William Hamilton - Blessed, Life and Films of Val Kilmer

Blessed

Life and Films of Val Kilmer

By

William Dean Hamilton

Copyright 2015

Introduction 3

Young Val Kilmer 5

Acting 11

Wesley 12

Another Side of the Journey to Julliard 14

Julliard 16

Theater 18

Movie and TV Introduction 23

One Too Many 24

Top Secret 24

Real Genius 27

New Mexico 28

Journey to Victory 32

Murders in the Rue Morgue 33

Top Gun 34

The Man who Broke a Thousand Chains 36

My Edens After Burns 37

Africa Unbottled 40

Willow 42

The Seventh Man 46

Gore Vidals Billy the Kid 46

Kill Me Again 46

Joanne Whalley 47

The Doors 50

Children 54

Thunderheart 57

Girlfriends 59

True Romance 60

The Real McCoy 60

Tombstone 61

Christian Science 67

Wings of Courage 68

Batman Forever 69

Heat 74

The Business of Acting 76

The Island of Dr. Moreau 81

The Ghost and the Darkness/Man-Eaters of

Tsavo 85

Nelson Mandela 92

Dead Girl 92

The Saint 93

The Prince of Egypt 98

At First Sight 106

Africa project 112

Joe the king 115

Three Days 116

Red Planet 117

Pollack 119

TV 120

The Salton Sea /High Stakes at Salton Sea 121

Hard cash 126

Masked and Anonymous 126

Wonderland/24 Days in Wonderland 129

Advertisements 133

The Missing 135

The Night Job 135

George and the Dragon 135

Charities 136

Blind horizon/Black Point 142

Spartan 145

Stateside/Sinners 148

Delgo 148

Mark 150

Alexander 150

The Prophet 153

Collateral 153

A Killer Inside Me 153

Mindhunters 153

Awards 156

Troubled Val 158

Blessed 164

Extras 167

Introduction

Val Kilmer is on the set of a major motion picture, his lines have been memorized, he has a general picture of the character he wants to present in the upcoming scene. He has a concern about the depth of his character; he is in search of new insights that surround this old, and often times flat, character.

The obvious person to ask is the director. Val seeks him out, you can picture director Joel Schumacher trying to juggle actors, and oversee crew members. Hes a busy man whos overseeing a monstrous project. Schumacher has already had some disagreements with Val, but Val is the star, right? Can the movie work if the star doesnt get it right?

Val approaches Schumacher and asks him what his motivation is for the next scene.

Schumacher says, Youre just f*****g Batman, just go out there and do it.

Im not 100% sure if the story is true, but I have included it here because I think that even if its not true its like a metaphor for Val Kilmers career. You can see Joel Schumachers point, its just Batman, you arent going to get an Academy Award no matter how you play the role, but you can also see Vals.

This leads me to ask the question, could there be a star in Hollywood who gives too much. At what point does the quest for perfection stop being an asset and become a liability? If such devotion to craft is possible then Val Edward Kilmer is guilty. The actor has consistently chosen hard roles over ones that would have given him more money and fame, yet his total gross box office is well over 1.5 billion dollars.

Jim Morrison is one of the main roles people think of when you say the name Val Kilmer. I think this is because with Jim Morrison we can see, the videos, and pictures, and can hear his music. This gives us a better vantage point with which to measure his character by, we don't know who Moses, Doc Holliday, or his other characters are in such a real and personal way.

Polo magazine reported, Kilmer learned 50 Doors songs, 15 of which he actually performed on-screen. All the live musical numbers in the film were done by Kilmer except for five lines, including a scream. The background vocals were Morrisons. According to Paul Rothchild, who was a record producer for The Doors, Kilmers and Morrisons voices were so remarkably alike the Doors guitarist, Robby Krieger, and drummer, John Densmore, guessed wrong 80 percent of the time when he switched between the two. (The Doors' keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, refused to cooperate with the making of the film. It hurts to disappoint someone who knows the truth ..., Kilmer told Jeffrey Ressner of Rolling Stone [April 4, 1991]. [But] the people I was directly involved with convinced me I was on the right track, and what else can you ask for as an actor?)

Polo magazine continued, Kilmer's physical resemblance to Morrison was no less striking, once he had styled his hair and inserted black contact lenses that gave his eyes a permanently dilated appearance. It was like having [Morrison] back for a while, Krieger told Ressner. Spooky.

Robert Ebert said, It was more like a case of possession.

Even Jim Morrisons own band members guessed wrong 80% of the time. Val became more like Jim than Jim was. This isnt an isolated incident, Vals acting abilities are apparent throughout his whole film career. Robert Ebert also has said of Val Kilmer that he is one of the most underappreciated actors in America. His portrayal of Doc Holiday in Tombstone has been often called Oscar worthy. Some say his portrayal of Ice Man in Top Gun stole the show from Tom Cruise.

The Saint grossed 169 million, Prince of Egypt 218 million, Batman Forever 335 million, and Top Gun 344 million.

In acting, like other arts, you cannot say that there are absolutes, like a certain person is the best actor to ever live, but rather that there are plateaus at which many actors and actresses reside. Most people are at a certain level most of the time, but at the top level, there are only differences in style, or in certain characters one plays. Without a doubt Val Kilmer is at the top plateau of acting, there is no one in Hollywood is at a higher level; Val has earned a reputation for being anything a writer can dream.

Young Val Kilmer

The year is 1959; its New Years Eve in the small community in the northern tip of the San Fernando Valley known as Chatsworth. The city is a sleepy place destined to be overtaken by the metropolis of Los Angeles, but for now it is a place where people who have a few coins in their pockets can maintain a slow rural pace surrounded by the beauty of mountains, while being close to the tireless diversions of LA.

The chill would hang in the air, but there probably was no snow that night, even though it was one of the coldest of the year, because of the southern Californian climate. The night would be more exiting than the usual night, parties would be sprouting up, and lovers would gaze up at the sky and wish for things the future year would bring.

In LA, two of the citys residents would get their wish for the future, a little boy. Gene and Gladys Kilmer decided to name him for a vice president in Genes company, Val Edward Kilmer. Val isnt short for anything. That little boy was like a little melting pot, with Swedish, German, Mongolian, Scottish, Irish and Cherokee blood flowing through his veins, some have suggested that this is the reason he turned out so handsome.

They would raise the boy next to, and eventually in, Roy Rogers ranch, send him to school with Kevin Spacey, and Mare Winingham. The Manson family lived not far away before anyone knew who they were, Val would visit Spahn ranch. People who were great and those who would be great surrounded Val, like a portend of the future.

Vals immediate family had money when he was growing up, but had very humble beginnings. My parents were completely non-materialistic; they just don't care about things. But still, put it this way: if I became interested in motor cycling racing, I didnt have to get a paper route to get a bike. Vals father owned an aerospace parts distributor, and made then lost a fortune developing real estate.