Val
Val is the best documentary I watch all year. It tells the story of Val Kilmer, as narrated by his son, and through his movies and the many home movies he amassed.
It is amazing how much of his personal life, and life on set, Val captured with a camera. He was TikTok before TikTok was popular.
As an eighties kid, I grew up with Ice Man. He was the cold jock in Top Gun. The anti-hero.
You can be my wingman any time.
As a geek, Anthony Edwards (Goose) was my pilot. Goose was Revenge of the Nerd’s Gilbert, Gilbert was Goose.
I just wanted to say that I’m a nerd, and I’m here tonight to stand up for the rights of other nerds. I mean uh, all our lives we’ve been laughed at and made to feel inferior. And tonight, those bastards, they trashed our house. Why? Cause we’re smart? Cause we look different? Well, we’re not. I’m a nerd, and uh, I’m pretty proud of it.
Then, a friend at high school introduced me to the music of The Doors. I went from dark New Wave music to the mesmerizing sounds of The Doors. I wasn’t a big movie going guy, but I had to watch the movie The Doors. Val Kilmer was the spitting image of Jim Morrison in the movie. It has been one of his best performances. (I never got to watch his stage performance of Mark Twain.)
I read all the poems of Morrison, and became a huge Doors fan, 15 years after Jim Morrison’s death. Somewhere I have a picture of me at his grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
I am the Lizard King
I can do anything
I can make the earth stop in its tracks
I made the blue cars go away
The documentary doesn’t go into a lot of details about his throat cancer and his tracheostomy. Yet, they don’t shy away from it, as Val is featured multiple times, having difficulty to communicate.
Of course, this is his documentary. There is always another side to the story. The New York Times sketches a more balanced picture of the actor - Cancer has taken his voice, but the unlikeliest movie star in Hollywood history still has a lot he wants to say.
His casting problem was solved for him when no one wanted to work with him anymore. The roles went to people who, presumably, were not known for unkindness toward movie crews; the phone stopped ringing. In his book, he sums up this period like this: “In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio.”
By watching the documentary, I learned that Val Kilmer is a lot more than Top Gun and The Doors. He is an artist and “filmophile”. Living modestly, filming, writing, and painting.