The Heath Ledger Movie Appreciation Thread

[Damiean Dark]

oh god... this is getting ridiculous. sure, it's sad he died, regardless of whether or not it was suicide or if he had a drug problem.

but if any of you tell me you would give a crap that he was dead if he wasn't playing the joker in the new batman movie, you're lying. simple as that.

all of this fake sympathy, condolences, and "i was a fan before the dark knight" is getting on my nerves, to be honest.

I wouldnt put it that harshly but yes i agree i think it stinks of hypocraisy. and honestly imo Ledger had a really small resume of notable roles, strange considering he was 28.

 

[StrainedEyes]

I wouldnt put it that harshly but yes i agree i think it stinks of hypocraisy. and honestly imo Ledger had a really small resume of notable roles, strange considering he was 28.

Al Pacino was 32 when he did Godfather, which was only his 3rd film.

 

[Venom]

I love A Knight's Tale. I've watched it too many times to count.

 

[Dark Donnie]

Al Pacino was 32 when he did Godfather, which was only his 3rd film.

I love how being 28 is old in the film business Some actors take longer then others to get there careers on track. Im not saying Ledger is some amazing actor, but from his body of work, it looks like in the last few years he started to hit his stride.

 

[Warhammer]

oh god... this is getting ridiculous. sure, it's sad he died, regardless of whether or not it was suicide or if he had a drug problem.

but if any of you tell me you would give a crap that he was dead if he wasn't playing the joker in the new batman movie, you're lying. simple as that.

all of this fake sympathy, condolences, and "i was a fan before the dark knight" is getting on my nerves, to be honest.

I don't know. For me, it's not fake sympathy. Respect is respect. I am not going to say that I was a Heath Ledger fan since he stepped into Hollywood, but I still respected him as a credible actor, regardless of how good or bad his films were. I did become a fan of his after finally getting around to watching Brokeback Mountain last year. That is when I finally saw how great of an actor he was, and that was backed up by the fact that he was nominated for an Oscar. When he was announced as The Joker, sure, it came from left-field, but I knew that he'd do a great job. I knew, and Christopher Nolan knew it. Here's to hoping that his last role ends up being his best role.

 

[Rez]

Ned Kelly is my favorite film of his. Armored gunfighters? Badass.


....Are there sheep!?

 

[cookiva]

Let me copy my post from TDK forum...

See, I'm a very casual Batfan. But I'm a huge Ledger fan. He was already, in my eyes, a pretty good actor before I saw Brokeback. I haven't cried in a film, except for Brokeback. His portrayal of Ennis Del Mar made it easier, seeing his trials, for me to come out to my family. I love that man, and what the WBC wants to do is sickening.

Credible, this is why. I understand your way of thinking, however, this man mean alot to some people.

 

[Brick]

Had a small but great role in Lords of Dogtown

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

well, no. i'm not going to edit my post. sorry if that bugs you.

but really, i'd love to see all the old 'heath ledger rocks!' threads before he took up the joker role. oh, right... there are none.

not that he was a bad actor. in fact, he was pretty good. but honestly, no one here would have cared in the least were it not for the dark knight, and if his last role was brokeback mountain, there would be dead gay jokes left and right.

i mean no disrespect towards him... only to the people that are pretending to love him and his career just because he died and he played the joker.

where's the brad renfro love? he was a promising young talent, too. but that thread didn't make it too far at all.

I agree with you. You can smell the hypocrisy in the bat forums. 90% of people here never even cared for heath ledger until he got the joker role.


I can't say i was a fan, but i was eagerly waiting for the TDK, the trailers he was in as the joker kicked ass. he had some true potential to be big star.

 

[nocomics]

oh god... this is getting ridiculous. sure, it's sad he died, regardless of whether or not it was suicide or if he had a drug problem.

but if any of you tell me you would give a crap that he was dead if he wasn't playing the joker in the new batman movie, you're lying. simple as that.

all of this fake sympathy, condolences, and "i was a fan before the dark knight" is getting on my nerves, to be honest.

/sigh
I guess ur a die-hard Ledger fan and anyone else who was'nt before who is paying respects is all faking. /applaud ur ignorance
Sometimes it takes a high-profile role to make ppl appreciate an actors/actress talents. I think everyone whos a fan of movies has/have become 'fans' of actors after a certain role that brings attention to them. If ppl wanna pay a little respect no matter when they became a fan thats fine nothing wrong with. Sorry if u think ppl are faking it,I'm sure uve done the same at one time.
*btw I was never a Ledger fan never seen anyof his movies,and I'm still sorry he died at the young age of 28.

 

[tzarinna]

Had a small but great role in Lords of Dogtown

Hm, I didn't know that and I have a copy of it.

I caught the tail end of "The Order" this weekend, he was very sexy in that. I hope they play it again this weekend so I can watch the entire thing.

 

[JTStarkiller]

****

Agreed.

 

[JTStarkiller]

but if any of you tell me you would give a crap that he was dead if he wasn't playing the joker in the new batman movie, you're lying. simple as that.

First of all, no. That's an incredibly rude and presumptuous thing to say.

