The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 05, 1980, Page Page 19, Image 19
Entent
Hestc
By David Baker
Finn Crttte
Charlton Heston may be in
his mid-fifties, but it's
doubtful that many men half
his age would want to tangle
with the Academy Awardwinning
actor. He is big,
strapping, as healthylooking
as anyone you're
ever likely to meet. He
credits his fitness to tennis, a
game he plays better than
many of its professionals,
but there's no disguising the
laci mai ne wonts oui in
gymnasiums on a regular
basis.
There's also no disguising
the fact that Heston looks a
great deal younger than his
years. His auburn hair is
mixed with gray only on the
' sides, giving one the impression
that he's talking
with a distinguished man in
<TUt> A i
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puts vie
By David Baker
FHm Critic
If ever there was a movie
with an inappropriate title,
Mike Newell's directorial
debut, "The Awakening," is
it. This execrable occult
it? a cnrf nf half.hnlfPri
"Cleopatra" by way of "The
Exorcist" and "The Omen'4 is
more apt to put viewers to
sleep than to rouse them in
any way, shape or form.
An updated version of a
rather obscure Bram
("Dracula") Stoker novel,
me jewel 01 aeven biars,
"The Awakening" opens in
1962. That's when Matthew
Corbeck (Charlton Heston),
a young Egyptologist,
stumbles upon the biggest
archeological find of his
career. It is the hidden tomb
of Kara, a previously
unknown queen, whose
subjects so hated her that
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all historical records immediately
upon her death at
the tender age of 18.
When Corbeck breaks
through the door of Kara's
tomb, her vengeful spirit
whisks out across the sands
and zaps Corbeck's pregnant
wife (Jill TownsenH) whn is
miles from the excavation
site, in the stomach. A few
pte. _-y- f
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| Egyptologist Matthew
(Stephanie Zimba/ist) find
ainmer
>n enjc
his mid-forties, professor
perhaps, given his
eloquence.
Until hie lnioct film "Th?
V/IIVl* ?UW AM t V/U A IiV
Awakening," however, a
professor was one of the few
parts Heston had never been
given the chance to play. The
chance to play a professor,
though, was not the deciding
factor in Heston's decision to
appear in the film.
"I did 'The Awakening' for
three reason," he explained.
"In the first place, it's an
occult film,the first one I've
done. In the second place, I
get a chance to exercise my
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American actor allowed to
play Englishmen. And, in the
third place, it's the first
professor I've ever played."
Occult films have always
been of interest to Heston, he
said, "because they are very
vakeniri
iwers to
scenes later, when the film
switches time frames to the
present, we see that the
child, now 18, has grown up
to become the spitting image
of Kara's death mask. The
child's name is Margaret,
played by Stephanie Zimbalist,
and to everyone but
her father, she's obviously
Kara incarnate.
Corbeck's near-sighted -
nessresults in one of the more
laughable climaxes to come
our way thus far this year,
what with mummy dust
flying everywhere, statues
falling hither and yon, and
Zimbalist standing around
hissing like a cat whose tail
has been caught in a meat
grinder.
While the story is quite
bizarre, the most amazing
thing about ,4The
Awakening" is Heston's
involvement with it. Since
performing in "The Three
Musketeers" six years ago,
Heston's taste in material
has gone steadily downhill,
but never did I expect him to
wind up this low.
He approaches his role as
Corbeck with his customary
seriousness, but it's so
ridiculously conceived and
written that he can't begin to
Ilk
"^5BH M(^SS si -vV^l''';':$"
Corback (Charlton Hast
tha missing kay to an ancian
>ys hii
tricky to do. It's not hard to
make a scary film ? you can
photograph a corridor with a
lot of doors in it and you
know there's a monster
behind one of them. You can
scare an audience very
easily, but it's very hard to
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the audience's willing
suspension of disbelief.
