Heath Ledger: The next Chris Farley?
January 26th 2008 23:53
I live in Australia, and am a straight girl of a certain age, so I guess I should comment on this. And it is the Australia Day weekend, so patriotism and all that. But before I do, I would like to make a comment about something else that is totally unrelated. I do that sometimes...
The other day, upon hearing the news, a friend of mine messaged me asking, "What happened to Heath Ledger?"
This friend consulted me before anyone else, as he knows I am a credible source of such information, not because I am on the scene, or even a friend of a friend of people in such circles, but simply due to the fact that I take in celebrity trash from so many sources and mediums people believe that I am able to correlate and assess the reliability and accuracy of such information before relaying it onto them.
When I reported back on what I suspect happened, a story I had formulated from the combined resources of the homepages of my internet provider, my email account, and the local online newspaper I use for job searching (sometimes I don't even have to find trash, it finds me), my friend was somewhat relieved, and confided in me "I was worried he'd end up the next Brandon Lee".
What was this friend referring to? Well if you don't know, he was very right to worry, and here's all you need to know.
Brandon Lee was the son of Bruce Lee, the martial arts legend. Brandon Lee is known for ONE movie, and that movie is The Crow. During the course of making this film, he died as the result of being shot by a dodgy prop gun. And that's all there was to it. But for some reason, goth kids around the world adopted him as a martyr for the cause, just because movies like the Crow are what they model their wardrobes... I mean way of life on, and Brandon Lee "died for the film".
Brandon Lee did not die for the film. He was accidentally shot and killed during the course of making the film. I'm sure when he signed on to the movie, he didn't sign on to die. He signed on to make a movie! He had no idea going into it that The Crow would be the death of him. Sure, you expose yourself to such risks when you make that kind of movie, but you also put yourself in the danger each day by choosing to either stay inside or leave your house.
And the fact that the goth kids worship him, well that's just stupid. He was an actor. He wasn't even goth off set. I think the whole situation really makes a statement about the subculture, in that all Lee had to do was dress the right way and die for these kids to think he was awesome and be inspired to pay tribute to him by running around on halloween wrapped up in gaffa tape.
What does this have to do with Heath Ledger? Ledger was in the process of filming "The Dark Knight", the new Batman movie, playing the part of The Joker, when he died. The Joker and The Crow could be considered to be quite similar characters (I'm sure goth kids would draw the parallel based solely on the make up). Here in lies my friend's concern: if Ledger had died on set whilst filming this movie, what would have been the reaction of the goth children? Would they have found a new messiah in one of the most non goth people that has ever lived, and then argued with those who questioned their reasoning? Luckily, this is not a situation we have to deal with... for now.
Before I sign off, I would like to say a quick word about Heath Ledger's death, and thank you for sticking with me on this rant if you have made it thus far. Many people are calling Ledger's death a "tragedy". I've always thought as a tragedy as an event that couldn't be prevented, and I don't believe this is the case these circumstances. Having said that, it is still a terrible, upsetting situation, possibly made worse by the fact that something could have been done to prevent it. This country has lost one of its great talents, before he had the chance to realise his full potential. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by these events, and I hope that the media leaves Ledger is left to rest in peace by focusing on what he has achieved rather than scrutinising the mystery surrounding his death.
In conclusion, Heath Ledger rocks, even if the goths don't think so.
The other day, upon hearing the news, a friend of mine messaged me asking, "What happened to Heath Ledger?"
This friend consulted me before anyone else, as he knows I am a credible source of such information, not because I am on the scene, or even a friend of a friend of people in such circles, but simply due to the fact that I take in celebrity trash from so many sources and mediums people believe that I am able to correlate and assess the reliability and accuracy of such information before relaying it onto them.
What was this friend referring to? Well if you don't know, he was very right to worry, and here's all you need to know.
Brandon Lee was the son of Bruce Lee, the martial arts legend. Brandon Lee is known for ONE movie, and that movie is The Crow. During the course of making this film, he died as the result of being shot by a dodgy prop gun. And that's all there was to it. But for some reason, goth kids around the world adopted him as a martyr for the cause, just because movies like the Crow are what they model their wardrobes... I mean way of life on, and Brandon Lee "died for the film".
And the fact that the goth kids worship him, well that's just stupid. He was an actor. He wasn't even goth off set. I think the whole situation really makes a statement about the subculture, in that all Lee had to do was dress the right way and die for these kids to think he was awesome and be inspired to pay tribute to him by running around on halloween wrapped up in gaffa tape.
What does this have to do with Heath Ledger? Ledger was in the process of filming "The Dark Knight", the new Batman movie, playing the part of The Joker, when he died. The Joker and The Crow could be considered to be quite similar characters (I'm sure goth kids would draw the parallel based solely on the make up). Here in lies my friend's concern: if Ledger had died on set whilst filming this movie, what would have been the reaction of the goth children? Would they have found a new messiah in one of the most non goth people that has ever lived, and then argued with those who questioned their reasoning? Luckily, this is not a situation we have to deal with... for now.
Before I sign off, I would like to say a quick word about Heath Ledger's death, and thank you for sticking with me on this rant if you have made it thus far. Many people are calling Ledger's death a "tragedy". I've always thought as a tragedy as an event that couldn't be prevented, and I don't believe this is the case these circumstances. Having said that, it is still a terrible, upsetting situation, possibly made worse by the fact that something could have been done to prevent it. This country has lost one of its great talents, before he had the chance to realise his full potential. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by these events, and I hope that the media leaves Ledger is left to rest in peace by focusing on what he has achieved rather than scrutinising the mystery surrounding his death.
In conclusion, Heath Ledger rocks, even if the goths don't think so.
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