Blessed, Life and Films of Val Kilmer

by William Hamilton

Top Gun is the most famous movie about airplanes ever made, and it has earned its reputation with a great cast and plot. The all-star cast includes Tom Skerritt as the head of the Top Gun Academy, and James Tolkan as the head of the aircraft carrier, both are excellent military actors, and they always do a wonderful job in those sorts of movies.

  Val’s character shined in the movie as well; there are a lot of women who say that Val was more desirable than Tom Cruise in the movie.

  Interesting facts:

  John Travolta was considered, but rejected for the film because he was in a slump at the time and they were afraid of his box office appeal

  In the last scene where Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis walk to meet each other, they had to dig a trench for her to stand in because she’s three inches taller than cruise.

  Val’s uniform shit he wore in “top Gun” sold for $424.00 on the auction site www.americanmemorabilia.com

  The Man who Broke a Thousand Chains

  1987

  Val doesn’t like TV, but one of the best roles was this made for TV movie. The movie is a remake of “I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang,” which helped to reform the chain gang system of incarceration, and was nominated for three academy awards.

  According to Val, his best preparation for Hamlet came from his role in “The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains.” “He (Robert Elliott Burns) never asked anyone to help him - which made him a lot like Hamlet. Also their courage and pain are similar.”

  It seems like Val chooses roles not on the basis of how popular they will be, but how challenging they are, this role was a real challenge for Val, and for the other actors in it. The movie would have been a real Oscar contender if released on film instead of HBO, and properly financially backed.

  The movie wretches your emotions as you follow Robert Elliot Burns (Val) through the excruciating torture of a Georgia chain gang. All of the actors are excellent. Elisha Cook Jr., Taj Majal (fellow convicts) and William Sanderson play their parts to the hilt. Charles Durning plays the warden with unusual talent. It’s unusual for sadistic characters to get their parts right, even when they are enjoyable, oftentimes they still don’t seem realistic, that’s not true for warden and guards in this movie.

  Val takes the Burns and turns him into a real and sympathetic character that we want to be able to help. Val earned a Cable Ace nomination for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries, but, unfortunately, he didn’t win.

  Not much is said in the movie about race issues, although there are some implied. There seem to be far more black prisoners than white, and none of the guards were black. The closest thing to addressing the race issue was a statement by Taj Mahal, “No white man has done nothin’ for me.”

  My Edens After Burns

  Mr. Kilmer is a poet, although most of his poetry is unknown to the public. This has been by personal choice. In December of 1987 he published a collection of his poetry, “My Edens after Burns.” This was originally supposed to be a kind of Christmas present, and also available in limited quantities to the public. He quickly decided to buy all of the either 2,000 or 5,000 (depending on who you talk to) copies that were printed that hadn’t been sold, and he only gave those copies to his closest friends. The rest he stores in his garage. Val has expressed his doubt that journalists would be fair in regards to his poetry and quote him out of context. He was probably was right, as the media has less than fair to him in general.

  Poetry was one of many things that Val had in common with his subject Jim Morrison. Val has said that he wished he was as selective as Jim Morrison in what poetry to resent to the public. One poem written for Michele Pfeifer was called “The Pfeifer Howls At The Moon," and it seems he might have wished he kept his thoughts about her more private.

  He says, “Poetry is a very subjective and intimate expression. It’s literally your heartbeat. Your rhythm. The song of your soul. It’s super-concentrated. It’s a dense piece of yourself.”

  Val has said he wouldn’t ever publish a book of poetry again, but some of his poems were in “The Saint.”A talent for poetry runs in his family, and one of the most notable poets of Twentieth Century is his distant cousin. Most people recognize the poem “Trees” when they read it, but you might not from the title, so here is Joyce Kilmer’s poem,

  Trees

  Joyce Kilmer

  I think that I shall never see

  A poem lovely as a tree.

  A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

  Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

  A tree that looks to God all day,

  And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

  A tree tat may in summer wear

  A nest of robins in her hair;

  Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

  Who intimately lives with rain.

  Poems are made by fools like me,

  But only God can make a tree.

  Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on December 6, 1886. When the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, Kilmer enlisted as a private despite having a family. He soon transferred to the 165th Infantry who had a legendary fighting reputation.

  When he got to France he was quickly promoted to Sergeant. On July 30th 1918, he became the adjutant to Major William Donovan, who commanded the First Battalion. Donovan's old adjutant, Lt. Oliver Ames had been killed in combat the day before. A sniper's bullet ended Kilmer’s life. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for bravery and Camp Kilmer in New Jersey is named for him.

  An excerpt of his own poem "In Memory of Rupert Brooke" seems to most adequately describe the life and death of this brave young poet.

  In alien earth, across a troubled sea,

  His body lies that was so fair and young.

  His mouth is stopped, with half his songs unsung;

  His arm is still, that struck to make men free.

  But let no cloud of lamentation be

  Where, on a warrior's grave, a lyre is hung.

  We keep the echoes of his golden tongue,

  We keep the vision of his chivalry.

