So, everyone should now know that the Dark Knight set a record for the highest opening weekend gross, surpassing Spiderman 3 from last year. Yet, how many of those people would have bought that opening weekend ticket if Heath Ledger was still alive? Quite a few, I imagine, but I doubt it would have made a record gross.
Now people are suggesting that Heath be given an Oscar for his performance. Allow me to add a disclaimer for whatever I'm about to write; I have not seen the Dark Knight yet, so I am not judging him by his performance at all.
I can understand their praise. If he truly had an Oscar-worthy performance, he should be nominated, plain and simple. And yet, his death makes things complicated, especially the manner in which he died. Would he seriously be standing on accomplishments alone, or would his death be some influence in handing out that award? Would the committee be more likely to vote for him because they knew he could no longer earn such awards, rather than giving it out to the person who might deserve it more? Perhaps.
What's more, by giving him an Oscar, would we be rewarding him for his drug habit, and the subsequent overdose, whether it was intentional suicide or not? After all, if the committee did vote for him giving some consideration to the fact that he was dead, that would, in some way, be condoning the manner in which he died, would it not?
My mom and her ex-husband both feel that Heath should not be given the Oscar, merely because he did die by a drug overdose. This attitude is, in fact, the complete opposite of what the committee would potentially do. Rather than judge him based on his accomplishments, they are judging him based on the manner of his death, an equal evil in my eyes.
But can people really separate the two? Can they honor his accomplishments without condoning his death, and will people truly see it this way even if they do? Of course, anyone who was in this past contest should see a parallel. What is the right course of action?
I haven't seen it yet either, but I've heard his performance really is that good. I've also heard that he probably won't win an Oscar just because no one ever really gets an Oscar for acting in a Comic movie, but his performance was so amazing that he just might break that trend.
I don't know. I only knew him as an actor. And I enjoyed his acting immensely. He had a rare talent, even among other professional performers and it is that talent that I will miss, not the person. And the award is presented to someone who shows outstanding performance in the film industry. If he wins an Oscar (Or the Academy Award of Merit), I think it'll be because he deserved it.
Now if, say, Ashton Kutcher had died and was being nominated, I'd start questioning it a little more.
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I've heard, too, that his performance was amazingly good, but I suppose that the committee, if he was nominated for an Oscar, might be thinking practically along the same lines as you are. "If we give him this award, would people think it was only because he died?" It's a tough question, but really, I think it might be a nice gesture if his performance deserves it, despite the fact that he died of a drug overdoes. The award shouldn't just be because of that, though.
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I did see it, and I never saw Heath Ledger at all. All I saw was the Joker. He played that part so perfectly that I can't imagine him not getting an oscar for it (but then again, I've only seen a couple other movies from this season) and I don't think that if he does get it, it would simply be because he died. In my opinion, he acted so well, that even if everyone voted for him because of his death, he would have still deserved it because of his amazing performance.
Also, I thought he had died from a prescription drug overdose, not because of anything illegal or negative. His "drug habits" were probaably just taking so many prescriptions that had conflicting side effects that his body just couldn't take it. 'Tis what happens in today's pill-popping society.
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
Prescription drugs may be legal, but that doesn't mean abusing them is any less than doing illegal drugs. In fact, prescription drugs are the new thing, apparently, in high school students, because they're easy to get from parents and grandparents and whatnot who have all these many prescriptions.
Either way, he still died of an overdose (though, the ME said it was due to abuse, according to People), and whether it was accidental or not... there's still that stigma. I find it hard to imagine, though, that anyone his age would need to take that many pills for anything, and wouldn't be adequately warned of the side effects of them. Maybe if there weren't quite as many drugs in his system, I could buy it was purely accidental, but drugs that have the same effect all being in his system at the same time seems awfully suspicious to me. Then again, I'm not a medical examiner.
~C
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I won't judge how he died because of the fact that the media is like playing telephone things get all screwed up. All that really matters is that he is gone and is not coming back. I wrote a blog similar to yours but not quite the same. I haven't seen the movie yet. I have watched part of it on my computer but have yet to have time to finish it.
I understand your point that you make. I made some similar points in my blog as well like how most people will want to see it just because it was his "last" (not quite) movie, then all a sudden start liking him.
That is how it goes though..the movie industry and other companies alike make record profits over the loss of a person's life. The person is so much more vaulable dead then they were alive it seems.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
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