Heath Ledger

One of my all-time favorite movies is Brokeback Mountain. It completely reframed a topic that I had previously made my mind up about. The movie as a complete package is one of this eras greatest accomplishments on film. I am still haunted with the portrayal of Ennis Del Mar by Heath Ledger. I am haunted because I asked myself as I watched the movie, "how would the church minister to the needs of that person." The church as I have experienced it doesn't have an answer.

Although I didn't know Heath Ledger I am still very saddened by his death, and even more disturbed at how he will not be able to be remembered in peace. The funeral home is a block from the church and there are about 100 photographers and live camera crews around the entrance. Fame has it's price, but the cost in his death to his family is unfairly high. I am not just saddened because he was a great actor but also because he was a father. He didn't have the opportunity to fulfill his promise in either area. May God's peace descend upon the turmoil.

From A.O. Scott:

"The dismaying sense of loss and waste at Mr. Ledger’s death at 28 comes not only because he was so young, but also because his talent was large and as yet largely unmapped. It seems inevitable that he will now be inscribed in the cult of the beautiful stars who died too young, alongside James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe. Even before his death he had been ensnared in a pathological gossip culture that chews up the private lives of celebrities, and Tuesday’s news unleashed the usual rituals of media cannibalism.

Mr. Ledger’s work will outlast the frenzy. But there should have been more. Instead of being preserved as a young star eclipsed in his prime, he should have had time to outgrow his early promise and become the strange, surprising, era-defining actor he always had the potential to be."