SHORT TAKES : Heston Prefers the Big Screen
Charlton Heston says he hates to see epics such as “Ben-Hur” relegated to videotape and television screens.
“Any film originally made for theaters suffers a great deal in the transfer to videotape,” he said Monday.
“When someone says, ‘Oh, I just got a video of “The Ten Commandments” or of “Ben-Hur,” for my birthday,’ I have to tell them, ‘Sorry, but you haven’t seen it.’ ”
Heston was in Detroit to mark the big-screen reopening of his 1959 movie “Ben-Hur” at the Fox Theater.
“Here (at a theater), the moving-image arts are seen as they are meant to be seen, in all their glory.”
Heston, 64, won an Academy Award for his role as Judah Ben-Hur. The film, about Roman rivalries in Jesus’ day, is known for an 11-minute chariot race that Heston says remains the greatest action sequence ever filmed.
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
