Val Edward Kilmer [poll]

btw, he is v v pretty

Chief Mojo Risin

Willow

hey guys one of these movies was filmed at my school guess which one (but dont tell tombot)

"Top Secret" vs "Willow".

wow i never thought i'd see the day where i'd be sitting there, earnestly debating in my head, which film i like better, tombstone or top secret.

batman forever is the worst

he was the best Batman (since Adam West)

Doc Holiday from Tombstone

i did not like batman forever but kilmer was a credible batman, i thought

i want to vote for the snl skit as iceman the aging airline pilot

i forgot ask the dust

i want to vote for the snl skit as iceman the aging airline pilot

-- gff, Thursday, June 14, 2007 1:03 PM (Thursday, June 14, 2007 1:03 PM) Bookmark Link

!!!!!

Thunderheart was quite good.

The Island of Dr Moreau is his 2d-funniest perf after Real Genius.

has anyone seen Summer Love?

No! Don't! There's a...a PECK here with an acorn pointed at me!

This is too hard so I'll vote for Willow which I love and which has the most insane character names of any movie ever and also he really did fall in love with Sorsha even though she kicked him in the face. Also wtf was up with those 4 arrows she carried on her back? She didn't even have a bow! Willow, ha.

I mean, you have to be on some great drugs to be like okay we'll have a BAVMORDA and a MADMARTIGAN, he's like a regular martigan only MAAAD.

free me, peck

kiss kiss bang bang was good

"beer!"

i'd never even realized how many films he'd been in

things i've never realy thought about i guess

kiss kiss bang bang was surprisingly enjoyable for the most aprt

fuck i'm drunk.

i want to vote for the snl skit as iceman the aging airline pilot

-- gff, Thursday, June 14, 2007 1:03 PM (Thursday, June 14, 2007 1:03 PM) Bookmark Link

!!!!!

-- jessie monster, Thursday, 14 June 2007 17:17 (2 hours ago) Link

oh for real this is so good! he keeps saying "you guys are dangerous" in this lonely, plaintive way. + chris parnell is the straight man: "i really don't think there are any bogeys on our six." the kenny loggins riff gets aired out about 239847 times, etc

Shit I bet it's on youtube but I can't search youtube at work! It is incredible.

i wish kiss kiss bang bang was a person so i could slap it

Willow

I was looking for THE THING but realized that was Kurt Russel. Not a bad bcz REAL GENIUS is hardest core. Popcorn!

VAL KILMER = ~P.I.M.P.~

REAL GENIUS x 100000000!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i voted thunderheart

i didn't vote but would have for real genius

Didn't see this in time. Would have voted The Saint. Good flick.

Close runner-up would be Val in sweaty, glistening, rock-hard volleyball player mode.

hahaha who else voted for masked and anonymous

tombstone is some bullshit but man he's good in it

it's on TNT right now

that's why i posted!

so has this been talked about here?

http://www-movieline-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/kilmer_twain300__120315131303.jpg

he's doing a Hal Holbrook biopic??

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/160746-Val-Kilmer-Will-Play-Mark-Twain-in-One-Man-Show-Citizen-Twain

Film actor Val Kilmer will present his one man play, Citizen Twain, which he wrote, directed and stars in, for a limited two-weekend run at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

haha i love how they throw him under the bus with this selective filmography:

Kilmer, who’s starred in such films as “Batman Forever,” “The Saint” and “Alexander,” is also an experienced stage trouper.

This is happening in a couple weeks at William Woods University in Fulton, MO.
Fifty bucks?! My friend who has a crush on Kilmer-as-Morrison insists that I go.
I don't think so.

Citizen Twain, that is.

I dunno, his comedic talent in films and delightful riffing in the commentary to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang leads me to believe this could be pretty entertaining.

