American actor and Oscar winner Charlton Heston joins civil rights protesters picketing a whites-only restaurant in Oklahoma City, Okl., on May 27, 1961. Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing 'Ben-Hur' and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, died Saturday April 5, 2008 according to a statement from the actor's family. He was 84. (AP Photo, FILE)


An actor who was the epitome of the "involved artist" off the screen - a real man, a leader, an example of moral rectitude and more. Charlton Heston (seen at the top holding one of his rifles at his home in Los Angeles, Calif. in September 1984) more than willingly and actively joined civil rights movements (Moses would have been proud!) fought for what was right in the "on-the-job conflicts" he'd encounter in his field (Screen Actors Guild strikes and Actors' union divergences of opinion, with Ed Asner most notably; Lou Grant never stood a chance up against Ben Hur!) and he also championed a man's right to own a gun - Omega Man would have been proud! Alas, not every one is as morally right as a Charlton Heston...! But that is another story.

Mr. Heston was one-of-a-kind; not even his contemporaries truly matched him (imagine the new crop of "untalent" Tinseltown has unveiled since...!) He was a mixture of Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Gary Cooper - but still above all of them. No one else could have played the parts that he played so well (evidence enough: Lancaster tried to be Moses too. His version truly paled in comparison... On the other hand, when Heston portrayed John The Baptist, it improved "The Grestest Story Ever Told" to such a point that, because of his presence, we cannot say that movie is the lamest adaptation of the Bible ever seen! That says A LOT right there...)

Charlton Heston truly did belong in another era: he had said that about his face, but truly it applied to the whole man. Such a believing thespian, who kept the faith AND the same wife all-throughout his career...?!? Unseen before and never-to-be-seen again in Hollywood, I say! A man who dared say to the then-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (Bill Clinton) "we don't trust you with our daughters and we don't trust you with our guns either"... WOW! Others put the lamest prezzes (Dubya) up on a pedestal instead...! Not Charlton Heston! He took no bull - he was as hard-as-nails as Charles Bronson, just not into sick things such as "stealing thy neighbor's wife" as Bronson did...! The NRA's gain, basically... Plus: Heston uttered such unforgettable cinematic lines in his GENRE movies ("they really did it - damn you to hell"... "take your filthy paws off me you dirty ape"... "it's people - people"... "LET MY PEOPLE GO!") as any ONE of his peers has NEVER uttered in their BEST FILMS...!

Charlton Heston was... and is... the man!

Labels: Omega Man - yeah

Just recently did I begin to perceive Jesse Ventura as the IDEAL POLITICIAN; one that doesn't hesitate to say it like it is - even at the risk of alienating half the country and effectively committing political career suicide!

What he said recently (basically that he could no longer be proud of his country after what they've done mirroring so much what the communists did and what the nazis did) made me realize that HE is the rarest breed indeed - AN HONEST POLITICIAN!
His brash attitude and rugged demeanor aside, or rather EMPHASIZED, actually, truly gives us the MODEL , the prototypical ideal politician of the future!
Whether that means more wrestlers and/or entertainment tough guys (Ah-nold, Dirty Harry, ah, Tony Blair?!?) should get into politics - well, it remains to be seen!
I for one NEVER want to see the likes of Terry Bollea ("Hulk Hogan" to you, humanoids, as Bobby The Brain Heenan would say) or Bret Hart (a Hitman - a HITMAN) get elected into any kind of public office. RIC FLAIR... yes! Any Horseman in fact - after all, TULLY BLANCHARD is a pastor. Perennial Horsemen candidate, Ted Dibiase, is one too and so is perennial Horsemen rival Nikita Koloff! Horsemen Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, J.J. Dillon and Dean Malenko would make ideal politicians as well - alas, they'd rather degrade themselves by staying in the employ of one Vinnie Mac; Vincent Kennedy McMahon, yes. Heaven Forbid HE ever gets into politics... Really - HEAVEN DID FORBID IT! But that is another story...

Jesse Ventura truly did things "his way". From flamboyant wrestler to action-movie actor - that was the normal road to take; the natural progression of a career, just like several others have done before or since... But then the jump into politics - and to see a wrestler who never held back what was on his mind become the GOVERNOR of the state of Minnesota. Wow.

In retrospect, though, all that Ventura embraces turns around and gets spoiled, the moment he's moved on to other things - so he truly has no other choice but to criticize it afterwards...! It happened with WCW - Ventura called it "the future of wrestling" and it should have been too. WCW, owned by the multi-mediatic AOL/Time-Warner empire, should have done all that Vinnie Mac tries to do ON HIS OWN: wrestling shows, tours, pay-per-views, compilations on DVD, Blu-Ray or whatever the next thing will be... PLUS merchandizing of all sorts, MOVIES featuring the WCW talent pool, television shows with the same talent, online programming, cartoons, magazines, CD-ROMs - you name it! WCW, being the one place where Mexican talent, Japanese talent and, of course, North-American talent blended well (in the Cruiserweight division, most specifically) truly had it all set to be a world-wide hit for years to come - and yet, after Ventura said it and went away, it went belly-up. The state of Minnesota cannot have it become as disastrous to them as it was to WCW - but I bet they miss the Ventura years all the same.

And now AMERICA overall, after a while of not hearing from Ventura anywhere, has stepped so much over the line that even a patriotic proud man as he is has to denounce it publicly! In doing so, he makes nothing but enemies "where it matters" - because people like me, who will applaud such a declaration, cannot ever vote for him! Some voters will be in his corner - but not the majority. Americans are too proud indeed to forgive someone who compares them to Nazis and the dreaded commies (!) - it is already bad enough that they elected Dubya twice and all those doctored pics of hims made up as Hitler have surfaced ever since...! The entire "free world" (and the not-so-free one) can thank their lucky stars that "the Mighty USofA" is not fervent enough to launch a murderous campaign over these as others would over cartoons depicting their Prophet...!

The unlikelihood of ever seeing "Senator Ric Flair" or "Congressman Tully Blanchard" is now joined with the impossibility of ever seeing Jesse Ventura return to being either a State Governor, a mayor or anything else...

In all likelihood, Jesse Ventura is now a pariah.
And that is why he makes the cut here and gets the approval and admiration of one Luminous (\ô/) Luciano ™.

Labels: Luminous pundit moi, original thinking, YouTube