From My Cold, Dead Hands: Charlton Heston and American Politics

by Emilie Raymond

Book Overview

Charlton Heston is perhaps most famous for his portrayal of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments and for his Academy Award--winning performance in the 1959 classic Ben-Hur. Throughout his long career, Heston used his cinematic status as a powerful moral force to effect social and political change. Author Emilie Raymond examines Heston's role as a crusader for individual rights and his evolution into a major American political figure...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813124085
• ISBN13: 9780813124087
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.8" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The making of a cultural conservative

Raymond's book is an excellent example of the study of a star formed by his cultural circumstances and historical forces. Heston has often been unjustifiably vilified in the recent past for his unpopular views to the detriment of his acting achievements. This book reveals that Heston was not alone in his rightward swing since it reveals him, along with Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, as liberal conservatives who belonged to the Democratic Party until historical forces changed their alignment. In many ways, they remained true to their beliefs while the Democratic Party changed from its conservative Eisenhower-Kennedy roots into Johnson Great Society that these people could not accept. For those interested in social change in American society, this book is a very revealing treatment and explains much of what has happened during the last forty years. My only complaint is that Raymond has focussed on a limited amount of Heston films and has not examined others such as the Cold War western ARROWHEAD (1952) and THE CALL OF THE WILD where the Heston character undergoes a crisis of masculinity in one scene. It is easy to denigrate the actor as Michael Moore did unfairly in his interview in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE where he appeared oblivious to the actors failing health and his recent operation. During Whoopi Goldberg's unjustly short-lived TV talk show, she did not take the easy option of making the actor look like a fool but spoke to him in a meaningful conversation without having any hidden agenda. It is a shame Raymond does not cite this in the book which is a valuable cultural study of a star who engaged in activist neo-conservative politics. While it is easy to sneer at his now outmoded roles and jeer at his Alzheimer's diagnosis as did George Clooney, it is much more challenging to understand the man and his beliefs in an objective manner. Raymond has risen to the challenge in a book which has several significant insights but could have been much better if more of the star's films had been covered against the background of the changing social and historical forces documented in this valuable work.

A true American who would fit right in with our Founders

Anyone who thinks of Himself/Herself a Patriot needs to read this book. Anyone who doesn't needs to read it to find out why they need to be. This is the greatest country in the world, and if we wish it to stay great and free, we have to get involved, or what we take for granted will slip away. The modern media blames America first, finds fault, and betrays all that countless patriots who have given their all that we might live we do today. Why do peoples of the world see us as the beacon of hope, and risk everything to come here? You'll find the answers in Mr. Heston's book, and what we must do to pass what we have, on to our children, and generations to come.

almost TOO fair

Ms. Raymond goes all out to prove Heston a "principled" conservative -- and yes, they do exist, even in this day of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush and Foley. Much of the information is very interesting. Amazingly, though, she does not seem to know of the use Michael Moore made of Heston in his film "Bowling for Columbine," which is the indelible image that most of us have in mind when we think of Charlton Heston. Was this ignorance, or just kindness to an old man suffering from dementia? Indeed, Raymond does not seem to wonder whether Heston's whole NRA shill was a product of early Alzheimer's, a topic that it would seem to me needs addressing, if only to shoot it down. For the most part, this is a strong book. But the omissions show.