If I could convince someone else to buy a ticket, too, it would be much more tempting.

http://i.imgur.com/Nk8gG7I.jpg

Christian Scientist? When did this happen? Lots of rumors flying, regardless, that Val is not long for this world. :(

this is fcking brilliant

http://www.pajiba.com/reddit/val-kilmers-reddit-ama-makes-me-like-val-kilmer.php

the doc is really good

and selfishly, it makes me feel vindicated for liking him my whole life.

also maaaan , those audition reels for full metal jacket, goodfellas…. he was IN IT, 100%. it’s wild to see how ~invested~ he was, especially when he always seemed to have a tabloid reputation for not giving a shit

I loved Real Genius so much as a kid

feel like his divorce-era period got brushed over (know nothing but hey privileged white boy on camera) but ASIDE from that the parental jewelry callback hit me good.

yeah that was beautiful

To me this is intentionally a documentary about acting as a life choice, not a documentary about his life. the two bump against each other & blur, I dont think theyre the same thing and I think that’s on purpose.

and I think that’s why i love it.

This was a lovely and sad documentary.

I was so confused at first by how he was narrating it, his son sounds so much like him.
He said he feels a lot better than how he sounds but he's also moving around like an old man. I guess he's moving stiffly because of the trachea deal?

my guess is chemo/radiation treatment is hard on the body in general

Yeah, my mom had a lot of mobility issues during her chemo phases.

and maybe side-effect GI issues too, seems like that could cause a lot of general discomfort also

i loved the relationship he has with his kids, they seem so close which is cool

and wow at all that stuff with his dad’s land deals, signing the loans & stuff….and then selling all that New Mexico land to finance his movie. lowlevel grim financial decisions

The film that won this poll barely got a mention in the doc lol

Watched half of this so far. It's pretty good. I'm impressed by his lack of vanity, especially for a former handsome leading man type. Definitely seems like the sort of guy who has thought hard about fate, and worked hard to balance the concepts of "lucky" and "unlucky."

Interesting watching this only a few weeks after checking out the doc about the disastrous making of Island of Dr. Moreau. Kilmer was a totally arrogant bully asshole who was roundly hated on set. Obviously the Val doc is gonna brush over that sorta stuff and allow him to paint it as “I’m difficult because I care so much”, but c’mon. Dude made a lot of people miserable through the years and it certainly seemed it was more a way to amuse himself and to assert his ego.

Maybe his illness and poor fortune in the latter part of his career humbled him a bit, idk.

the film is absolutely from his side of course. so a partial view.

there is some footage of him being "difficult" on the island of dr moreau

that was after his divorce, right?

wasn't the first thing he did to demand 40% less time on set after he was cast? lol

i can’t see him, or anyone at that level of fame for that matter, doing a hard-hitting deep dive documentary into all the ways they were an asshole

but also i never expected that going in? so idk

Why I Suck

Featuring

Jared Leto

would watch lmao

I'd think from his seemingly enlightened current frame of mind he'd maybe cop to more and express some regret as opposed to the covering-his-ass route and stuff like showing a clip of Robert Downey Jr. saying "he's not difficult at all!" or whatever it was.

Enjoyed the doc, but also recognize it as a kind of salvage piece.

1) i keep thinking about that thing he said about playing Batman & all the times he put his hands on his hips lol

2) this v minor but i had a hard time grasping what his juliiard drama teacher was saying about THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTIONS when you havent had a life experience to draw from, re hamlet wanting to kill himself.

3) the contrast between his tombstone meet & greet experience & comicon. that line about seeing all the people takes away the humiliation of having to be there in the first place. and comicon with all those “make it out to xx from iceman” u_u
but when he came back after getting sick, how nice everyone was & thanked him

I think his teacher was invoking a bit of method actor sophistry. Something like, you may not have ever wanted to kill yourself but Hamlet *has*, and because you *are* Hamlet therefore you have, too.

there are different styles of method and while one of them is essentially "remember when you were in a similar emotional state and access that affective memory" others are not in this vein

i agree it was a little abstruse to me

should have ended that last sentence after abstruse

as an actor I generally side-eye the most extreme of method actors, because they insist it's the *only* way to act, and that's fucking bullshit.

