"Who knocked up your Sister?"

I know that everyone is totally over Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight, and the like, but I have decided that since the dude was on my top Five List, I am allowing myself one short blog entry on a fallen hero. This is probably going to be a little rambled, but whatever. No one is really reading this blog anyway. I will try not to be generic.

Three of my favorite HL performances (there is another one that I will mention later that I loved, but since I much more enjoyed the movie itself than Heath's actual performance, I am not giving it a paragraph here).......

1. I started thinking about the topic yesterday because Brokeback Mountain was on TV again. What I would consider to be his most amazing performance. What really struck me is that Heath was able to convince the audience of a 20 year age progression just through his voice. He made it scratchier and gruffer as the time went on. The motivation was probably the character's smoking, and just overall frustration with his situation, but Heath convinced me that he was a little older every time he was on screen... just by talking. Notice how they had to make a lot of changes to Jake G to age him: clothes; facial hair; etc. Clearly not as talented.

2. It's funny to think that the same guy also was in Ten Things I hate about You. Now, I usually don't give acting props to anyone in a cheesy teen movie (as much as I love that genre) but I want to comment on the performance that pretty much gave him his start in the USA. He was damn good. I felt that watching him in that was like watching him be his bizarro self. Especially that scene where he is dancing around the football field. Heath was always very private and standoffish with the media, and I would never have believed him to make a public spectacle in real life. However, the way Patrick Verona (and yes...that really was the dude's name in the movie) was a little alternative, and intuitive. That combined with the kept Aussie accent, made me think that character was the Heath Ledger you would talk to if he wasn't famous, and you just met him at a bar.


3. O.K. a little generic, but I don't think I can end this blog without talking about the Joker. He really rocked that Dark Knight role. I was terrified during the movie. I know everyone is talking Oscar, and yada yada, but there is merit to all that talk. Not to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but I think only Heath could have convinced us that the Joker was truly a psychopath while wearing a nurse's outfit. True Story.

And, I hope he does get nominated. Not only because I believe Heath to have taken that role to an unbelievable place, and the rest of the movie is awesome, but partly because it is a huge hit. It's time for movies that people actually see to get Oscar nods. There I said it. I enjoyed the Academy Awards last year, but I did have some issues with the nominees. I mean, I love great indies, and I do respect the performances, but, if we keep only celebrating actors in these little obscure films that only make 20 million, we are in danger of being prejudice against a movie just because it was a hit. And I say that if Heath Ledger does not get an Oscar nomination, that is exactly what has happen.




So to conclude, we did lose a legend in the making. I am not going to say that I feel sorry for him, because I don't. However you want to spin it, the guy was stupid and killed himself with too many drugs. Call it accidental. Call it whatever the hell you want. He got a bunch of prescriptions from a bunch of different doctors, but he was the one who took them all at the same time. Who I do feel sorry for is everyone, including myself, who was going to be waiting to see what was next. If he were still with us, that Joker performance would have shot him to the top, and his pick of roles.

Such a shame......so all that is left to say is good bye...specifically to Patrick Veronea, The Joker, Ennis Del Mar, Casanova, Sonny Grotowski, Gabriel Martin, and of course, my personal favorite character: Sir Urlich von Litchenstien. (Told you I would let you know...guess the movie)



P.S. Kudos to anyone who caught the quote in the title of this blog entry.