to watch:

Brokeback before Brokeback

January 23, 2008 Earworm

I was hoping that somewhere amongst the tabloid din there would be an autopsy report that would end the speculation regarding the death of Heath Ledger. No such luck now that the results are inconclusive. I left the house today to the sound of morning show hosts and tabloid representatives grasping at straws, reaching for a dark, troubled underbelly to blame for the potential suicide of the Oscar nominated star of "the gay cowboy" movie, "Brokeback Mountain". I came home to find pretty much the same scenario except that everyone seems to have spent their workday scanning old interviews for the hint of downcast statements and digging up people who had any contact with the actor when he was not laughing. Do they give out Peabodys for this sort of journalism?

As someone who was amused by Heath in the teen romp, "10 Things I Hate About You", chuckled at "Casanova" and "The Brothers Grimm", was moved by his performances in "Candy" and "Monster's Ball", impressed by his Dylan in "I'm Not There", and forever changed by the cinematic Ennis DelMar in Brokeback, I'd say I was a Heath Ledger fan. I am shocked and sickened by the idea of a man so young will not have the chance to grow older and that his two year old daughter will not grow up with a father.

I knew that Heath was a music head but I had not known that he had started a record label in partnership with Ben Harper, and that he'd directed some music videos. He also wanted to create films to accompany the music of Nick Drake and, as a start to that project, had created a piece for "Black Eyed Dog" which debuted last October in a short subject festival in LA.

In all the type and hype that has appeared in the last twenty-four hours, the only interesting and unexploited information I could find was just summed up in the previous two sentences. The lyrical analysis of "Black Eyed Dog" is sure to come, the exploitation sure to follow. For now, I'll find his choice of song, and his appreciation of Drake, as merely coincidental and remember the look on Ennis Del Mar's face as breathed in the scent of his past, realizing just how deep devotion could be, and how fleeting life and all its chances are. That same look that moved me to the core and made me think, "This guy's got a great future ahead of him".