Heath Ledger was a Perth born Australian actor, who died in 2008 from an accidental intoxication from prescription drugs, aged just 28. After a rise to fame in various Australian TV and film roles, he moved to the United States and found international success through films such as 10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, A Knight's Tale, Monsters Ball, I'm Not There, and blockbuster Batman film, The Dark Knight where he played the Joker - a role for which he posthumously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2006 Ledger costarred alongside fellow Australians Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush in the award-winning film, Candy, where he played a young heroin addict in love trying to break free from addiction. He received numerous Best Actor nominations for his role in 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain, where he played ranch hand Ennis Del Mar who has a passionate but painful love affair lasting many years with an aspiring rodeo rider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. For the Heath Ledger MAP club session we watched Candy followed by Brokeback Mountain.
I hosted the meeting this time,with my housemate and her boyfriend joining us for Brokeback Mountain. MAP club is open to everybody. But I feel I need to say, if you want to join, please do not join midway through a film and proceed to a) repeatedly ask questions about what is going on in the film, and/or b) make continuous obvious and boring comments about the film. Just don't. Having said that, it was a great night and our reviews on the films are below.
Billy on Candy: Candy was moving with strong performances by all, including a young Lette Pearl as supermarket checkout chick. Heath's character's desperate struggle to beat his addiction and support his partner is palpable. Some scenes are a bit difficult to watch, and sometimes I felt very sad. But I also felt the love and joy of a young couple trying to navigate life together. Trough the ups and downs of young love and addiction, the actors take you on the whole journey along with them, quite impressively, and I think this film deserves a much bigger reputation than it seems to have currently - it really is great.
Lette on Candy:
Billy on Brokeback Mountain: There are nude and sex scenes featuring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (!). There, got that out of the way. The film isn't sex-driven at all actually. More it delicately paints a picture of a socially unacceptable love between two diverse, tender and confused humans. Ledger's performance is admirable. Generally my measure of a good acting performance is if I can forget about the actor entirely, especially with big names like Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. In Brokeback Mountain I was watching Ennis Del Mar, not Heath Ledger. Appearing simple on the surface, Ennis is a complex character anyone who has struggled with identity or has felt something outside the majority or the 'norm' can relate to, homosexual or otherwise. Like any good love story, Ennis and Jack's isn't short of challenges, and their story is presented beautifully in a mountainous Wyoming landscape that rivals the beauty of their passion.
Lette on Brokeback Mountain:
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| The Heath Ledger completion patch. |
