Brokeback Mountain gave Heath Ledger his promise for greatness.
Or maybe it was that Heath gave his all to Brokeback Mountain. Regardless, with that film a heartthrob died and a formidable actor — a star was born.
Not to say Ledger didn’t have meatier rolls (I haven’t seen the heroin-laced Candy yet), but Brokeback was that magic moment in an actor’s career where the Gods deign to flash hints about how one might find the footpath to Olympus (aka: the Hollywood Walk of Fame.) And now Heath’s gone there.
I watched Brokeback the other night on HBO and was rattled once again during the now-classic “I wish I knew how to quit you” scene. That moment where the two lovers, now years older, get together at the mountain and Ennis tells Jack that they won’t be able to reconnect until later in the year — in November — when his job permits. One insult leads to another and before you know it the two go swinging at each other but end up on their knees where Ennis crumbles into Jack’s chest mumbling “I can’t stand this anymore.”
Christ! Every time. The space behind my eyes blooms and I’m teary in a trice. It’s one of those gut punch occasions in a movie where, seconds after the scene, you ‘come to’ and you’re spookily wowed by an actor’s ability to ring out the very core and soul of their character. That scene never fails to make me cry.
There’s another fabulous Ledger snippet in Brokeback that my boyfriend and I talk about whenever a conversation about the movie starts up.
Ennis and his wife Alma are having a big row about who should feed their kids dinner. She storms out of their tiny, tacky little abode above the laundromat and he goes chasing her up the street, yelling all the way. Finally, ignored and exasperated, Ennis stomps back towards the couple’s apartment, passing his two small girls swinging in an old swingset that’s set up along the walkway. Ennis pauses, takes a step back towards the girls and inquires, “You girls need a push or somethin’ ?”
Like the emotionally wrought scene with Jack at the lake’s edge, this moment is just as revealing and memorable. Ledger flashes us another glimpse into the character he’s conjuring — a child trapped in a grown man’s body. The scene always makes me laugh.
Thanks Heath.
It’s ironic that Ledger’s character mourns the death of his lover in the movie and then he ends up being the one to die extremely young. This wasn’t some kind of slow and steady decline into something that was bound to happen; it was extremely sudden and avoidable, which makes it more tragic.
I wonder if this will make him into a new James Dean type figure. I’m not old enough to really understand James Dean and I suppose things may be different because Ledger was known as a very gotten-together guy and even had a kid. But this combined with the opacity of his personal life certainly makes him mysterous, and will be a cult hero for gay men for generations after his starring role in Brokeback.
Is Nightcharm gonna add him to its list of dead people we’d all go for?
thank you for your eloquent epitaph, DK…the photo shows it all - desolate Wyoming (I know quite well) the moment he takes his shirt, kept for so long, and smells it for his beloved…a postcard tacked to the door…I had trouble fisrt time i watched it (in Denver, with Annie Proulx, Ang Lee, and the mayor honoring it’s premiere)as it touched upon all my emotional experiences of dreading but yet helplessly falling…in love…with a fellow man.
Aloha
Beautifully written, David. Bless you for taking a few days to collect your thoughts and write something with soul, rather than throwing any old thing up like all the news organizations have.
Besides the silliness and the fun and the porn on this site (which I totally enjoy), there is truly underlying dignity and intelligence and heart here, and that’s why I keep coming back.
Thanks for those beautiful thoughts David. I knew you’d share something special and I was looking forward to reading it. The scene with Ennis on his knees in Jack’s arms always wipes me out too - so much so that sometimes I can barely get through the scene without falling completely apart.
I don’t know if it’s OK to post links here but I blogged about Heath as well: (link)
Such a tragic loss.
Thorn is right. Thanks for this tribute.
Tom, thank you for the link to your blog. Firstly, your writing is just as wonderful to read and, secondly, thanks for linking to that wonderful review of Brokeback mountain. I hadn’t seen it before. It’s a brilliant, poetic analysis.
I have my own theories into Heath’s death. I feel that during the production of Brokback Moutain, Heah discovered something within himself that he struggled with since. I feel he found his desire for men and it haunted him to his death. The circumstances are just too ironic. In years to come, I believe the truth will be known that Heath was bisexual or gay and couldn’t handle it.
Such a tragic,tragic loss.