I have friends who could literally walk directly from the toilet to the stage and deliver a tear-jerking, powerful performance. the idea that you "have to become" the character sometimes leads to great performances, often leads to actor being an abusive arsehole and blaming it on *that*.

at least with theatre, if you're "going to be in character" from call time to curtain down, at least we only have to suffer you for two hours a night. imagining being with a Jared Leto for 10+ hours a day for months, yikes.

I totally forgot he even was Batman. I wanted to gouge my eyes out just from watching the brief clips they show in the doc.

Last time I was in Tombstone there was a showing of his art. I rmde'd at the sign for it ("yes, THE Doc") but now I'm retroactively curious.

ah thx Josh that makes sense

after some googling it seems that its that whole strasberg method where the idea is to go out in the world & replicate those experiences, or put yourself into the frame of mind where you think those thoughts etc, ie your own prev life experience should never be a barrier to exploring the character

i think i knew this already maybe? but hadnt heard the “substitution” term used before maybe. or just the way the teacher said it seemed v intense & confusing

thx Neanderthal that makes sense too

yeah, and Strasberg is immensely popular among movie actor folk (theatre actors enjoy the Meisner method - *eyeroll*)

though the latter is more about your partner than you. so I honestly don't mind it so much

Val great in Heat btw

yeah he’s so good in that!!

Finished this last night. For a movie built around home movies by an actor I've never particularly thought about I found it was pretty moving stuff. It was indulgent in an interesting way, especially the focus on family members both living and dead. Kind of a subtle way to say, yeah, I've had an incredible life full of dramatic ups and downs, but in the end the thing I've always cared about the most has been my loved ones, and looking back on my career, all those incredible, surreal experiences on set are nothing compared to the connection I have to and the energy I get from people. Which in the end is nothing unique, just seeing him light up around his family, even as his career ends and his health is in decline, is a reminder to everyone to give someone they love a hug.

One curious omission on that front: there were *three* Kilmer brothers, right? But the surviving brother doesn't so much as make an appearance in the doc, does he?

I wondered if we'd ever had a poll..

I have still never watched Tombstone.

Tombstone is great. Spartan is my dark horse candidate for his best performance. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang lingers in memory; I should watch it again.

Spartan is really excellent, I tend to forget about it when thinking about Kilmer, but he is really phenomenal in the role.

Tombstone is just the ultimate scenery chewing movie, and I mean that as a compliment, it’s just a lot of fun and he probably deserved at the very least an Oscar nomination.

I think one of the reasons he is so excellent in Heat is this is the type of role where that character could’ve just been some boring, hotheaded loose cannon. But he makes him a character who is absolutely 100% in control when he needs to be and is probably the most dangerous guy in the movie as a result. He’s the guy who is smart enough to take Neil’s advice from earlier in the movie and walk away when he uh “feels the heat around the corner.”

and the only man on earth who looks hot in a ponytail

One curious omission on that front: there were *three* Kilmer brothers, right? But the surviving brother doesn't so much as make an appearance in the doc, does he?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 11, 2021 8:53 AM

Seems like he’s a piece of shit

https://www.denverpost.com/2022/09/30/parental-responsibility-evaluators-colorado/

Watching Thunderheart tonight

my perennial favorite Kilmers
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- Tombstone
- Real Genius
- Top Secret
- Heat (small role but he kills it)
… and I will always watch The Doors for his performance any time it’s on. The movie itself is pure garbage but man Kilmer practically vibrates he’s so perfect

enjoyed at the time but havent rewatched: -Wonderland
-The Saint
-Ghost & Darkness
-Salton Sea
-Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans
- Batman Forever

xpost oh damn Thunderheart is another one i loved at the time that i havent rewatched in 30+ years
i’m way overdue!!

Prime Val, Sam Shepard and fucking Graham Greene. Plus Dakota badlands. Wonderful movie.

Val Kilmer’s Bob Dylan story:

So Bob Dylan loves “Tombstone,” it turns out. I found out he was in New York so I called my friend and I said you know, I'd love to meet him, is there any chance and he says, "I don't know, I'll find out." And the next call I got I thought was going to be my friend, but it wasn't, it was Bob.

