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Val Kilmer will be remembered as a unique Hollywood star who was capable of both leading man status and character actor clout. Someone who was in blockbusters but also weird indie flicks. He was also famously eccentric, someone who apparently didn’t make life easy for his co-stars but who brought that elusive, weird edge to bear in some genius performances. Here are his very best.
10. Batman Forever
Joel Schumacher’s film has not aged well, and it didn’t even look very good at the time. It is only saved from disgrace by the fact that Batman vs Robin was even worse. But within the mess of it all, and the weight of the competing Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones (who hated each other) as The Riddler and Harvey Two-Face, Kilmer made for a decent Batman. The script is terrible so just getting through lines like “It’s the car, right? Chicks love the car,” is an achievement in itself. But he also brought his usual elusive darkness to the role. Plus, some of cinema’s greatest ever lips.
9. Thunderheart
Little seen these days, but back in the day - 1992 to be precise - this was a massively acclaimed thriller with Kilmer showing off the kind of grit beneath the prettiness that would take Keanu Reeves another ten years to achieve. Kilmer plays an FBI agent with Sioux heritage who investigates a murder on a reservation. Directed by Michael Apted and co-starring Sam Shepherd, this is the kind of quality filmmaking about racism and corruption at the of the American Dream that would win a million Oscars now. As it is, it remains a little gem that’s well worth seeking out. Peak intensity and handsomeness from Kilmer.
8. Top Gun: Maverick
A moving cameo in Tom Cruise’s wildly successful sequel to the original, which managed to both satisfy fans with throwbacks and find something new. This was particularly the case with the scenes of Kilmer reprising his Ice Man role. Sensitively working in Kilmer’s personal battles with throat cancer, this was not the Ice Man of old but a retired officer who couldn’t speak but had to type into a computer his end of the conversation with Maverick. The moment when Ice Man does speak, with the assistance of AI technology, is emotional indeed; Tom Cruise cried when he heard it. But more than anything, Kilmer gives a very poised performance which adds a great deal of depth to the uber-jock Ice.
7. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Underrated Kilmer performance in Werner Herzog’s brilliantly outrageous ‘sequel’ (it barely has any connection to Abel Ferrera’s original). Cage steals every scene as only Cage can do in this most Cage of Cage roles, as a cracked-up crazy cop. But Kilmer is subtly hilarious as his partner Stevie Pruit. Kilmer’s line reading of “There ain’t no iguana,” to a hallucinating Cage is an essential moment of the film’s standout scene of pure insanity.
6. Top Gun
“I don’t like you because you’re dangerous.” Ah, Ice Man, his most famous role. In a film full of swaggering testosterone-pumped jocks, Kilmer is still the top dog (gun). His Ice is preening, arrogant, cold... the perfect foil to Cruise’s hot-headed Maverick. Almost every moment in the film is iconic, as you’d expect from former ad director Tony Scott; the volleyball scene plays out like a commercial for a gay cruise holiday. Kilmer is body beautiful in it, an image of perfect 80s masculinity, like a Yuppie version of a pilot. Yet his Ice Man cracks at the end too, won over by that little Cruise ragamuffin. “You can be my wingman anytime.” Oh, get a room, you guys...
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5. Wonderland
Another lost Kilmer film, mostly because no-one wants to find it. But actually this flawed post-Boogie Nights biopic of John Holmes, the 70s porn performer, has a seriously committed and wild turn from Kilmer in it. In fact this is a variation on his Jim Morrison, with plenty of spaced out drug binges and foppish charm, with the porn dialed down in favour of cool 70s styling. Worth a reassessment. It’s a better LA period crime caper than Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, that’s for sure.
4. Heat
A killer performance by Kilmer in a film dominated by the first, long-awaited dueling of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Kilmer plays Chris, the hot-headed young buck in De Niro’s criminal gang, and shows off his full range, shifting from smouldering love interest to psychotic nutjob in the blink of an eye. And despite the Pacino/De Niro coffee shop scene being the big moment of the film, the very best scene is of course the bank robbery, which is dominated by Kilmer’s machine gunning wizardry. Apparently he was so good at it that US Marines would be later shown his scenes as a lesson in how to reload quickly. True? Well, it looks cool at the very least.
3. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kilmer’s ‘Gay’ Perry van Shrike is a private investigator who helps Robert Downey Jr’s petty thief turned actor get out of a serious of Hollywood high jinks. Shane Black’s film is a hilarious spin on the action genre with Kilmer showing off his considerable comedic flair as the smooth PI. Apparently Downey Jr hated Kilmer when they first met, but later the pair became friends. You get a sense that Kilmer had a knack for winding people up but that helped give some added spice to the duo, particularly in the kiss scene. If this film was made today, his van Shrike would have his own Netflix spin-off for sure.
2. Tombstone
Possibly the moment where the world woke up to Kilmer’s considerable talents. The film is a slightly schlocky 90s update of Gunfight at the OK Corral with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. But Kilmer steals the show and elevates the entire film as ‘Doc’ Holliday, Earp’s old friend now struck with tuberculosis. It’s the kind of hyper-real performance that obliterates everything else in the film, and in this way was a throwback to the days of James Dean or Brando, in its captivating feel. His Holliday is a man heading for the grave, but wanting some redemption before he does so. The importance of the role to Kilmer was reflected in the way he names his memoir after his most famous line in the film: “I’ll be your huckleberry.”
1. The Doors
Now this is not a subtle performance. This is big, showy acting, befitting the life of Jim Morrison, the ultimate shamanic rock n roll star. Kilmer does not hold back in the role, and is eerily convincing as Morrison, capturing the deranged ugliness of the man as well as the beautiful far out revolutionary, and sang all the songs himself. The whole film is very Oliver Stone, it does not suffer from shyness, but for all its ridiculousness, Kilmer pulls the film along with him. Pure fun.
