Spare Us the Heath Ledger Oscar Buzz

By Norm Schrager at July 6, 2008 | 10:47 pm | Print

As The Dark Knight release approaches, facts and opinions to consider about the late Heath Ledger.

FACT :: Heath Ledger passed at an impossibly young age, 28, for a man of such promise and potential. This is obvious.

OPINION :: Heath Ledger was an exceedingly talented actor, especially deserving of the accolades he received for Brokeback Mountain, Candy, Monster’s Ball and I’m Not There.

FACT :: Heath Ledger is the most visible star of the unbelievably anticipated – and now well-reviewed – The Dark Knight.
And all evidence points to a performance that would have been career-defining for the young man.

Unfortunately, these details are being mashed together to create a ridiculous posthumous Oscar buzz for Ledger’s The Dark Knight performance. Here’s one particularly moronic example.

Don’t misunderstand me. Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker may well be worthy of an Oscar nomination. Or even a win. Or the Nobel Prize, but that’s not the point. The point is the worldwide “community” perpetuating this buzz is really just serving itself, not Ledger nor his memory.

Many critics love spewing dramatic declarations for the sake of their own back-patting satisfaction. It allows the rare opportunity to write about something other than the brutally average movie. (I’ve been guilty of it on occasion, and try avoiding it like plague.)

When some early “reviews” say Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar nomination, the reporters want reader and listener reaction to be about them really. That they’re ”going out on a limb”, talking about an Oscar for a dead fellow playing a comic book character, in a big summer movie released in July. How very unconventional.

If, on the other hand, this is an orchestrated feel-good campaign, spare the fans the BS and just be honest about what you’re doing. It’d be a nice change.

I’m awaiting The Dark Knight as much as any movie fan, especially after Christopher Nolan showed the world a superhero movie could be done with gravity and complexity — his contribution is underrated and overlooked, in my opinion.

But this self-serving, cool-talk hubbub about Ledger, although flattering to his family and friends we’re sure, gives the media and pseudo-media one more useless question to hound them with as the movie releases. “How would Heath feel about the reaction to his performance?” Followed closely by “Do you think he became so involved with the role of The Joker that it affected him emotionally?”

I’m sure plenty of critics and writers are truly sincere about this opinion. But perhaps Oscar voters — smarter than they’re given credit for, really — should decide for themselves. And so should you. I already miss what this guy could’ve done in the next 20 years.

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