Thursday, January 24, 2008

Heath Ledger (1979-2008) RIP

A hard week for me. Not only did the news of Heath Ledger's death rock me backwards, but once I visited my beloved Brokeback Mountain forums, I discovered that one of the long-time, most delightful participants on that board was in hospice with liver failure due to cancer. She died Wednesday morning. The thread saying goodbye to her is nearly as long as the one for Heath. I feel gut punched twice in one week. Hard to imagine that Jackie (paintedshoes) and Heath both passed within a day of each other. The 5000+ member community is understandably devastated.

There are two tributes I wanted to share here for those interested in Heath's history. The first is the most well-written tribute I've found and that's because it's by A.O. Scott, one of the best writers I read week in and week out (NY Times movie reviewer).

You can read his article here: Prince of Intensity with a Lightness of Touch

I also needed the catharsis provided by these images of Heath set to the score by Gustavo Santonella (BBM) on youtube.



As one writer for Slate wrote, it's not so much that Heath will miss out on future movies. It's that the movies will miss Heath. So will I.

5 comments:

Davis said...

Part of the miracle of Brokeback Mountain is the gathering of friends into a scattered community whose lives were touched by this work of art, Heath Ledger giving many a deeper understanding and acceptance of themselves through his work.

DaveinPhilly

Unknown said...

Dave I love seeing you here. Just sent you an email. I was looking for you at the BBM forums and couldn't find you! They're so huge now, I'm not surprised. Anyway, thanks for dropping by. It is a strange week to say the least.

I agree with you that Heath's legacy will be the way he opened the soul of the self to all of us.

Davis said...

I hang out on the "Christian" thread most often - you know I can't help it... ;-)

SUSAN said...

I read this article this morning and thought about emailing the link to you but then figured you had already read it. Very touching!

Susan

Liane said...

Like you, Julie, I'm beyond devastated at this. The loss is unimaginable. As a former member of the BBM forum, I'm utterly heartshot at the loss of Heath and Jackie, both of whom I was privileged to have had personal communication with. I'm just shattered. My blog tributes to Heath can be found here:

www.elle365.blogspot.com
http://elle-ann.livejournal.com

Love to you in this hard time.