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FROM THE PHONE BOOTH: The Smallest Space in  Hollywood

	FINEFROCK

From My Cold, Dead Hands
Judah Ben Heston, Hollywood Conservative
by Steve Finefrock - Hollywood Forum [scriptwriter] 4/8/08

Charlton Heston would have smiled at learning there are bolder Hollywood conservatives arising today, than were available when he related to me [in a private, handwritten note in ’98] that he had to focus his political capital on the NRA’s call for a major figure to combat encroaching anti-SecondAmendmentitis.  His later retreat into mental deterioration was the cause of joy for Michael Moore Morons, and grief for conservatives in a Tinsel Town that is more right than most can possibly know. At least for now.

Heston’s political capital served the NRA well – others are taking up the HWD creative cudgel which I urgently advocated back then, so the “movement” is moving a bit faster. Pauline Kael’s assessment of Heston – “With his perfect, lean-hipped, powerful body, Heston is a god-like hero; built for strength, he is an archetype of what makes Americans win. He represents American power -- and he has the profile of an eagle." – stills stands like Mt.Rushmore, as journalistic accuracy despite her leftwing POV. As Heston’s publicist Mike Levine noted in today’s e-newsletter, Heston would be front-and-center of Mt.Rushmore, if it were being chiseled today.

And were his Alzheimer’s not his doom, and his energy available, he’d be first to be asked to Get A Piece of the Frock – the Frock Rock, trying to be a Gilbraltar of bolder conservatives, moving toward MAKING CONSERVATIVE MOVIES [and TV, and documentaries]. Heston’s three greatest roles were as Judah Ben Hur in “Ben Hur” plus as Moses in “The Ten Commandments” and as the yowling NRA advocate stabbing a colonial musket into the air, to proclaim to the heavens, “From my cold, dead hands” in challenge those who berated and belittled gun rights advocates.

Not a bad trifecta – clobbering the nasty childhood friend turned tormentor, Messala in the greatest action race yet put on wide-screen; and parting a Red Sea; then spitting in the face of lefties who hate gun-owners with a vile intensity beyond measure on the Richter scale. His is the closing act of a trifecta these past few months, three losses to conservatives in three realms near and dear to the Hollywood Conservative Forum.

Milton Friedman made economics an intellectual force for conservatism, winning the Nobel Prize by deconstructing the ‘cause’ of the Depression, turning the tables on stupidity begun by Hoover, then hyper-intensified by the nincompoops called New Dealers. He made economic thought accessible to milliions with his PBS series, “Free to Choose” and its accompanying book. His death is a great loss.

Comparably, William F. Buckley left us while writing a column, ‘in the saddle’ and with his boots on, making conservatism intellectually respectable, if not acceptable to typical intellectuals on campuses and in newsrooms.  He does have successors, though his sui generis character precludes any imitators, much less duplicators.

And, Heston: also sui generis who served as a remaining artifact of the Studio Era.  When men were men, horses were ridden, women were protected, and America was right more often than wrong. He was truly the archetype of America, so much that even Kael had to confess its Basic Truth.  And she the one in ’72 who disbelieved Nixon won over McGovern: How could that be, said she – I don’t know a soul who voted for Nixon.  In her bubble world, no Nixonites were allowed. Yet, she saw the archetype that was Heston.

Two private notes from Heston gave me solace in the early phases of bashing my forehead against a brick wall of conservatives not willing to step up to the plate – understandable, of course, but also maddening – and when battling those frustrating windmills, a wee tiny warm fuzzy here and there makes the time go quieter. A bit less maddening. An ‘attaboy’ from Chuck!

Ah, but that he could have had the time to be our Moses and Ben Hur, led our tribe out of the Goshen of Hollywood serfdom, parted the waters, defeated the endless litany of Masalas.  But here’s the good news: THERE ARE BEN HURS ALL AROUND. Can’t say nuttin’ about it, but the cavalry is saddling up. It may be a while before they are strong enough and trained in marksmanship to rescue the Hollywood conservative fraction that is at least one-fourth of those working the daily grind of making film and TV.

There’s even a bit o’ revenge on Michael Moore,  in production right now, a play on an English-language classic, which would give Judah Ben Heston a howling laugh. It’s not yet a team of charging Arabians in a massive chariot race, but suitable enough that its release may be dedicated to Heston’s memory. Or maybe one of the others in production and pre-production – by and for conservatives.

That profile of an eagle would beam to see what’s happening in Hollywood. None will equal him, but the Movement will gain strength and garner conservatives willing to be ‘outed’ and make George Clooney anxious.

My Mt. Rushmore? Certainly as stated, my trifecta – FRIEDMAN, BUCKLEY and HESTON – plus a space for a fourth, the inheritor of Heston’s mantle. At present it may be Lionel Chetwynd – but, not to reveal too much, there are other rising nominees for that fourth profile. Someday that trifecta will be a quadrain. ExileStreet

copyright 2008 Steve Finefrock

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