A Knight’s Tale
By Dwayne Tillman
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 10 years since the tragic passing of the late, great Heath Ledger. Paying tribute to his sparse but eclectic work is I Am Heath Ledger, a poignant and tender-loving ode to the talented artist behind some of the most iconic characters of the 21st Century.
I Am Heath Ledger starts at the beginning of Ledger’s teenage venture into acting, where the 17-year-old migrated from Perth to Sydney to pursue his acting career. From there, directors Derik Murray and Adrian Buitenhuis offer a diverse range of interviews, including musicians like Bon Iver and Ben Harper, directors like Ang Lee and Catherine Hardwicke, and actors like Ben Mendelsohn and Naomi Watts, as well as hearing from Ledger’s own parents and siblings.
The documentary’s main purpose is to put on display what a dedicated and talented artist he was, and this is absolutely the biggest takeaway you’ll get from the film. In addition to seeing a broad range of his acting work in films such as Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight, Murray and Buitenhuis show us other aspects of the man’s art, including clips from music videos he’s directed and home movie snippets from Ledger’s own camcorder, which he carried everywhere. It reminds you of the depth of his talent and conveys the feeling that he had only just scratched the surface of his own genius. Seeing an artist so invested and passion about his own art is always thrilling to witness, and it is no different here; seeing Ledger throw himself into everything he did is truly inspiring.
This aside, it’s hard not to feel a little bit shortchanged. This is mainly a result of the fact that the film oddly tiptoes around the elephant in the room: his death. It doesn’t quite go into detail about what happened like you want it to, and as a result, it doesn’t have nearly as much of an impression as other recent documentaries about late artists, like Cobain: Montage of Heck and Amy. There’s a surprising lack of insight from Ledger’s own family, which may (understandably) have felt that they have said all they can about the event. It spends a lot of time talking about the lead up to his death, but when it actually gets there, it feels somewhat cut short. Additionally, the film occasionally feels slightly episodic, almost as if it is ticking off the boxes as they progress from film to film, instead of addressing a particular theme.
Perhaps the best way to view I Am Heath Ledger is as more of a eulogy to the actor rather than an insightful documentary about the man’s life. On the level of the former, it works, and fans of the actor will undoubtedly be moved. It’s just difficult not to feel like you needed more.