  Africa Unbottled

  4/19/1998

  The “Wild! Life Adventures is a series focusing on first-person accounts of once-in-a-lifetime experiences in the natural world. Val narrated “Africa Unbottled: Preserving The Heritage” with playwright Nicholas Ellenbogen, and the premise is simple one; the people who know most about wildlife management are the people who actually live in these rural, developing countries.

  They discover that enforced hunting bans aren’t always the best way to save endangered species. In places they visited, such as Bawa, Mozambique, to Masoka, Zimbabwe, the bans cause overpopulation among the animals and poverty among the people. On the other hand, limited hunting and controlled safaris controls populations and provide stimulation for local economies.

  The purpose of playwright Ellenbogen being on the journey, is that he is writing a play entitled “Guardians of Eden,” that shows the delicate balance between humans and animals, and provide a new vision of Africa. He says, “The sooner the world realizes that Africa is a massive energy source, full of bright ideas, full of technology that is ancient and tried and tested, full of wisdom that is untapped, full of love and energy of a spiritual nature, the sooner she will prosper herself.”

  ”Africa’s been bottled, labeled, preserved through a lack of understanding, and it's high time to set her free, unbottle her true power and let her live as she has for eons in the hands of her people, for they are closest to her heart.”

  But the story isn’t over for Val, who has been working on a project for several years now about Adrian Boshier, a man who searched Africa to find the meaning of life. Val says, “It's an amazing story. It's a true story, and in my opinion, the greatest adventure in African history because of his interest in anthropology, metaphysics, archeology. He was in search everything to do with how exciting life is.” His son, Bowen Boshier, was co-writer and director on “Africa Unbottled,” and so this gave Val an opportunity to work on his pr
oject.

  Val speaks about some of his experiences with Bowen, “Just around bedtime, which is about 8:30 or 9 o'clock because you get up before dawn, you hear the lion roar and, uh, it's marking their territory, they do a call…. It’s a wilderness experience. So they call and (they decide to go looking for the lion) It sounds exciting initially. But it’s so loud, it carries 2 to 3 miles and within a mile of this lion and we realize that it’s a very dumb thing to try and go find a lion in the middle of the night. I had a large flashlight and I thought it would scare them, but I know about lions, they can see in the dark, they don’t care. It was like a beacon ‘Come eat us!’”

  And in another interview, “I just love Africa, I love the wilderness and the mystery of Africa. It’s amazing because it’s where we all come from and yet it’s still the most mysterious continent… there's something that’s, … very tangible but illusive feeling when you’re there. It’s just very powerful.”

  And yet another, “I love the contact with nature and the people who live in it; there’s a sense of timelessness and I adore the way the people live. The main currency is cattle you know, so there’s an attitude that is adversarial towards the wildlife, but that is changing dramatically. Countries like Botswana have come up with really solid ways to involve the tribal communities with the hunting to enable the wildlife to live, but also bring money into the community.”

  “If I fish, I’ll throw the fish back in the water. I’ve tracked animals, but I don’t hunt, I understand why hunters do it, though. Hunting isn’t bad, it’s the people who hunt badly. Hunting is now the only way that the wildlife can be maintained or flourish – that’s a fact. When they stopped hunting in Kenya, there were 55,000 elephants. Now, because of poaching, there are 5,000. For the hunter, the big game is his crop. Say a guy can make $10,000 by raising the rhinoceros for hunting and not go to jail or get shot, he’ll choose to make $10,000. It seems terrible for the rhino; but the only way to save them is if they can charge $6,000 for a Texan to go down there and kill the rhino so three more get to exist.”

  Willow

  5/20/1988

  George Lucas thought of the “Willow” story in the early ‘70’s, but his vision included visual effects that hadn’t been developed yet, so Lucas directed his energies towards “American Graffiti, “Star Wars,” and “Indiana Jones.”

  After these accomplishments, Lucas had the money and had the know-how to see his dream to reality. He turned to his friend Ron Howard, who had stared in “American Graffiti” and had earned his reputation as a director with such movies as “Splash” and “Cocoon.” Bob Doleman who wrote scripts for “WKRP in Cincinati” turned Lucas’ ideas into a script. Almost all of the actors had earned good reputations including Warrick Davis, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, and Billy Barton. Columbia Studios invested $40,000,000 into the picture. The movie was set up for success, and the studio eagerly put a lot of money into advertising and merchandising hoping for another Lucas blockbuster. The movie was the first attempt at “Morphing” and this would account for millions of the film’s budget. The films locations were also impressive; the film was shot in England, Wales and New Zealand.

  The film was nominated for two academy awards, including best sound and best special effects. Ron Howard was nominated at the Cannes Film Festival for best director, although none won, the nominations were notable achievements.

