Heston’s Legacy
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We received word over the weekend that Charlton Heston died in his home after a long battle with a disease similar to Alzheimer’s. The first thing I thought of was his legacy and how it would be different for each generation.
For those of a certain age, they will remember Mr. Heston as the grandiose figure that won Oscars and played Moses and Ben Hur with such authority. For my generation, however, Mr. Heston’s legacy is likely to be far less romantic.
See, most of Mr. Heston’s classic roles were well before my generation was born. While I’m not opposed to watching movies made before I was born, there are a great many of the “classics” that me and those in my generation have not seen. I can’t sit still long enough to watch all three and a half hours of “The Ten Commandments” (which is why I’ve never seen the Lord of the Rings movies either) and “Planet of the Apes” has been mocked so many times that it is hard for a contemporary audience to watch it with a straight face.
No, see, Mr. Heston’s legacy for my generation is more likely to be as the gun nut that held a pro-firearms rally in Denver just days after the Columbine shootings. While I don’t blame guns for the Columbine shooting, holding a rally in support of gun ownership after a couple of kids shot up their school was not the best idea and for a lot of people in my generation that is what they will remember. We remember seeing the images on tv (I watched the live footage of the high school on CNN in real time) and seeing Mr. Heston in Denver capitalizing on the tragedy made a lot of us uncomfortable. [ed: while I realize some of this is in Bowling for Columbine, I ignore 90% of what Michael Moore does and am not relying on that but relying on my personal memory].
Whether or not it’s fair that this will be the first memory that comes to pass for a lot of my generation is up for debate. I’m not advocating that this should be his legacy, I just thought it was interesting how different the same person can look to people of different generations. Mr. Heston did a lot of wonderful things in his life, and even his political life was a lot less one-sided than simply being President of the NRA, but it’s often the last public images that people remember.
God speed, Mr. Heston. You will be missed.