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Issue 1003
March 11, 2008
Heath's Legend

The death of Heath Ledger, reported as your March 11th cover story, hopefully caps a sad string of events surrounding the film which will forever be identified as his finest work: "Brokeback Mountain". This heart-stopping sadness begins within the Annie Proulx short story from which the film was made. When Ennis leaves Jack for the first time Proulx writes: "Within a mile Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts out hand over hand a yard at a time". The sadness continues with the loss at the 2006 Academy Awards to "Crash" whose most dramatic redemptive moment (a racist white policemen risks his life to save a black woman from a car about to explode) is played out in an instant. Ledger's loss as "Best Actor" is no less of a disappointment. While Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote, (and the 2006 winner, Helen Mirren's of Queen Elizabeth), are perfection, Ledger created Ennis Del Mar from nothing but words on a page. We are compelled to feel compassion for Ennis when we might normally have found only contempt. Ledger seduces us so insidiously that straight viewers feel Ennis is straight and gay viewers are sure he is not. The theme of the movie, self denial of sexual orientation, is as relevant now as during the time in which the story plays out. Witness this decade's events surrounding certain Republican politicians. In fact, it was the at the heart of the 1999 Academy Award winner, "American Beauty". I believe that Ledger and his film failed to win because the Academy voters caught a quick case of homophobia. "Titanic" was a similar story of forbidden love. If you substitute a 'gender' problem for that movie's 'class' problem, "Titanic" would have sunk faster than the ship. "Brokeback Mountain" took on this taboo directly (not indirectly, as in "American Beauty"). "Brokeback Mountain" won Academy Awards for screen play, music, and direction. Moreover, it won the "box office" award for a love story set in the West. It deserves the top awards for Ledger's acting and for the film itself. There will always be time for the Academy to redeem itself posthumously and retroactively.

Alfred M. Levy
Jupiter, Fla.
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