  Val describes his character, “I don’t know if you’d describe me as a romantic hero in the film. He’s more of a warrior on warrior skid row…We wanted to find a style of sword fighting that was different and we came up with something that has elements of juggling in it. I didn’t even know I could juggle. We were just fooling around looking for something unusual that Madmartigan could do. Bill Hobbs, the fight arranger, was searching for some kind of style that was original while combining things that George Lucas likes in the Japanese culture. So, we wanted to have something that matched the character, some bravado that had meaning. We first rejected the idea of juggling because it’s pretty meaningless for fighting. Then, we started fooling around with different things that made it look like some of the disciplines in the martial arts which are based upon the original Samurai practice for battle. Yet, now, it has been developed into an art, a physical discipline. So, we developed a similar style for Madmartigan, using elements of juggling and the Samurai and came up with what you see on the screen.”

  Even after these impressive events and more impressive beginnings, you still could ask the question, was “Willow” a success or a failure? In some ways the movie was both. The movie lost money, it only grossed $57,000,000 (and only half of the gross goes to the studio, the other half goes to the theater owners) so the studio will always consider “Willow” a failure in that way. The firm was also almost universally bashed by critics, there were charges that the plot was stolen form “The Lord of the Ring,” “Star Wars” and Moses’ birth story. It doesn’t take much imagination to recognize the similarities in plot either.

  How then was the movie a success? The people who like this film almost worship it. If you take a look at the Internet, you can find a wealth of information on “Willow” and download the whole script. They even list the whole cast’s birthdays. On one website I read a review by someone who said that because it had a plot that was similar to other great stories that that proved it was a great story.

  The movie has a large faithful following that hopes someday there will be a movie sequel, although there are three Sequels out in book form, “Shadow Moon,” Shadow Dawn,” and “Shadow Star.” The sequels don’t involve Madmartigan, Val’s character, so even if he wanted to be in a “Willow” sequel, there isn’t much chance.

  “Willow” always receives good reviews when the public reviews it, and that tells you something. Perhaps its because “Willow” isn’t a movie that is good enough to transcend genres, but it’s a movie that anyone who is really into fantasy will enjoy.

  Interesting facts:

  The baby Elrora was too young to wear a wig, so they stuck the strand of hair to her head with syrup.

  Kenny Baker who played R2D2 had an uncredited role as villager.

  Jack Purvis and Gerry Crampton also made uncredited appearances. Purvis was in “Star Wars and “The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.” Crampton was a stunt man in “The Eagle has Landed.”

  The character General Kael (Pat Roach) is supposed to have been named for film critic Pauline Kael, she reviewed the film by saying that you’ll “Feel like you’ve fallen into a pit of mixed metaphors.”

  The two headed whatever was originally named Siskbert for Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

  The Seventh Man

  Val narrates this documentary about two years in the lives of a small, six member, Texan baseball team.

  Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid

  5/10/1989

  This version of Billy the Kid was a remake of a classic movie called “The Left-Handed Gun.” Gore Vidal is one of the most famous writers of our time, he wrote “Ben Hur,” among about twenty other novels, 5 plays and four books of essays. The movie premiered on TNT Cable Channel on May 10, 1989.

  Kill Me Again

  12/27/1989

  The most important element of the movie is that it is a classic film noir tale. This genre always has certain elements. It’s a dark story where the main character has self-destructive behaviors often caused by a fem fatale. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer’s character’s initials are F.F, and she definitely lives up to them.

  This film brought an opportunity for Val and his wife to work together. Perhaps if it were possible for the two of them to be in more movies together, it would have helped prevent a communication breakdown.

  Joanne Whalley

  It almost seems like fate until you hear about the ending. According to Val, “We actually met before we met.” He first saw Joanne in England while he was filming “Top Secret,” and she was doing the play “The Genius.” He snuck into the theatre for the second act, and used to wait ou
tside, sometimes in the rain, to approach her. He followed her to a bar a few times, but he never had the courage to approach the beautiful young woman.

  That was in 1983, in 1987 he saw Joanne once more, although he didn’t recognize her at first. They were working in New Zealand on “Willow” together; her character fell in love with Val’s. It wasn’t long before he became interested in her, but she maintained a businesslike relationship. Val showered her with flowers and theatre tickets.

  Val talks about an important day, “I drove her here in a murderer’s car. Because the day I decided, ‘I can’t stand it another day. I’ve got to ask her (to marry me). . .’ My car wouldn’t start. So along comes this felon and lends me his truck. I think she was kinda hoping I’d ask. But the laughing part, that threw me for a couple minutes…I still don't know (why she laughed) to this day. I’ve asked, but she's a private woman. But I hope it was joy. That’s the way I choose to remember that moment...”

  The two were married in February 1988. On October 29, 1991 the couple had a daughter they named Mercedes. “The reality of love is that it’s hard to do. It’s a darn shame that as a species we've convinced ourselves love should be fun, that it’s got some kind of pastel color to it, that it tastes good and should make our lives easier. Love is hard!”

  “But I believe that the more we love, the more alive we are. And, other than your relationship to God, who your partner is in life is the most important thing. We all have an opportunity to make loving connections. Each experience we have is an opportunity to express the truth of our life, and opportunity to confront our fears, to take a change with love and go out and live! I think that notion is what life’s about. It’s certainly what acting is… Marriage and kids keep me grounded. Instead of partying, I go home to see my family.”