I remember leaving A Knight's Tale early
and sneaking in to see Pearl Harbor,
the former just not being serious enough
for me at the time. I wanted something
big, dramatic, epic-in-scope, like Gladiator
or Braveheart, something inspirational.
Pearl Harbor was a bust - I kept guessing
at endings I thought would come but never
did. A few years later I saw Ned Kelly at
a house owned by some people from a church
I used to attend religiously.
I was the only one who really dug it, I think, for more
than Orlando Bloom or for Ledger's curly locks
and so on. Here was the inspiration I was
looking for, the sympathetic antihero
trying to make things right. Then there
was The Brothers Grimm, a great film to look
at if nothing else, with its earth tone reds
and grays, its trees straight out of Sleepy Hollow.
Looking back I think I saw every one of his
movies with a different girl, from 10 Things
which I saw with my sister. You could trace
my entire romantic development by the
curve of his career. And now he's gone.
It's strange how things can affect you that
you know probably shouldn't. How the absence
of someone you rarely even think about,
let alone know, can make you feel your own
mortality. But it happens. Heath Ledger is dead.
No more movies, no more dates who stare
at Ledger's head two stories tall. All that's left
are the DVDs, remnants, memories of things
that used to be brand new, unseen. Years later
I saw A Knight's Tale in its entirety and was
impressed by Ledger's acting, especially toward
the end when his character refuses so adamantly
to give up, to give in and run away, to quit.
Heath Ledger's dead, and I'm afraid there'll be no sequel.
By Simon A. Thalmann