It has taken me 3 days to realize the impact Heath’s death has had on me. I watched Brokeback Mountain today. Throughout the film, I was mezmerized by his stellar beauty as a male, his burning sexiness…and of course, his phenomenal acting. Someone so comfortable in his owns skin to take on a role that (may have) broken him and his career. He “broke” boundaries for me. I do believe there are real straight men who make gay men love them by revealing themselves…owning up to sexuality itself. I believe in his legend.
I was a kid when James Dean died. I had the same stabbing feeling the other day when I heard about Heath. There are many similarities between them. Dean had just wrapped his work on ‘Giant’ when he took off in his sports car. He was twice nominated for Oscars posthumously: for East of Eden and Giant. Both were beautiful, sensitive, highly gifted actors.
Heath could get another nomination next year for his work as the Joker in the new Batman movie. Advance buzz is that he gives a dark, fantastic performance.
Heath’s death is actually an event that’s fairly common nowadays, but 99% of the time it happens to ‘nobodies’ leading unremarkable, ho-hum lives. Meaning, a bad chemical misfire, coupled with a cold, flu or viral infection, shuts down the body and the person ends up dead. You don’t hear about it though because those who died weren’t celebrities.
It’s heinous the way the media is milking Ledger’s death into a frenzy (though fortunate for Britney who now gets some respite from the multiple personality rumours). Tonight I saw a tabloid show touting the similarities between Anna Nicole’s death and Ledger’s. For christake, people, get real. It’s only a matter of time for all of us, that dash between our tombstone’s date of birth and date of death - it’s just that a dash. Famous or not, we’re only here for the short run.
Let the dead be in peace, and the living — well, leave them alone too.
If I watch a tabloid show comparing Anna Nicole’s death to Heath Ledger’s and I know that Britney is getting a respite from the multiple personality disorder rumours and I come onto Nightcharm and comment on all of this, doesn’t that make me a part of the machinery that keeps the interest in celebrity alive and well?
The media monitors our interest in what they publish or print. They know what shows we watch on TV and what movies we go to see. They know which magazines with which celebrities on the covers sell the best. They watch our every move and give us what we appear to be interested in. We are the fuel that fires the media’s engines. When we lose interest in Britney so will they.
I’m guessing that David and John here at Nightcharm know exactly how many hits each page, article or picture on the website gets and their content choices are somewhat influenced by that? As long as I’m commenting on either the living or the dead I’m not really leaving them alone, am I.
I must admit that when I heard he died I was really weirded out. Not because I’m a huge Heath Ledger fan ( i honestly like Jake’s character and acting more) but because it seemed sooo random. I really do think that his death was an accident and all these rumors of his past roles haunting him ( my friends believe that he offed himself becuase he couldn’t handle portraying such messed up characers like the Joker) it’s really tragic and I hope he rests in peace. He and Jake will always be iconic figures for the gay community and his performance in brokeback mountain will always hold a place in my heart. My condolences to his family.
People die every day, hundreds, perhaps thousands. But the death of someone so young, so full of promise is more than any sensitive person can take. One of these days soon, I will watch “Brokeback Mountain” again, and renew the deep feelings I have for Jack and Ennis, and their unavoidable tragedy. But right now I can’t. Thinking about Heath, and the true and deep emotion he was able to portray on-screen, and the fact that he is gone now, gone someplace where we can’t follow, has me so choked up I can barely type this note. Heath, you touched all of us gay men in a deeper place than we even knew we had. You showed us that trying to live within society’s rules is death and ashes. You illumined (okay, you and Jake and Ang Lee) the need for people of every sexual orientation to simply accept their lives and loves and be honest. We will miss you, beautiful Heath! Miss you and remember, always! God Bless you, now and forever!!!
I have to agree I share some resonance with Larry Bernier and his thoughts of a much deeper torment haunting Heath after BrokeBack Mountain- once a Man has experienced that spark of light and closeness with another male, it throws lingering doubts of one’s sexuality into an emotional rollercoaster of sensuality - that most males never experience in their lives…
” At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.”(Annie Proulx 1997)
Why is it that lovely gentle men like Heath never have anybody to save them from themselves….?
