Life is a remarkable gift. Theologies claim godly and grand sources for the life force, while scientific minds describe the soul as the remarkable product of complex synapses and motor neurons. We're born anxious to make our mark on the world. If we work at it, we like where life's passions lead us. Family, friends, hope, and desires are driving forces. Beauty in the world and the good work of others inspire us everyday. For the vast majority of us, getting the most out of life means leaving the world a better place.
Heath Ledger's brief life was a stellar example of success. In one role in one near-perfect film, his portrayal of a tortured cowboy showed many of us a new way of seeing ourselves. The desperate need for social acceptability drove Ennis Del Mar into tormented loneliness while Ledger's deep, nuanced performance beckoned us along for the ride. At the film's dusty, cold end we're left feeling isolated and lost -- with just two shirts and dream of what should have been possible for Ennis and Jack.
Ledger's cowboy was worn but, not hopeless, sad but not foolish. Ennis was making his way in the world -- simply scratching out a living until he came alive on Brokeback Mountain. His newfound sexuality connects to everyone's first time and first love, gay or straight. We can't help but be there around the fire with him and his friend, anticipating that first drunken romp. Ledger's hidden shuffling, mumbling, unsmiling demeanor leaves him while he soars on the mountain.
When Ennis confronts his demons in an alley after Jack drives off, he pounds the wall and cries out in a plaintive wail. We know as much as he does that life for him will be eternally sad. It's society's fault for having put that pain there, and through Ledger's subtle, virtuoso effort, we know he's paying the price for humanity's judgment. Finally at the film's end through intertwined shirts, Ennis finds the message he's been looking for -- he was loved deeply. His joy is relegated to his memory and the two shirts and postcard hidden on the inside of his trailer's closet door.
Sadly, because the Academy likes an impersonation more than a performance -- and perhaps because somehow Brokeback Mountain was more troublingly "gay" to members of the Academy than Capote, Ledger never had the payoff of accepting Hollywood's coveted Oscar. The reward for Ledger would have to remain in his performance and not in an Oscar statuette.
Since religion (and then the psychological establishment) took up arms against homosexuality, it's been a rough ride for every single person with that elusive gene. The rhetoric is its loudest pitch ever under the Bush administration. Bush never admitted to seeing the film that humanized his theological victims; instead, he chuckled uncomfortably when asked about the award-winning flick. And then presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee panders to the homophobic African-American fundamentalists in Atlanta on Martin Luther King Day, droning on about the sanctity of marriage between "one man and one woman." Haven't we had enough of this narrow minded hatred?
If humanity wins over hate, the legacy of the likes of Bush and Huckabee will be trumped by Ledger's sensitive performance for years to come, and Ledger's star will remain one of Hollywood's brightest.
Tom Gregory's collection includes the two iconic shirts from Brokeback Mountain
I am a straight man who was STUNNED by the original novel. Both the novel and the movie resonated in me, reflected - albeit in a sharper light - my own feelings in my life.
"Brokeback Mountain" is simply universal.
Gone too young.
So, doglove, "Do you folks read at all?"-- yes, we do, and we know that the Brokeback Mountain author is an American treasure, and award winner.
His death is just mind-bogglingly sad.
Beautiful tribute- The best I have seen
Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa
Ledger's Ennes broke my heart. He captured the inner voice that words cannot express. I didn't see it as a gay role - I saw it as universal - how many of us haven't had an inner life, an inner dream that we could not share with anyone - until one day, one person shines a light on our secret. And at that moment, just the thought of the dream as more then hope, perhaps reality for but a moment, it takes our breath away. It hurts like knives cutting up one's beating heart. All that was conveyed in Ledger's performance and more. Selfishly that's why my heart aches for Heath more then anything. He touched me who means nothing to him. I ache because I could never convey that to him.