Tag: heath ledger

Trolling for Keith…

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Warning! This post contains language that some may consider offensive!

Way back in July, I wrote about my feelings upon the release of Batman: The Dark Knight.
I was sick to death (no pun intended) about the amount of hype surrounding the film, which would have been much lessened were it not for one of the actors, Keith Ledger, dying during filming.

Now, a mere five months on from those wet winter days, Matilda, connecting via Boston, Massachusetts, has finally popped onto the 6000 miles… site to post her annoyance at that particular article:

matilda
takethat2008@lycos.com
65.96.221.103

    Saw what you said about Heath Ledger, go FUCK YOURSELF!!!
 

Yes, that’s really the best response that she could come up with after just 158 late nights spent rooting through numerous dictionaries, thesauri and finally, 1001 Best Insults – The Complete Beginners Guide To Swearing.  Brilliant. And a gold star for the Boston Education Department. 

Well, the hype worked and the movie earned shedloads of cash, but Keith is still dead and 11 months on from his “accidental” overdose, Matilda still hasn’t come to terms with his passing. The CAPITALIZATION and excessive punctuation!!!!! at the end there just screams of the spleen ventage of a sad, lonely, woman who only has her 27 cats and a 56k modem for company. A woman who remains deep in denial and who takes a really long time to think up comments to write on blogs.

I look forward to hearing from Matilda again soon. Well, June-ish, anyway.

EDIT: Emil may have stumbled upon something here:

matilda seems very cross with you! Probably jealous about your phone!

Yes, Emil – thinking about it,  that was probably the final icing on the coffin which broke the camels back. Good point.

Live fast, die young…

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… but do it right. That’s the message I’m getting.

I noticed the somewhat unsympathetic response to the news that “troubled” singer Amy Winehouse spent a night in hospital following an “adverse reaction to medication” on a local forum and I couldn’t help but compare it with the reaction to news of the death of Heath “Keith” Ledger early in the year.
Of course, as I noted, Keith has been in the news again recently with the release of his final film, The Dark Knight, over which gushing and enthusiastic noises are being made by those who know about such things.

I have to believe that if 24-year old Amy popped her clogs tomorrow, the general reaction would probably not be one of sympathy, surprise, shock and sorrow like we saw and heard ad nauseum for 28-year-old Ledger.
Why? Because we (the public) are apparently fed up of hearing about Amy’s much publicised problems, while Ledger had the grief athletes eating out of his hand by OD’ing completely out of the blue (I hesitate to use the phrase “quick and clean”, because according to some reports he had lost control of his bowels when he was found).

Thankfully, I’m already too old to fall into the latter category of the “Live Fast, Die Young” club. But the message is clear and simple – if you are a celebrity contemplating suicide as a career move; if you want to be remembered just for the good things you did in life and to have the ugly bits forgotten, don’t bother us with your troubles before you top yourself. Just do it.

The Dark Hype

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I’m not a big fan of films and the cinema. Even less so when the hype surrounding a particular film means that suddenly, “normal” people can talk of nothing else except the latest offering from Hollywood. Gone are the important discussions about important things – politics, football, money, work – replaced instead by pseudo-knowledgeable comment about the directing ability of some Russian bloke whose name sounds like a sexually transmitted infection (or whatever) and his “meaningful cinematography”.
Why? Because it’s “cool” to “know” about such things this week.

The Dark Knight has done this to people. And, in case there wasn’t enough off-screen publicity for the film with Aussie actor Keith Ledger having thrown a seven during filming; conveniently, the star of the piece has to (allegedly) beat up his mother and sister, just so we’re aware that he’s in a film which you can currently buy tickets for.
The net result of these actions is even more hype over the film. The Grief Athletes who suddenly emerged as previously-unheard-of Heath Ledger fans when he died are now calling for him to win an Oscar for his performance.

And the nominations for Best Actor are:
Heath Ledger for Being A Rather Ordinary Actor
Heath Ledger for Overdosing Druggie
Heath Ledger for Joker in The Dark Knight Because He’s Dead, and
Cristiano Ronaldo for My Ankle Is Broken, Even Though He Didn’t Touch Me

Utterly pathetic. Because it actually doesn’t matter whether the film or the performances are any good or not. Not that you’re going to hear anyone dare to say that they’re rubbish anyway, because it’s simply not acceptable to criticise a überhyped movie like this.
Although leading South African film critic Barry Ronge enjoyed the film, he did pass comment on the radio that “the length made my bottom a bit sore”. I presume he was talking about the chronological enormity of the movie, and that he hadn’t accidently slipped into a dodgy massage parlour next door to the cinema.

So no, I haven’t seen The Dark Knight. And I won’t, because I don’t want to. You can’t make me.
For me, the best films are those which don’t get hyped out of all proportion. The ones whose storylines you don’t know in every last detail before you even go near the cinema. The ones where you can be honest about the ropey bits without fear of being shouted down for not being trendy or called insensitive just because some junkie topped himself in a hotel room while they were making it.

Yes, I’m aware that I’ll get comments and emails telling me how great the film is and how wonderful the “meaningful cinematography” is and so on.
But then, the same people said that about Harry Potter and The Matrix Trilogy and the new Star Wars films. Have you considered that maybe you were brainwashed into being wrong about them too?
Don’t tell me how it’s broken box office records etc etc. Popular doesn’t necessarily mean good: lest we forget, The Teletubbies had a number one hit in the UK with Teletubbies say Eh-Oh in 1997.
Popular? Yes.
Good? No.

I wonder what we’ll be saying about The Dark Knight in 11 years time? 
Heath who?