Your Hollywood Minute

Brian Doherty | January 22, 2008

My more cineaste colleagues might have more of substance to add, but for commenters prepared to go wild: the Oscar noms are out, and Heath Ledger is dead.

Comments

drawnasunder|1.22.08 @ 7:18PM|#

damn, just watched him in the batman preview.

javier|1.22.08 @ 7:22PM|#

I'm going for juno. It was the only one of the movies i have seen.

very matter of factly on ledger's death. that's cold.

|1.22.08 @ 7:33PM|#

I guess that sounds cold. He was great in I'M NOT THERE, and looks great from the previews in DARK NIGHT. Just reporting the news on that one, not really feeling fit to eulogize myself.

javier|1.22.08 @ 7:37PM|#

I was just giving crap. I could care less.

|1.22.08 @ 7:45PM|#

AIDS?

|1.22.08 @ 7:45PM|#

Jake Gyllenhall is next.

|1.22.08 @ 7:45PM|#

Method Acting's a bitch.

yoshi|1.22.08 @ 7:46PM|#

@NoStar

WTF?

|1.22.08 @ 7:54PM|#

It's hard to decide which of Ledger's films God slew him for. A Knights Tale, which glorified identity theft in medieval England? Monster's Ball, which lent legitimacy to miscegenation? The Four Feathers, which harshly portrayed England's attempt to civilize East Africa? Or 10 Things I Hate About You, which just sucked?

Is it too early?|1.22.08 @ 7:55PM|#

I heard the cause of death was Vertebral Fracture.

LevStrauss|1.22.08 @ 7:56PM|#

Yeah, let's go wild. I don't know who will win the Oscars, not a big fan of movies, and Heath Ledger is dead.

concerned parent|1.22.08 @ 8:01PM|#

I hope there is a thorough investigation of the Doctor who prescribed the poison that killed such a promising young man. They should increase the penalties for illegal possession of these drugs as well. federal crime, call it the Heath's Law so that he will acomplish something positive in his sensless death.

Pendulum|1.22.08 @ 8:12PM|#

What's wrong with you all?

A young man died. He had a child, loved ones, and hopes and dreams.

You really ought to avoid letting the world know how deeply perverted your sense of humanity is, by letting these occasions pass without your comment.

Les|1.22.08 @ 8:12PM|#

yoshi,

nostar was being funny (or should I say, "hilarious!") because Ledger once portrayed a gay man. Get it? Gay man? AIDS? It helps if you're in junior high.

ed|1.22.08 @ 8:45PM|#

Coldly reporting a human's death, as an aside, is where we are at this point.
Long live the intertubes! Are we not...um...what are we, exactly?

|1.22.08 @ 9:03PM|#

Good to see the self-righteousness brigade is out in force this lovely evening. Blog threads aren't generally the place to go for condolences or eulogies.

|1.22.08 @ 9:04PM|#

Oh yeah, Yahweh and the RPHR were me, before anyone accuses me of hiding behind aliases.

LevStrauss|1.22.08 @ 9:24PM|#

But really if you think about Heath, the choices of his agent, and his collection of work, was he not at times one of the greatest at unintentional comedy? I see the majority of these comments, "aids" you're on your own, and even the blog post itself seems to capture this comedic sentiment. I should say there is no better way to honor him. Not all funerals have to be sad, I hear down in New Orleans they aren't solemn at all during funerals, so we don't have to be solemn either, because as Brian Doherty so eloquently stated, "Heath Ledger is dead."

ed|1.22.08 @ 9:26PM|#

Yahweh and the RPHR were me

Good to know.

Um...What?

Franklin Harris|1.22.08 @ 9:31PM|#

You know it's a crappy Oscar year when a paint-by-numbers, corporations-are-EEEEVIIIILLL flick like Michael Clayton racks up seven nominations.

Kolohe|1.22.08 @ 9:54PM|#

10 things was literally shakespeare compared to that horrid 'horror' he made with the same woman that was in knight's tale

and for a teen comedy it's light years ahead of current crop of american pie / porky's wannabes. The only thing better in genre in the past two decades were the Cusak trilogy and Clueless.

Kolohe|1.22.08 @ 9:56PM|#

and knight's tale is the most underated movie of this decade, albeit mostly for the writing and supporting cast. (Ledger did hold his own, though)

|1.22.08 @ 10:50PM|#

I actually liked A Knight's Tale and Four Feathers, too. But Monster's Ball and of course Brokeback Mountin' were mediocre films at best that just happened to excel in finding all of PC critics' G-Spots.

Dan|1.23.08 @ 12:41AM|#

Michael Clayton is NOT actually a paint-by-numbers corporations-are-evil flick. It really doesn't have all that strong of a message about corporations in general - mostly just the specific decisions of Tilda Swinton's character. It's really about the lengths that some people will go to - and others won't - in order to advance (or protect) their career.

|1.23.08 @ 12:47AM|#

No Country & There Will Be Blood are two modern classics, so don't miss them!

Les|1.23.08 @ 2:05AM|#

But Monster's Ball and of course Brokeback Mountin' were mediocre films at best that just happened to excel in finding all of PC critics' G-Spots.

I have to strongly disagree. PC doesn't enter into it. It's fine that you didn't like them, of course, but for many people like me (who've spent a lifetime studying acting and the theater) and people unlike me (people who never studied either), those movies are emotionally profound experiences. Ang Lee's work on "Brokeback Mountain" is simply beautiful and sublime and timeless. So is Heath Ledger's. I know of no other actor in his twenties who parallels his understanding of the craft.

I know of no other actor with more talent and he's dead at 28. That's a sad thing for many people.

|1.23.08 @ 2:06AM|#

10 Things I hate about you was awesome! I watched it 2 weeks ago; I was genuinely disappointed when I heard he was dead, I don't really know why, but I was.

Les|1.23.08 @ 2:08AM|#

You know it's a crappy Oscar year when a paint-by-numbers, corporations-are-EEEEVIIIILLL flick like Michael Clayton racks up seven nominations.

Those are no worse than the paint-by-numbers, government-is-EEEEVIIIILLL flicks.

|1.23.08 @ 7:28AM|#

Franklin,
My sentiments exactly. Michael Clayton had some good acting and one interesting/nonverbal scene on the hill with Clooney and the horses, but the rest was just the usual "corporations are evil baloney." And of course, it wasn't just about the lengths some people will go to. It's based on John Grisham story, which basically has the same theme - little guys good, corporations bad. Never mind that some little guys put all their savings into corporations so the corporations better protect those investments as responsibly as possible. But such nuance is beyond lowbrows like Grisham.

|1.23.08 @ 7:31AM|#

Sad news about Ledger. I didn't think a whole lot of Brokeback but I liked him in just about everything else he was in. 28 is just way too young to pack it in. And he had so much promise. Rest in peace, Heath.

|1.23.08 @ 9:39AM|#

This is sickest, sorriest bunch of commenters on the web. What is wrong with you people? I thought this site appealed to a more intelligent reader. Jeez.

|1.23.08 @ 10:04AM|#

"one interesting/nonverbal scene on the hill with Clooney and the horses, "

HMMMMMMM


Crimethink,
didn't realize I been brayin to you all these years. king of kings and all that. yeah.......right

|1.23.08 @ 11:44AM|#

We all react to death in our own ways. Some laugh, some cry, some rage against their own inevitable demises. Personally, I prefer to laugh. And I hope when my time comes, others can see something ludicrous in some aspect of my death, so that they can laugh as well, and celebrate the fact that, unlike me, they are still alive.

It's not sick to laugh at death. It's normal, it's human, and, I suspect, it's healthy.