I'm not sure if anyone's covered this before here, but Fiona (optom3) and I were both thinking about the choices that Heath made in the relatively few amount of roles he blessed us with in his short life, and we were finding similar themes, sort of like bookends in them. They related to a common theme of death in his films, as well as being a hero, riding a horse, being doomed by love, etc. These below are our first thoughts on this topic, and we'd love to hear from all of you who have comments / agreements / disagreements / or other reflections / things to add. Please join in!
He's a charmer chasing the ladies, but he's also sly and pretending to be someone he's not:
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
A Knight's Tale (2001) - riding a horse - begins with the death of his knight, we see another man hanging dead, and he himself is in the gallows before the prince rescues him
Casanova (2005) - riding a horse - sentenced to death by hanging, with rope around his neck before he escapes
He's a fighting soldier, but he's also undercover and pretending again at times:
The Patriot (2000) - riding a horse - witnesses the other soldier's murders, and then is murdered in cold blood in battle with that captain, war scenes with murder everywhere - also is a hero
Four Feathers (2002) - riding a horse - could have easily died in the desert and witnesses the other soldier's and friend's murders, war scenes with murder everywhere - also is a hero
He's a cop who despises that he has to kill, and then he's a cop killer, bringing it full circle:
Monster's Ball (2001) - is part of carrying out a death sentence, threatens to take his father's life, then takes his own
Ned Kelly (2003) - riding a horse - witnesses other's deaths - also is a hero
He's a drinker and drug addict:
Lords of Dogtown (2005) - threatens to jump from roof of his skateboard shop in front of the crowd
Candy (2006)
He's living in a fantasy land:
Brothers Grimm (2005) - horse
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
He's part of a doomed love affair:
Brokeback Mountain (2005) - also knows of Earl's and Jack's dying
Candy (2006)
The Dark Knight kind of stands alone, with no ties as far as we can see.
It just seems to me that he chose his roles based on some kind of "that was me then, this is me now" sort of perspective where he took the same theme, something he'd known and done before, and then he turned it on its head as a sort of progression for himself as an actor. I'm not saying the first was better than the last, or vice versa. I'm just thinking maybe he thought about his roles very carefully, and maybe we haven't considered or discussed that fully, yet.
Please do so, if you'd like. Thanks from Fiona and I both, cheers!
