Visit with ‘Moses’ set in stone

Charlton Heston may be gone, but I'll continue to see him at least once a year.

That's been a tradition as long as I can remember: watching The Ten Commandments every spring, when ABC dusts off the 220-minute epic for a national television audience.

Much has been said about Heston, who died April 5, and many people will remember him as a divisive figure, a president of the National Rifle Association who said the only way his gun would be taken away was "from my cold, dead hands."

Not me. To me, he'll always be Moses.

When I was young, my family always tuned in to The Ten Commandments when it came on television. We watched it religiously, you might say. And Heston - who goes from a young, buff Moses to an older, crazy-haired prophet - always commanded our attention like no one else ever could.

In college, I plopped down on a couch and monopolized the TV room for hours to watch the 1956 blockbuster, joining with a fellow student who had a crush on Yul Brynner.

I've always encouraged others to watch with me. Once, there must have been a dozen people squeezed into my little apartment. Forget about parting the Red Sea; getting that many people to show up for a long movie starring a man in a glorified bathrobe has to qualify as the bigger miracle.

It was the kind of role that Heston was born to play, with his chiseled good looks and larger-than-life voice. He was epic in nature, old Hollywood all the way. No doubt that's why he found such success in roles as other heroic figures, from El Cid to Ben-Hur. But his most lasting impact on me has to be as Moses.

The phenomenon started in 1973 when The Ten Commandments become something of an Easter-time tradition on ABC. This year, it was broadcast on March 22, drawing an average audience of nearly 7.5 million people and ranking behind only NCAA basketball coverage that night. Not bad.

It may not be the best movie, but we grew up with it, - together - and like it or not it's something that connects us. Kind of like those Charlie Brown Christmas or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer specials that are on TV year after year. They're not technically great works of art, but we lovingly watch them anyway.

I own The Ten Commandments on DVD - it was my first purchase ever in the format, naturally - but I try to watch it "live" on ABC because of this connection. It's a real one. Friends call me when it's on, probably noticing it as they channel surf between the likes of Cops and Law & Order. The excitement in their voice is palpable: "Are you watching The Ten Commandments? So let it be written, so let it be done!"

For me, the Heston connection goes even deeper. He's always been there for me at important times in my life, even on my wedding day. While my future wife was out getting her hair done - or whatever women do for hours before the ceremony - I was home alone, eating a bologna sandwich and watching another of his movies, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

It was the perfect way to say good-bye to my bachelorhood. Even though I knew marriage meant an end to displaying my Planet of the Apes poster (and my even bigger poster of The Ten Commandments), it could never mean the end of Heston.

Just like death, really, won't put an end to him or the very real connection to something bigger that his movies enabled. Every year, I hope, ABC will continue to air The Ten Commandments, and every year I'll watch.

So let it be written, so let it be done.