"Indeed, on one level,
audiences that are scared by
films that don't persuade
them are a little annoyed by
them. Because you can't
resist the frissone of terror,
you don't like yourself for
being scared. But if you
believe this film, then you
surrender to it and you
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"This film had a very
difficult casting problem,"
Heston continued. "I was
shooting 'The Mountain
9
g
clz>/>n
do anything with it.
Not helping Heston's
characterization any is his
"aging" process. This
consists solely of his donning
a phoney beard that looks as
if it once had been part of a
Wise Man costume in an
elementary school Christmas
pageant.
The same pre-teens who
constructed Heston's beard
might also have been
responsible for the
heiroglyphics scrawled on
the walls throughout Kara's
tomb. It's as if the movie's
art director, Lionel Couch,
scooped up several dozen
Vacation Bible Schoolers,
supplied them with neon
paints, and then turned them
loose in a run-down stucco
apartment complex
somewhere in Baja,
California.
Tt'c imfrtrhinofn fhat nnfil
IV O U1I1UJI IUIIU IVy llldl, VIIIVB A
its final 10 minutes or so,
"The Awakening" doesn't
throw caution to the wind
and concentrate on
becoming the hoot it so
easily could have become.
After all, hoots are almost as
hard as to come by as hits
and, in such a dreary moviegoing
season, I'll take my
laughs any way I can get
them.
on} and his daughter
t vitual.
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> 'elbc
Men' and literally up to my
neck ih beaver ponds the
whole time we were
preparing 'The Awakening.'
I said to them (the
producers) by phone that we
really have a severe
problem here. If we can't
find an actress who can
plausibly suggest an
American teenager and, at
the same time, act a very
long part and project a girl
who is occasionally
possessed by the spirit of a
'Xinn.uaQP.nM Fflimfian
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queen, the picture's not
going to work. Her part is
longer than mine.
"But Stephanie Zimbalist,
whom they chose for the
part, is extremely good in
the role, extremely good. If
she wasn't, we'd certainly be
in trouble with it."
"The Awakening" is
Heston's second film to be
released in 1980. The first,
"The Mountain Men," in
which he portrayed an
illiterate 19th Century fur
trapper, did not do well at
the box office when it was
released this summer.
Heston admitted, however,
that he starred in the film for
a special reason.
"I would be the first to
concede," he said, "that one
cf the things that drew me to
'The Mountain Men,' even
before I read it, was the fact
that my son, Fraser, had
written it."
Heston confessed that he
was concerned about the
possibility of not liking the
script when he first learned
I can remember the first tii
Cars. I was painting shutters
on a rainy New Jersey su
stopped painting until the spc
and introduction to the band'!
was being aired on WNEW-F!
finished.
They seemed to have a refi
not too commercial, but ui
pealing,sound.
Why, after having their
"Panorama," in my record
about four weeks, have I wait
write about it? Well, I listener
first day I got it, but founc
dishes more interesting. Besic
album by Talking Heads, th<
English Beat, "I Just Can't St
new John Lennon single
Starting Over," who needs
group of middle-aged trend fol
I'll admit it. I thought the G
out to be something differer
they've turned out to be some!
By the time their second alt
I thought I'd puke if I heard
Needed" one more time. Rt
New Wave (I hate usin|
classification) stars. "Candybetter
than the "The Cars,
back, maybe I liked it because
of the first one.
Free show
James Rokosny
Staff Wrfcer
If paying a cover charge ev<
see a band or artist perform is
bank account into the ground
you. The Quarter Moon is fe*
quality act for free.
/Unnointinllo l.iitk I
v/vvaoiuiiaujr, vviiii iiuiiuii^ v
the newspaper to see if there
bands around. Even Columl
once in a while. To exp
something I know nothing ab
must be right.
The Stewart Tussing Band v
the Quarter Moon Wednej
Saturday. I can't stress enoug
fcJ?.r\v.V> vli vi'S$?
>w roo
that his son was writing it,
but after reading the final
draft, he said, he was both
relieved and delighted.
