Hope and Fear

FOR BARACK OBAMA'S INFOMERCIAL - CLICK HERE

If you take the time to watch this political ad for Barack Obama, one thing is clear - this man (yes, "that one") has hardly put a step wrong in this campaign. This is a carefully laid out, well presented, (very well funded) advertisement/infomercial with some very impressive closing arguments.

It seems ironic that while McCain is delving deeper into sermons of fear, Obama is flying high on a message of hope.
With Republican in-fighting and McCain's surprising negativity, and presuming there are no major surprises in the next 6 days, this campaign is done and dusted. Unfortunately like any politician that preaches hope and change - Lincoln, Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Reagan - there are those that will attempt to stop them.
I fear the US is only just at the beginning of very unsettled times.
I hope I am wrong.

The men behind the masks

In a world heavily influenced by media, you would think there would be no place to hide for a candidate running for political office. With camera's and microphones and cell phones following each campaign's every wink and whisper it is somewhat ironic that this year's presidential candidates seem to be more masked than ever by the media glare.
Drowning in a sea of irrelevance the general public have been robbed of clear insight into who these candidates are and what they truly stand for. It is no surprise then to find both candidates claiming almost superhero status by each suggesting it is they alone who can save the dying economy and the flagging global opinion of this once great nation and that it is only they who can keep America safe from the super villains who have pledged destruction of this world's "Metropolis".
It is also then, no surprise, that despite the interviews, the debates, the talk shows and the rallies they remain un-masked superheroes - caricatures painted on a media canvas.
The choice drawn is between the controlled inspired rhetoric of a largely unknown and unproven superhero with a mysterious past or the erratic judgment of a once great hero with a murky future?
With their last superhero unmasked and widely vilified as a fraud, there is no doubt that the American people would be better off unmasking their next superhero before he takes the world stage. But therein lies the problem - there are very few superheroes left standing when the masks are off and right now the American people desperately need a superhero...

Charlton Heston dies.

I feel almost blasphemous attempting to write those dreaded words that have been plastered all over the entertainment sections of papers and websites in the last 24 hours. I guess He would have said it in a much more Shakespearean way - in gravelly baritones with his veins popping out of His neck
"I have ceased to be. I will now stride off of this mortal coil to leave you mere mortals to face the world alone. Adieu"

In a day and age when our movie stars seem less iconic and more ironic, Charlton Heston represented a bygone era where movie stars were definable and stood upright in the glare of publicity. They were not celebrities - they were heroes.
More so than any other movie star before and since, Charlton Heston did not just play the hero - He WAS the hero. With His chiselled jaw and His big frame and His noble voice, noone said "hero" like Charlton Heston. While others acted the part and moved their bodies all over the screen to fill a role, He simply stood like a granite statue upon the silver screen and filled it with His majesty. It was as if He didn't actually act - He just was!

Of course He did act and He received an Oscar for Best Actor in 1959 for His leading role in Ben Hur but if ever a man was made for movies Charlton Heston was that man. He didn't play Moses, Judah-ben Hur or El Cid - He was Moses. He was Judah-ben Hur. He was El Cid.

You could hate Him or dislike Him or not agree with His political views but when He came on screen you could not help but be pulled into His presence. He was undoubtedly made for the movies.

When you look at today's gamut of stars, none stand out as sentinels of the silver screen. They tend to have much shorter life-spans, burning out in the glare of their own over-hyped publicity. But Charlton Heston was constant and he returned again and again as bright as ever. Though He may have departed to the realms of immortality His light will shine on for many years still because in this world that we call Hollywood He was definitely a God among monkeys.