Open Court: Great talent stopped short

In the wonderful 1993 film “A Bronx Tale,” congenial bus driver Lorenzo Anello (played by Robert De Niro) tells his son, “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”

It’s the movie’s signature quote, and unfortunately, it has gone on to define the careers of countless entertainers.

This weekend, America can’t stop talking about “The Dark Knight” — well, more specifically, the late Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker.

Our resident film critic Adrienne Mackey practically went into hysterics discussing Ledger’s portrayal of the iconic comic-book villain. Nearly every critic in the nation has echoed her sentiments. Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman even threw out a Marlon Brando comparison.

It seems as if the sadness that surrounds the puzzling circumstances of his death has allowed people’s imaginations to run wild.

When an extraordinary talent is tragically taken from the public before it can fully blossom, people tend to attach greater weight to his or her accomplishments and assume that the future held nothing but great things.

There is nothing wrong with this mentality. It’s simply human nature.

When Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, pop music historians retroactively crowned Nirvana as the most important band of its generation. In reality, Cobain was an above-average singer-songwriter with an unquestioned sense of the moment.

If Nirvana were still touring and Cobain had put out a couple of horrible solo records, music fans wouldn’t attach any greater meaning to Nirvana. They’d just be like Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins or any other popular group from that era.

Tying it into sports (because, after all, this is a sports column), the same phenomenon happened when Len Bias died in 1986.

After a dominant run at the University of Maryland, the Boston Celtics snagged him in the draft and assumed that he was going to be “the next great Celtic.”

From Cousy to Russell to Havlicek to Cowens to Bird to Bias. That was the plan. He never made it past draft night.

The circumstances don’t have to be tragic for this concept to take hold, either. Gale Sayers and Jim Brown are still given greater credence in a historical context because football fans never saw them stumble around past their primes in a different jersey.

Ask any fan about his or her favorite team, and the most emotional stories tend to be about those can’t-miss prospects who were derailed by injuries or personal problems or the hundreds of other factors that can interrupt an athlete’s progress.

Remarkable talent is a rare commodity. Absorb as much of it as you can before it suddenly departs and leaves you wondering, “What if...”

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747