Could it be that you are the ignorant sort that believe that Hispanics are an actual race? And that they must stereotypically look like Pancho Villa or somebody to be authentic? Well, you are seriously misinformed. There are people in Mexico who look like Heston. There are even Blondes with blue eyes. Don't forget, some Mexicans are of pure Spanish descent, Spain which is in Europe, by the way.
[
You know, at first, I thought it was rather a stretch, but as I watch the film more, I don't see it as an issue or distraction at all.
shareDid he actually do a good job?
Should we have given him an Oscar?
Like most of that old Charlie "The Scenery Chewer" Heston's performances, I thought he was stiff while still managing to overact.
He was such a marginally talented actor. He just got offered some nice roles in films that became hugely successful. Some how, Ben Hur, made him the face of the most oscars ever won, when I think that he could have been just as easily replaced with a hundred different actors. I don't think that he necessarily gave a best actor performance. He sure did chew that scenery, though.
Well, he didn't distract from this film, at least not in my opinion. But this film is much more dependent on style than character depth, thankfully.
shareThere are people in Mexico who look like Heston.Sure!
Exactly! He didn't SOUND Mexican AT ALL!
I wouldn't expect him to have a stereotypical, over-the-top Mexican accent. However, the fact that he had not even a SLIGHT Mexican accent made it totally non-believable.
Also, people keep defending his casting by saying that some Mexicans are white. That is true, but then why did they bother putting him in brown face?
My sentiments exactly. He was a very fine actor, but a rather incongruous casting in this case.
shareAccording to the commentary and an interview with Heston himself, he didn't attempt a Mexican accent because Welles wanted it clear that he was educated in the U.S. (They even mentioned Harvard.) Years later Heston changed his mind about the decision and said he felt a slight accent would have added depth to the character.
As for being able to see the darker make-up in black and white, there's no question that skin shade is apparent in "black and white" film...
And nobody ever claimed Dietrich was playing a character of Mexican descent. Her background and how she got there is never explained.
Judgements about films shouldn't always be necessarily made on the information gained from later produced commentaries and interviews.
... Heston ... said he felt a slight accent would have added depth to the character.I would certainly think so. As presented in the film I found his character rather difficult to accept as a Mexican.
According to the commentary and an interview with Heston himself, he didn't attempt a Mexican accent because Welles wanted it clear that he was educated in the U.S. (They even mentioned Harvard.) Years later Heston changed his mind about the decision and said he felt a slight accent would have added depth to the character.
As for being able to see the darker make-up in black and white, there's no question that skin shade is apparent in "black and white" film...
[deleted]
Okay, here's where some of you are missing the boat:
It used to be "okay" for Caucasian actors to play Mexicans, American Indians, Asians, Arabs and the whole gamut of people of swarthy complexion. Nobody thought anything of the practice until the 1970's at the earliest. It was called "acting."
And nobody knew in 1958 that movies would be seen over and over again on DVD and critiqued endlessly and mercilessly under 21st Century lenses.
Yes, it's good that we are now past the age of whites playing non-whites, but it's still grossly unfair to judge actors and films of a bygone era that employed the practice. In another 50 years, the politically correct standards of that future will look back on us all as "evil" or "misanthropic" or otherwise deficient, the way we keep looking back with disapproving eyes on movies that were made before we were even born -- and I hope that some of us, who are so damned judgmental toward our parents', grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations, will live long enough to "feel the karma" of being analyzed, cross-examined and frowned upon by the self-righteous snots of the late 2000's!
Secret Message, HERE!--->CONGRATULATIONS!!! You've discovered the Secret Message!
Mexican does not automatically mean non white. You have mexicans of Irish descent etc. Nor is Arab really. Jorge Ramos is obviously a Caucasian upper class Mexican with his crazy blue eyed self. Leftist media want to purposely create a hispanic race to offset Whites and create more division..um diversity.
shareYou have mexicans of Irish descent etc
Heston playing a Mexican is laughable. In today's Hollywood, you would hire a Mexican actor to play a Mexican character. We know it just wasn't so in Hollywood in the 1950's. I don't know what would be worse, to play it straight as they did with no Mexican accent, or have Heston hack his way through the movie with a bad Mexican accent. The darkening of Heston's face was unnecessary and odd. I always find Heston's character to be distracting for the first ten minutes or so, and then I just let go of it, because the story becomes very compelling, and there is a lot of other great aspects to the film, such as the cinematography and lighting. Orson Welles acting in this film is outstanding. I think Welles' stellar performance is part of what makes Heston's acting look so bad by comparison. Heston always seems like a theater actor trying so hard to project his performance to the last row in the house.
shareOh, hell... Of course he doesn't sound like he's Mexican. And they definitely darkened his skin as if they meant him to be a Mexican with Indian blood. The thing about it is that he is a definite physical presence, at his best in the scenes of brief violence... And I can't help thinking that he's still the least interesting character in the film. Even in the scene with the blind lady in the little shop, Welles has framed a shot where the woman can mug at the camera and fill up half the screen while Heston is on the phone.
shareAny chance I can attack white people I take it. They are awful.
share