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Charlton Heston as the Quintessential American Hero
I'm new on Rebirth of Reason, (this is my first post,) and I've found the dead actors debate quite interesting. I personally voted for Charlton Heston. It's my firm belief that he'll go down as the greatest actor in American history. Maybe even more so than Welles or Grant. I'm not speaking in terms of technical skill, but of overall impact. When America is history, and future observations and debates are made about the actors who defined what it was to be a true "American," Heston will probably be on top of the list. I consider him the "King of the Moral Blockbusters" because his films brought more people to the box office for the sake of raw morality than any other sole actor. (I'm not including such films as The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or even Dune because these films of moral conflict can only be judged as series and are not centered around the work of one deceased actor as this poll specifies.) From the religious pictures down to the science fiction ones, Heston always fought for the preservation of humanity. He made you believe that life on earth was man's greatest gift and that his role was to display this to his audience.
Rand states in the Art of Fiction that writers should think in terms of conflict, and to put your hero in the worst possible conflict you can think of. To me, Shakespeare's tragedies are probably the best examples of this centrality of moral conflict, especially Hamlet. Heston's films always seem to follow this romantic esthetic blueprint. Although he is not dead yet, I think that Mel Gibson is a close second to Heston as the quintessential heroic actor. Gibson's films such as Braveheart, The Patriot, Mad Max, Man Without a Face, Apocolyto, and The Passion of the Christ make me think of him as the Heston of our generation. However, he is both still too young, has a lot more films to produce and star in, and again, he is not yet dead. I believe that man's ability to create beautiful works of art, his pursuit of the stars, his drive to invent, and his passion for making new discoveries are his highest calling. I also consider all fights for morality in film to be some form of nobility of soul. America can last only as long as moral men are willing to fight for humanity whether in art or real life. The cowardice of our so-called Christian & conservative men alarms me. What does it say about our future that we have such craven presidential candidates as Obama, Clinton, and McCain? Men such as Charlton Heston routinely portrayed are sorely missed.
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