Here goes: I have neither seen nor heard of 98% of the nominees.
Oh well, quick-ish attempt didn’t work. So sad I can’t be that succinct. And since I can’t be, I should take this opportunity to go ahead and showcase one of those Balaban Heroes. I should just throw out a name like Melinda Dillon, who was unbelievably sensational as the beleaguered mother in Close Encounters and utterly haunting as Paul Newman’s troubled and ill-fated friend in Absence of Malice (both movies coincidentally also co-starring Balaban himself).
But like all the best of the Bunch O' Bob Balaban Breed O' Brilliant Background Beguilers gang, she is one of those brilliant supporting actors who, although her name is not immediately recognizable, you totally know who she is. And to prove my point, if you turned on your TV in the past few weeks, you would have no doubt seen her as the weary yet somehow ever-resilient mother in the annual, seemingly constant rebroadcast of A Christmas Story. Yep, that’s her in the gray sweater, knocking over the “frah-gee-leh” leg lamp statue thing. And yeah, you’re right; she’s outstanding.
But no, I’m not going to talk about her. While I should be Balaban blogging, this posting is related to the Golden Globes I just mentioned, despite my lack of familiarity of today’s nominees. Well not so much all of the nominees, just specifically about the big deal everyone’s making about Heath Ledger’s posthumous nomination in not only the Globes but for all the upcoming noms he's going to be collecting in this forthcoming awards season. Supposedly it’s a foregone conclusion that Heath is going to win everything. Fine, whatever. Maybe he was indeed fantastic in Batman; I don’t know, I didn’t see the film. It’s not that I have a Batman problem (although after the first Nolan-helmed one came out, I had a coincidental, bizarre and terrifyingly traumatic series of events involving real bats – but that’s a blog for another time). And it’s not that I think Heath was a bad actor. I actually think he had a lot of potential, but seriously, I think his sad and untimely death has given him an aura of having tragic untapped brilliance that is simply not warranted. I just don’t think he was as phenomenal as everyone makes him out to have been.
No doubt Ledger was a hard-worker and in the latter portion of his career he started making smarter and riskier choices. But really, even in his (maybe a total of 4) better choices, I honestly don’t feel his performances would have stood the test of time. Now, however, those performances will undoubtedly be elevated due to his premature death. When people go back and look at something like his completely overrated performance in Brokeback Mountain (an equally overrated and incredibly boring film that clearly got the accolades it did solely for being one of the first films to tackle the subject matter – again for another blog), they’re going to look at Heath with a more revered attitude and think solemnly of what might have been.
In a lot of ways, Heath reminds me of James Dean. Seriously, go back to Dean’s three films. He wasn’t nearly as good as his other method-era comrades Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Montgomery Clift or my fave Sal Mineo – who incidentally, is the only real reason Rebel Without a Cause is still watchable.
Of Dean's other two films, Giant, despite its undue critical acclaim, is excruciatingly long and downright laughable in many parts. Dean’s only really good movie is East of Eden; but again, it is not his performance that is compelling but the staggering performances from Jo Van Fleet and Julie Harris that make this movie worthwhile. Yet Dean’s early shuffling (or in his case, driving super-fast) off this mortal coil has given him an iconic status that not only completely overshadows their fine jobs, but also undeservedly lifts him into the pantheon of all-time movie greats. Unfortunately should he win an Oscar for his last completed performance, I suspect Heath Ledger will likewise be given directions to said pantheon. Yeah, this may sound mean of me, but ask yourself if you sincerely believe Heath was better than any of the above actors – especially like Balaban and Dillon, whose stellar careers are filled with an abundance of memorable portrayals deserving far more praise than that reserved for a joker.
*Just for your edification, they gave Zadora one for Butterfly, Stone for Casino and Madonna for Evita. Yep, they really did.