Secondly, that's like saying if Christopher Reeve never got the role of Superman, his death wouldn't have meant as much to me as it did. Well of course that's true, but the fact remains he WAS Superman, which is why he meant a lot to so many people.

Unless you have something respectful to say, please just leave this thread.

 

[Wall-weasle]

he was one hell of an actor, and he'll be missed.

however i gotta wonder something. and since i dont want it to get in the way of celebrating him, ill just spoiler tag it.

Spoiler

i read about an interview he did regarding his problems sleeping since filming TDK. he said playing the joker affected him because the joker is so phycotic and insane that he was onyl 2 hours of sleep per night. he said that he was taking sleeping pills. sleeping pills were found in his apartment next to his bed. i think maybe he just couldnt take it anymore, so he popped abunch of sleeping pills without knowing the outcome. now sleeping pills can be very dangerous in large quantities,and its really easy to overdose on them. do you think maybe, and i dont want to upset anyone, but maybe his portrayal of the joker led to his unintensional death?

I personally was never a huge fan of Heath Ledger fan, but I did see a few of his movies (Casanova and Brothers Grimm are the only ones I remember) and I really enjoyed his character without realizing it was him. One of my favourite movies is Brothers Grimm; Heath Ledger's character was my favourite in the movie.

Concerning Krozee's comment:

Spoiler

I'm an aspiring actor/direct/playwright and I've been warned of a specific style of acting. The style involves no longer having a double subconcious and delving fully into the character. The actor becomes the character in sort of a trance. This acting technique is psychological damaging and has resulted in numerous mental breakdowns in actors. Why I explain this is because I read and heard a lot about the Joker and in my personal opinion, in order to truly represent the Joker in a movie style, the actor would almost have to use this technique. When I saw the trailer, it looked like the actor (who I learned later was Ledger) was displaying this technique (it was something in the eyes), though I could be wrong. I think that's why he had such a hard time sleeping; he was psychologically drained by the role. So, I agree with you.

 

[xisaacx]

It's common sense that if one overdoses on SLEEPING PILLS, then it's eternal sleep they're going to get.

This sort of thing makes me respect the likes of Christian Bale even more. The guy pretty much treats his body like crap for films but wouldn't compromise his health to the extent of an overdose of drugs, even if they are prescription...

I respect Ledger as an actor because he was good and younger than I though he was. He had a lot going for him, what a shame.

Not everyone overdoses on purpose, so how bout you save the comments and bringing down what he was worth. Your basically bashing him, if you cant keep it completely positive go somewhere else.

 

[EdRyder]

Had a small but great role in Lords of Dogtown

His best role..,Im sure not many would agree because it certainly wasnt a 'great' film but he had the 'great' role in that film.
The real Skip Engblom is nothing like that-Not to mention everything Heath brought to the character are attributes or traits that you cant find on the written page,,it was all him.

 

[Dark Donnie]

I watched Candy last night, interesting film, great performances from Ledger and Cornish. The last scene is gut wrenching, some of Ledger's best acting to date.

 

[Nirvana]

One hell of an actor. Just watched the Patriot for the first time last night, great movie. He was really great in Brokeback Mountain too. Here's looking forward to one hell of a Joker!

 

[WorthyStevens]

He always struck me kind of a 'new' Johnny Depp. He always picked roles that were risky to play, and they usually paid off. Brokeback Mountain was fantastic. Didn't care too much for the Order though.

 

[†~AntiChrist~†]

He was very good in the "patriot"...

 

[†~AntiChrist~†]

Liking the new avvy starkiller

 

[That-Guy]

I'm not going to pretend like I was a huge fan of Ledger's, but I do feel he was a great actor who had a really big future ahead of him. He turned in some great performances in films like Brokeback Mountain and Monster's Ball, and was very funny and charasmatic in 10 Things I Hate About You and Knight's Tale. I won't lie and say that my respect and intrigue about his acting shot up several hundred points when I saw the trailer for The Dark Knight, but why should that be viewed as a bad thing? That's not an easy role to play... and anyone who can pull the role off and in a PREVIEW make me forget completely about Jack Nicholson's Mr. J is a pretty damned good actor.

But regardless of all of that... even if he never made another movie again, the greatest tragedy is that a man so young and with a baby daughter passed away so soon. RIP Heath.

 

[SPIDERMAN117]

I respect his work like I him in the patriot he does such a good job as being mel's son but what really caught me about him is the kind of roles his takes in films that to some people are plane outt weird and he just does such a great job at that and then just what he is doing for the portral as the joker being in a hotel for 6 weeks trying to perfect a role that is rather difficult to perform and he nailed it and its kinda weird that his first role was in a movie call "Clowning Around" and his last role would be him as the joker a mass murdering clown.

 

[†~AntiChrist~†]

It was a waste of talent..

 

[Nightmare]

The only good thing about 10 things I hate about you was Julia Styles dancing to that biggie smalls track.

I was gonna say something till i saw "banned". So nevermind.

I remember 10 things from seeing it in the theatres. Its always been one of my guilty pleasures.