The [tag]Arun Govil[/tag] of [tag]Hollywood[/tag] is no more. my dad got bleary eyed while seeing the news. Someone else called up from Chennai to talk about 'the death of Moses'
He was one of the first Hollywood Actors that i saw on the big screen. There was this film called Earthquake and someone in school (it could even have been me) took a bunch of us to see this film in Eros for a birthday. I remember crying when the lead pair died – ( I was in the 7th standard, and didn't understand too much else apart from that). In later years i realised what a terrible film it was.
I saw more films with him in the nine year stint in London. His movies would be dusted out every Christmas and Easter or other Bank Holidays and shown without a break. He was definitely a man who seemed at home in a costume drama. Be it Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments. I enjoyed neither of these films. Possibly because they were big screen spectacles and by the time I got around to see it in the late 80's it was on television and these kinds of films look really funny on the small screen.
(the picture is from the net…. the reason why there isn't any link back is because it is from one of the poker link back sites)
Having said that, I enjoyed Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, El Cid, and of course The Touch of Evil. I also enjoyed the spin off of Dynasty, The Colby's – in which he played the patriarch… (yes, i watched it)
I felt sorry for him in [tag]Michael Moore[/tag]'s Bowling for Columbine. I thought that the film maker was being completely anal. But, despite Moore's bad behavior Charleston Heston came across as a gentleman.
finally, I am sure that there is a whole bunch of Jewish and Christian kids who grew up with the image of Heston as Moses, Just as there is an entire generation of Hindu kids who visualise Arun Govil as Ram.
Harini, his NRA association and his staunch (and as is the case in America) support of the narrow interpretation of the 2nd Amendment surprised and saddened some of his biggest fans. I would say his feeling nonplussed in the Michael Moore film was more than, alas, well-deserved. You lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. That is life. This is another illustration of my belief that film stars should either remain on celluloid perpetuating the myths they portray or choose something that is a positive cause.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate that what we remember most about him is his association with NRA in his later years, but he was a very vocal civil rights proponent and activist, and supported Adlai Stevenson and JFK during their presidential bids. Plus, he was a critic of political correctness (which, depending on the context, I’d probably agree with). We humans are complex creatures.
hi Shefaly,
I don’t like guns…
Having said that i am not particularly fond of the polarised world of american opinion. Most issues have a life beyond ‘yes’ and ‘no’. There lack of shades of grey confounds me… and as such both abortion and guns fall into a zone where i don’t understand American opinion or polity or debate….
Having said that, as a film maker and a civil libertarian …. i found Moore’s tactics to be flawed and wrong.
The moment that happens, for me the whole picture presented by him becomes flawed….. would the film have worked without the silly scene in the beginning where he walks into a bank, opens an account and walks out with a gun (without showing or mentioning the three weeks in between) ..or would it have worked without him harassing an old man down with Alzheimer’s (no matter what his political stand was)..yes…..
i ended up feeling sorry for Heston.. seriously did.. didn’t like his views. laughed at him saying ‘cold dead fingers’ … but i felt sorry for him….
Hi Amit
i was quite surprised to read of his support to Martin Luther King….
I would agree on PC… sometimes being PC tends to smother the problem rather than solve it!