I was real excited, like a crazy fan, like a child; it was so great. Basically it was like nothing. It was like we were old friends, it was like, "You want to come over?" and he was like, "Yeah." So, hangs up the phone, I was newly married and we had a baby and I went in and said "I think Bob Dylan's coming over…I'm not sure, it could be a hoax…."

He shows up and sits down and he wants to talk about “Tombstone,” but I just can't, you know, nor can I talk about any of his stuff. Eventually he says, "Ain't you going to say anything about that movie?" and I said, "Do some 'Blowing in the Wind' and I'll…."

That's what I said to him, basically I said no. I get like that sometimes. So I turned him down and, I thought, no one turns this guy down. Anyway, I felt like an idiot afterwards, well, yeah I could have said a few lines. They're fun lines too, like people still ask me to say lines and now I’ll tell any schmo in the airport, I'll say "I'm your huckleberry", but I wouldn't say it to Bob Dylan!

I felt so bad about it. I was like how could I make it up to him? So what I did was, I recorded "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" but as Doc Holiday and I put in all of the big lines from the movie into the song and made him a little tape.

omg that is awesome

Hilarie Burton with an excellent story:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH8nKDOOCrY/?hl=en

The sweetest man.

I played @valkilmerofficial ‘s girlfriend in a movie back in 2009. The script called for us to have a fairly rowdy love scene that got interrupted by a phone call. I’d just come off of OTH where I was always put in some kind of compromising position….so it was just work as usual.
But then I got to set the day we were going to be shooting that scene and there was a scramble happening. “Val wants to change the scene.”
Huh?
“It’s not interesting,” he said. A gratuitous sex scene with a younger woman didn’t service the story or the character. It said nothing about the relationship and why either of our characters were in it. Instead, Val sent someone out to a local restaurant to pick up a huge tub of ribs. And so, as the camera panned up from the floor, our moans were those of two people, comfortable and indulgent, tangled up in bed and unfettered by the mess, elbows deep in North Carolina’s finest bbq.

It was infinitely more interesting and I felt so safe and cared for by that man. It would have been easy to phone it in and just go with the stereotypical way women have been seen in film. Rather than the scene playing on my naked back, he turned me toward the camera. He made the scene about us instead of using me as a prop. That one day at work rewired my brain.

Val was kind to me. A thoughtful artist. I bought some of his paintings a few years back. I hope every young actor has a Val in their life. That movie was a magical experience. #bloodworth

rewatched Tombstone tonight, Kilmer just glows like a candle throughout the whole thing. and Biehn is so good in all his Kilmer scenes, Russell too.
It’s cornyass movie in places (like all that thunderstorm ‘blood on my hands’ shit is so stupid) but man the deathbed scene gets me every time <3

There are a couple of screenings of Heat this month. I have never seen it (couldn't stand the whole De Niro + Al Pacino are sharing the same frame thing) but this scene is so good

Val Kilmer is part of one of the greatest heist sequences in film history . Everything about Kilmer in this moment in Heat feels so real. Val Kilmer was just that dude: a vintage Hollywood bad-ass. pic.twitter.com/h9mY6tzMgP

— Cinema Tweets (@CinemaTweets1) April 2, 2025

rewatched Thunderheart over the weekend and I can confirm it’s still great.
(Doesnt seem to be streaming, i borrowed the dvd from my local library. )

Kilmer’s really good in it, but Greene, Grandpa (Ted Thin Elk) and the dog kinda steal the show

honestly, for a 90’s movie directed by a white guy* and written by another white guy**, it’s WAY better than it has any right to be & includes lots of historically factual info about AIM, Wounded Knee & Pine Ridge reservation
- *Michael Apted directed the documentary Incident at Oglala that deals with the irl events in the movie (released just prior to Thunderheart)
- **the writer lived on Pine Ridge res for something like 5 years working on the script

However it is still a 90’s movie so expect the James Horner score to lay it on thick (like, we’re talking MST3K Werewolf thick)