Rare is the performance that can honestly be called a "revelation," but that's what it felt like to watch Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain." Not only did he bring iconic life and nuance to the existential loneliness of Ennis Del Mar, a taciturn but complex (and conflicted) character, but for such mature work to spring from the teen-idol star of "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale" was... well, revelatory itself -- the astonishing revelation of a suddenly, fully developed actor whose juvenile efforts scarcely hinted he'd be capable of such moving depth and clarity. Ledger emerged as if from a cocoon, gleaming with promise and flexing his wings.
Only two years after he received his first Oscar nomination for this iconic, star-making performance, it seems unthinkable that we should be mourning his death, at the age of 28....
Ledger's work as Robbie Clark, one of six "Bob Dylan" figures in Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" -- and the tantalizingly creepy advance stills of his makeup-smeared face as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's upcoming "Batman Begins" sequel, "The Dark Knight" -- proved he was somebody it would be a joy to watch morph and change over time. It never occurred to me that he wouldn't create an impressive body of work across a wide range of roles, and probably win more Oscar nominations for them, in the course of the rich and varied career ahead of him.
In "I'm Not There," he plays an actor who once played fictionalized Dylanesque folksinger Jack Rollins (played by his "Dark Knight" co-star Christian Bale, three years his senior and another of the most exciting actors of his generation) in a Hollywood bio-pic. It takes a fine actor to play a decent actor giving a not-so-good performance (yet still good enough that he might become a star because of the role). And in the scenes with his wife Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a romance that spans the Vietnam era from Godardian cafe conversations to domestic breakup melodrama, Ledger shines with youthful exuberance and intelligence.
"I would like to know what is at the center of your world," Claire says early in their acquaintance.
"Well, I'm 22, I guess I would say me," Robbie replies.
It's a favorite moment, both a confession and a sly evasion, from one of my favorite films of last year -- refreshingly candid, funny, bright, unpretentious. And now heartbreaking as well.
Associated Press story on Ledger's death.
Oh Jesus. That is unendingly sad. No one should die that young for any reason. Talk about a shock.
I was surprised by how hard I was hit by this news. He wasn't exactly a person you expected to die so soon or suddenly. The scene seems to be described pretty graphically too. And he has a 2 year old daughter, God.
This is insane! Only 28, just had his big breakthrough a few years ago, just played The Joker, certainly had the world at his feet. Looks like he was working on Terry Gilliam's new film. Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. In my sick way of using humor to deal with shock, I gotta ask: was Gilliam's new film that bad?
Great write-up Jim. He really was coming into his own as an actor and was giving really great, unexpected performances. It's sad and shocking and inexplicable. I loved him in "I'm Not There" and it's just hard to imagine that we won't be seeing him in the years to come. Terrible, terrible news.
Jim,
You're right about Heath's performance in BBM. It was indeed revelatory. I can only think of one other performance that struck me the same way and that was Charlize Theron's performance in Monster.
Watching Heath in BBM was like watching something being reborn. I was familiar with Heath thanks to roles in 10 Things I Hate About You, Four Feathers, The Patriot and Monster's Ball, but BBM showed him on an entirely different plane. It was as if something had been holding him back all these years and while it started to crack during Monster's Ball, it broke open during BBM.
I can only imagine what if now and I would like to think that Heath would have had a long and productive career just like Tommy Lee Jones or Clint Eastwood.
It'll be weird watching Heath on the big screen this summer in Batman: The Dark Knight knowing that this was the final complete performance he gave.
On a side note, how crappy must Terry Gilliam feel right now? He can't seem to catch a break.
Awful news. After my shock and grief, I had to ask: was he a victim of Terry Gilliam's rotten luck?
Ledger's performance in "Brokeback" really was phenomenal. The last time I wept openly in a theater was that last scene with Ennis cradling Jack's shirt. I didn't leave the theater for a couple minutes after the credits stopped rolling. To be honest, up until that moment I had thought the film quite good, but nothing special, than BAM this massive catharsis that puts it right in the upper echelon of Hollywood melodramas. And Ledger was the whole key to that movie.
I was just thinking about how we'll all be seeing him this year in The Dark Knight. With the knowledge that he's dead and gone, we'll watch his latest film. A posthumous release. Doesn't it remind you of Brandon Lee?
It made my day sad. I wrote something at my blog too.
It was when I saw him in "Monster's Ball" that I had that revelatory moment. He had the same power in the few moments he spent in that film that he did in "Brokeback Mountain". Funny, once he was no longer in "Monster's Ball" the film was that less intriguing to me.
He made complicated and repressed characters easy to relate to. That a gay cowboy many years ago could relate so strongly to such a wide audience now was his appeal as an actor. And is what made him such a great actor so young.
This is such terrible news. A friend and I met him in 2001 at an after show party in London, and enjoyed a few beers with him: he was a very down-to-earth kind of guy, and was especially interested in the Gallipoli campaign, as most Australians are. Anyway, I remember his using "champ," instead of the more common "mate," in his vernacular - And that is how he should be remembered.
He towered over his contemporaries, and his was a talent that was destined for the pantheon of the greats.
For me, it was his work in Lords of Dogtown that was revelatory. It was a brilliant performance, and he was so transformed in it that I had to check the closing credits to find out it was him.
Awful news. After my shock and grief, I had to ask: was he a victim of Terry Gilliam's rotten luck?
Yeah, this one hit me pretty hard too. (I'm turning 27 in a couple weeks.) I'd just seen him again this past weekend in 10 Things I Hate About You, which is way better than it has any right to be.
But he pinned me to my damn seat in BBM. I've known someone like Ennis (also, tragically, a suicide), someone so desperately internalized and locked down that at certain times you could see that trapped look in his eyes.
I was convinced, like you, that this was a guy who was on his way to becoming one of our Great Actors... so much so that I took the news to be some kind of oblique joke at first. How very sad indeed.
The sudden death of this young man should remind us all of just how fragile and fleeting life really is.
Whether Ledger killed himself intentionally or not, his shocking death makes his character arc in "Monster's Ball" that much more poignant and curious.
Anybody who hasn't seen "Monster's Ball" and who watches it post-January 22, 2008 will probably find their jaws dropping during that crucial scene (you know the one I'm talking about)for more than one reason.
Thanks for the post Jim well done. And thanks for all the comments here. I agree with what has been said.
Heath's work moved me very much. I actually thought 10 Things I Hate About You was a fun picture when I saw it on tv late at night, and I had expected to hate it. Like most everyone else I was tremendously impressed with Brokeback Mountain.
I was rooting for him and his career and I was looking forward to the next Batman largely cause he was the joker.
Just very, very sad. RIP Heath.