Heston said that when he
reads a script, he always
looks for something as
different as possible from
what he's just done. t4I think
I'm luckier than most actors,"
he said, "in that, over
the years, I've established
some elbow room.
i4T rfiiocc ?'m fKn nnlt/
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American actor who does
non-American parts. I'm one
of the few American actors
who does biographical roles
and that gives me chances
that, perhaps, are denied to
some of my fellows.
"Obviously, if David Lean
offers you something, it's not
necessary to read it, but you
must look for something that
seems viable for an
audience. Because about
every six pictures, you'd
better have a very sue
cessiui one or you won i get
any more chances.
"And underneath all that,
I think, you must look for
some kind of gut response to
the character. It doesn't
need to be a man who is like
you, Cardinal Richelieu is
not like me, but to Richelieu,
I could say 'Yes.' "
Heston portrayed the
notorious Richelieu in both
"The Three Musketeers"
and its sequel, "The Four
Musketeers." The two
pictures were filmed
together, unbeknownst to the
cast, and when their
producer, Alexander
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ne I heard the Last Octobe
in my garage and performe
mmer day. I coliseum. Up<
icial interview perform, I i
music, which assignment to
A in N.Y., was paragraph wei
coliseum Sun
eshing, crisp, disappointmer
liversally ap- $8.50 ticket pru
oik. The concert
*\\ ,albufm' long), loud, e>
collection for ,,
^ ^ two albums. V
I" ""'? album that is
to it once the Through," a tv
washing the seemsK,iie H ,,
lcs; ^[7 all about i
ebut of the business to the
"*" ,an?'he Somehow "1
"(Just like) number three
o listen to a Hundred Alb(J
lowers issue, which h
are would turn cover Bigdea
It but instead , hate se,
hing boring. reality with th
mm came out tell if they wil
a.h? bargain bins ir
7u V another alnui
a,s.,,a deserve to. It
KW.aS,a ttlle empty and m<
but looking fjke jt d0<
I just got sick sold great. Bu,
at Quarter 1
is the place tc
srytime you go the tempo has
> running your Street with n
, tonight is for Delbert McCli
a _ I.
uuring a nign i tuumui junu
Having be
d do, I'11 check giving audienc
are any good time favorite
>ia slacks off Rigby", Stew
eriment with nothing but
out, the price Freeman of t
wrote ."...a
/ill perform at mellifluous hi
iday through combinations
h that this bar acoustic six-st
MS dSteocfijo no
m'
Salkind, announced that the
second film would be
assembled from footage left
over from the first, virtually
every member of the cast
responded with a lawsuit.
Heston, however, expressed
no resentment.
"I didn't get upset," he
explained, "because I only
worked 10 days on both
movies and I was paid better
than anyone else in the cast.
That gave me a certain
detachment," he said with a
laugh. "If they'd made three
pictures out of it, I would still
have felt i iiad a very good
part and had been very well
Daid." *'
Charlton Heston in
"The A wakening"
r the Cars came to Columbia
d for a small crowd in the
an finding out they were to
mmediately requested the
review the show. My lead
4 A ii
iiv, me concert in me
day night was a definite
it and certainly not worth the
ce."
was a short (about an hour
tact reproduction of the first
fith only one song on the new
? worth anything, "Getting
jo and a half minute rocker, it
> typical of what the Cars are
racing through the music
bank.
Panorama" has made it to
on me noning Mone lop
im Chart as of the Oct. 30
as our subject at hand on the
I.
e bands go downhill, but it's
e Cars. It's much too early to
II eventually be cast into the
1 the future. But if they put out
in like "Panorama- they
just seems so effortless, so
eaningless, I can't believe it
es. No, I take that back, disco
t look where that is today.
Vfoon
> see a performer. Recently,
been changing over on Main
;markable performances by
inton and the well received
Hartford Monday night.
:n trained classically, and
es a blend of originals and all*
cover songs like "Eleanor
/art Tussing has received
favorable reviews. Clark
he Savannah Morning News
night-clubbers' treat, with
irmonies, strikingly intricate
of electric guitar and flute,
ring and cello.