a pro-gun man. It was very civil, so no over the top rhetoric. When asked what he would do if his teenage child ever got pissed off at him, and in a fit of incredibly poor judgement takes the gun and shoots you with it. Then realizing what he's done, turns it on himself.
His response was simply "I've that decide that won't happen to me." When followed up with a "What?" He explained that people decide to have those things happen to them, [when they choose ineffective parenting approaches, and fail to teach their children proper respect of guns], and that he had chosen not to have that happen to anyone in his family.
Pro-gun types actually beleive that guns have magical powers to imbue people with good judgment, so if guns are given to THEM, they will somehow magically be immune from ever 'misusing' it or using it 'accidentally'.
One thing that always strikes me as bizarre, stupid, whatever, is people like my neighbor with 3 huge guns. Specially states that he feels safer having them because he lives alone, but thinks that home security systems and dogs are ineffectual. Yet, a big gun in the closet... that will stop criminals from attacking him...
Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-gun, myself. But lousy reasoning exists on both sides of the argument. And bottom line, the only questions I'm interested in:
Does having a gun actually make me safer? Or is it more likely to get me or someone I care about killed?
Am I more likely to prevent a crime with it, or is it more likely that it will enable / escalate one?
I don't know the answer to those questions.
I do know I hear daily about some gun being misused, or accidently fired, or used in a fit of passion... I don't often hear about people who were able to fend off murderer/rapists with their gun. Call it media bias if you want... but until I see a REAL credible study done... well... I have serious doubts that guns will make me safer. I firmly beleive, for my own family, that the odds of the kids having an accident with it, FAR exceed the odds we'll get our home invaded by a murderous/rapist. But that's just me.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
> What will they say about Slashdot? All I can think of is that the first page of the guest book at the way will be full of "FRIST PO$T!!1!"
They'll probably say "NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT."
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
See, it's stuff like that which keeps me from owning a gun. Takes to long to get ready and if you have one ready, somebody's kid might shoot themselves.
That's why I keep a sword zip-tied to the bedstand behind my pillow.
That's a bit hard to do because his most insidious, dishonest points are ones he denies making at all. His subtle edits and omissions of facts lead the viewer to an erroneous conclusion that was never explicitly stated.
It's been a long time since I looked into this, but iirc Moore manipulated Charlton Heston into saying something which could be seen as racist (neglecting to mention that the man actually marched with MLK Jr!), implied that Heston led a rally in Colorado in response to Columbine (it was planned well in advance), and that Heston used language which, given the situation, was quite inflammatory (those snippets were actually spliced together from several different rallies). He made many other, less topical, manipulations of fact.
I am a Democrat, and I am disappointed that so few Democrats complain about Moore.
"So if you (as a pro-gun person) don't fear other people, then why do you need a gun..."
I'm "pro-choice." If I want to own one, it should be my choice. (and my responsibility) Thus, freedom to chose. Are you saying you want to limit my freedom of choice?
And FWIW, when I go skeet shooting, you kind of need a gun for that. Somehow throwing flowers at the skeet just doesn't work as well. The weapon I chose, should be whichever I chose. Though I'll probably get modded flamebait on this post.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.