Gentlemen, some of you think that he killed himself (accidentally or intentionally) because he was a closet case? Is that what you’re saying? Really???!!!! Is that some kind of fucked up romantic notion? First, we don’t yet know what killed him, so suicide is at best a cockamamie theory. Second, even if he just accidentally OD’d, I would have thought you would first have thought about the utter ridiculousness heaped upon modern day celebrities by the nonstop camera lens pointed in the general vicinity of every pore of their beings. People who live under that kind of non-stop scrutiny cannot possibly live normal lives. We underestimate how important anonymity can be for our emotional health. C’mon guys, when Heath Ledger was making Brokeback Mountain, he was WORKING; he wasn’t (as we were) watching the beautifully photographed, edited, scored, etc. work of art that produced the emotions and all the other thoughts we all experienced when we saw it. He was working toward creating it for us, along with the brilliant director, editor, writers, etc. Don’t over romantacize it.
Manou,
At last… a man of reason.
Actors act.
They give their all to give US the experience.
They don’t get all caught up in the “reality” of it all.
Heath had great potential.
We have all lost by his passing.
Everyone is not gay “deep down inside”.
Playing a murderer doesn’t make you one.
Nor does playing gay.
Actors act.
He gave us an iconic performance that we can hold to our hearts.
That doesn’t mean we love him less, just because the poor boy was straight.
We love him because he was good enough an actor and human to know and portray us.
Let him go.
He will always be with us.
Sorry,
Forget I posted that.
It’s not my place to tell you what to think, nor what I think.
Pardon
thank you heath.
Many of us die from a broken heart. It may manifest as drugs, a dui car accident, pneumonia, or any number of things, but sometimes a person has love and life get the better of them. Loss and loneliness can take its toll on us. It took its toll on Jack and Ennis, and it appears that in real life, it may have on Heath, as well. He seemed like an extremely sensitive man, as I’m sure many natural actors are, and I understand he was recently suffering after a separation from his ex and his child.
Heath, thank you for Brokeback Mountain, and for what you have given us. Though our hearts are heavy, we will always love and remember you. God Bless your family.
Miko- no worries man - I live in a Democracy so your free to say what you want?
Yeah- I know - we romantic fools think that Heath was Gay underneath - I don’t know?
I was only putting forward a discussion point, which seemed to get people thinking - which is good.
He was probably just so fucking bored with the whole movie business shit…and maybe, just maybe- he took himself too seriously.
Hmmm, the heartbreakers from Brokeback Mountain never cease to succeed.
Wishful thinking usually makes me think gay characters are gay actors: I could be very wrong. However it makes the movies a lot nicer, and I must say, my life a lot more bearable. Unfortunately some actors found it necessary to hook up with some woman and grow some offspring, darn you Ryan Phillippe! It is a hard world that tells me not all handsome men are the right men.
I absolutely agree that conspiring around Heath’s death is most inappropriate, and Nightcharm: I love you guys for making an excellent post without mentioning the sad news we’ve heard a thousand times already (well, not directly). Bravo!
Nightcharm;I love u guys for the exellent post.Clay nelson in Austin Tx.
I will always be grateful to Heath Ledger whose performance was great art, deeply touching and unforgettable.
Thanks for this tribute David and thanks for the other stuff too…
I have never been affected by a film as much in my life as I was with ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ I rented it, watched it alone, cried most of the way through it. Then I spent the next three days crying every time I thought about it. Ever the masochist (didn’t know I was one, but there you are), I purchased the DVD and it took me over 10 viewings before I could finally sit through it without crying.
This is the first film about a gay male relationship in which the characters are not presented (intentionally or not) as some kind of weirdos or freaks or misfits. They are people just like those we encounter in real life. Every line, nuance or shot is perfectly orchestrated to presenting as compelling and credible characterizations as possible. Ledger and Gyllenhaal complement each other so perfectly that I cannot think of another pair of performances in a single film that are this good.
Perhaps the film affects some of us so deeply because we have to think back and ask ourselves, ‘I may have loved someone this much, but have I ever BEEN loved this much?’ and the answer, unfortunately for many, is ‘no’. Many others may probably answer ‘yes’, and if they are honest, then I can only say that they have been certainly blessed.
I appreciate David K’s comments greatly. I have devoured everything I can find in print about the movie and his comments are very much worth saving. Just for the record, I must say that my favorite scene in the film is Jack’s flashback to their first summer at Brokeback Mountain just before we see Ennis driving away for the last time. Jack is standing there and Ennis approaches him from the back, puts his arm around him, compares his sleeping standing up just like a horse, then begins to hum part of a song to him. Moviemaking just doesn’t get any better than this. Bless Heath Ledger.