MotW: Val

This is on Amazon Prime, and if you have ever been a fan of Val Kilmer's work, I'd HIGHLY recommend this one. Val Kilmer recorded himself with various camcorders since he was a child, and it acts like the perfect way to peek into the man's life. At first, I thought that this would be a biased autobiography, and although it is from his vantage point, he doesn't paint himself like a saint. The documentary jumps back and forth from the present to the grainy 8mm past.  It isn't too jarring, but you do have to know that the man had throat cancer in recent years. He says that he is in recovery, but his voice is gone. He uses an electronic voice box to speak, and it is a bit unsettling if you didn't know. His son, who sounds similar to him, narrates the film.

It begins with his childhood, and a family tragedy shifts his focus on life forever. From there, you get to see as he grows into the mega star he became after Top Gun. Every now and then, you get to see Kilmer in the present tense as he makes a remark about why a movie succeeded, failed, or created a tabloid headline with a perceived personal problem between another actor or a director. The switch back and forth from his archive to the present is fascinating. As he gets married, has kids, and buys property (which is sadly tragic, when you find out what he intended to use it for, and the failure around it), he discusses how he viewed things and what he thinks now. Even with his divorce, he does not slam his wife. He recognizes that he wasn't there all the time, and he knows that he is partially at fault. In the end, you see how his career started to falter, yet he had a plan to succeed with his venture into the world of Mark Twain. Then the cancer came...

Val is a fantastic look into Kilmer's life. Although it is exciting to see archived primary source footage of other movie stars in their youth and on the set of some of the greatest films in the last 40 years, that isn't what makes this movie a gem. It is the highs and lows in a man's life that brings about the intimate drama that grabs you and pulls you into the narrative. It feels very real, and the footage takes you along for the ride.  As I watched this with my wife, she began to cry and explained that she felt like we probably should not be seeing a scene at the end, because it is so personal. (Someone started to cut onions in the house at the same time, and I had to forcibly remove that guy out of the house.)  The man worked hard at Juilliard, overcame life's hurdles, became one of Hollywood's greatest, yet the scars of time and the evils of cancer grounded his his life.  Mortality sucks.

The movie isn't perfect. I realize it has a bit of a bias to it, but it isn't as bad as so many so called "documentaries." I wish he could have spoken more about some of his big hits. The montage of films that didn't do so well prior to his cancer diagnosis could have used more discussion, but I understand that this isn't a college class discussing every facet of his career; therefore, the time wasn't allotted for it.

Using Balder's scale out of 5, I'd give it a 4.5.  This was very well done, and I think it deserves a 90%.  I haven't seen a film like this in quite a while, and I would love discuss it with the forum.  I doubt it will be open to the public anytime soon, but Val inspired me to check out his warehouse full of archived footage to see what was left out.  I leave the film wanting to know more.