Ubalblog

[  Mood: Shocked ]
So the great Chuck Heston has died. This is a sad time, as Ben-Hur and Ten Commandments were some of my fave movies growing up.

Forget the man’s politics (remember the guy marched with the civil rights movement, yet opposed affirmative action – and don’t get me started on the NRA). This man was in some of the greatest science-fiction/fantasy films of all time. Solient Green, Planet of the Apes, True Lies and, yes, even "seaQuest DSV" – the first season.

But my fave memory of Chuck Heston comes from the documentary Celluloid Closet. Apparently, Gore Vidal was doing some work on the screenplay of Ben-Hur and couldn’t find a reason why Messala, who had been childhood friends with Ben-Hur, would hate him now that he was back. Vidal hatched the idea that as young teens, Messala and Ben-Hur had homosexual dalliance. Now that he was back, he wanted to continue, but Ben-Hur was having none of that.

Vidal went to William Wyler, the director, who thought it was brilliant. "But you can’t tell Chuck!" were his instructions. So Vidal went off to tell Stephen Boyd, who played Messala. "Brilliant!" was his reaction.

So with that knowledge watch the reunion scene between Messala and Ben-Hur (that is near the beginning of this tribute). You will see that Boyd is acting rings around Heston and Heston is clueless.

And let me tell you, Ben-Hur is a completely different movie knowing that there is a homosexual subtext.