Monday, April 07, 2008

Goodbye Taylor

Ben Hur and Michaelangelo died just now, as did Moses and that crazy gun guy who waved his flintlock rifle around scaring everybody. I find it ironic that my favorite movie starring Charleton Heston is Planet of the Apes, which metaphorically shows that the Human race destroyed itself with the pursuit of conservatism and the business of war.

Humans were replaced at the top of the food chain by gorillas who, once they achieved power and wealth, barreled headlong down the same path to conservatism, decadence, and societal ruin, while simultaneously oppressing the noble chimpanzees who struggled nobly, suffering in the tradition of the early very liberal Christian movement.

Charleton Heston strongly supported Liberal causes for most of his life but turned to Conservatism later as his mental capabilities were stolen by Alzheimer's. This is similar to the evolution of Ronald Reagan, leading to some interesting questions as to which is the cause and which is the symptom with regard to conservatism and Alzheimer's disease.

Heston is probably most remembered for playing Moses, a violent and erratically murderous biblical character with awesome leadership skills, who put in place much of the conservative dogma that Jesus's Liberal reform movement sought to ameliorate.

I think Jesus's exact words to Pontius Pilate were to tell Herrod "Let my people go" but in translating, there may have been mistakes made.

At any rate, I enjoyed some of Heston's work and didn't care much for a large portion of it, mostly the Old Testament stuff. I did like the Agony and the Ecstasy in which he played a really talented and tormented gay guy with a paintbrush and a chisel.

But that was before the Alzheimer's and the Conservatism set in.

Peace,

Steve

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