Film position

His position in filmdom has been obscured by a succession of Messianic portraits in good and poor spectaculars. In this sense he has become supremely type-cast, but removed from this setting he has shown himself capable of performances of intelligence and restraint (eg in the recent The Warlord). When it comes to films one can always rely on the French for an unusual viewpoint. Michel Mourlet. in the critical. Marxist film journal Postif. writes:

"Charlton Heston is an axiom. By himself alone he constitutes a tragedy, and his presence in any film whatsoever suffices to create beauty. The contained violence expressed by the sombre phosphorescence of his eyes, his eagle's profile, the haughty arch of his eyebrow, his prominent cheekbones, the bitter and hard curve of his mouth, the fabulous power of his torso; this is what he possesses and what not even the worst director can degrade … Charlton Heston by his existence alone gives a more accurate definition ot the cinema than films like Hiroshima Mon Armour and Citizen Kane.

This undoubtedly overstates the role of the personality in the aesthetic of the commercial cinema, but it is certainly provocative.