"Oh My God!"

Last night's Oscars had winners, losers, singing, dancing, and of course the much anticipated Best Supporting Actor award for Heath Ledger. You can read about it all over the internet, so there's no need to go into any detail on it--especially since I haven't seen most of the movies involved! (I have, however, been listening to the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack nonstop for roughly the last seven hours.)

I will say that I was a little disappointed at the lack of crowd reaction for Charlton Heston during the annual "Let's Honor the Dead Folks" segment. It might have been me, but I heard almost no applause when his name and face popped up onscreen. I understand that he spent the last twenty or so years of his life as a gun-toting reactionary crackpot, but c'mon people! This is the guy who told us that Soylent Green is made out of people. He kicked Stephen Boyd's ass in a chariot race, painted the Sistine Chapel, and tangled with post-apocalyptic albino mutants. He even appeared in Wayne's World 2, in the aptly named part of "Good Actor." If Heston's "Damn you all to hell!" monologue at the end of Planet of the Apes isn't worth applause, I don't know what is.

Charlton Heston was absolutely ridiculous--his performance style is bizarre and mostly laughable today, but it won him an Oscar for Ben-Hur. There is nothing more fun than screaming out a good Charlton Heston line or two among friends, old and new. It's a great ice-breaker! So lighten up a little, Hollywood. The man is dead, his guns and insane beliefs can no longer hurt you. Artists traditionally sympathize with craziness more than the average person on the street--we like people a little different, a little out there, a little beyond what society usually tolerates, because, well, we're all a little out there. And they don't come much more out there than ole' Chuck Heston. So why not show a little respect for the man whose chiseled good looks and preposterous line delivery gave us fifty years of great entertainment?