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My Review of "Val"

Who knew Val Kilmer was filming himself for decades. This documentary will give you all sorts of emotions.

By Brian AnonymousPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Val is a biographical documentary of the life and times of Val Kilmer. It was released recently in 2021 however the footage taken from it spans all the way to his early childhood. Many of us remember him in such popular movies as Batman, The Saint and Tombstone. He's been in so many great movies but we never really saw the man behind the actor. This film will make you understand what kind of person he is and what kind of artist he's become.

The film with the narration by Val's son Jack. He reads the script that his father wrote because Val can no longer speak properly. He's undergone serious surgery for throat cancer as a result his vocal abilities are very limited. The actual Val does some voice work albeit with high difficulty. He's still understandable but it makes sense for Jack to voice over.

We then go into a vision of Val's past. His family was pretty well off so they were able to afford some of the very first home video cameras at the time. The family had documented hours upon hours of footage. Here Val explains how his childhood had huge highs but extreme lows as well. Still the family was still able to function despite a number of huge setbacks. I'm even surprised he was able to function so well with such tragedy early on in his life. It kind of gave me an even bigger appreciation for his work.

The past also explains a lot of his influences and why he chose the career that he did. Val was a very meticulous study of the craft of acting. You can see this in a lot of the videos. He's demonstrated that he had a very good skill in acting ever since he was a child. As he honed his craft he was given a lot of great opportunities. I sometimes forget how many big movies he's been in.

Despite the success that he achieved in Hollywood he still felt like he was missing out on his art of acting. There were a number of opportunities for him to push his boundaries but it was often the case that something would come up. He would either be shortchanged his opportunity or something would go awry for him to lose out.

Val's obsession with his craft is truly remarkable. He's able to risk his relationship and his fortune in order to see where his limitations are. I had no idea he had sacrificed so much in the pursuit of art. It's also incredibly tragic that he would get throat cancer at a time where he seems to be at the pinnacle of his growth in acting.

Although the biographical aspect of the film is quite remarkable what is equally impressive is his understanding of the art of acting. He gives us some of the takeaways that he learned over the last few decades of acting in both high budget movies and smaller independent shows. A lot of the statements he makes can be translated to different media formats as well. It almost seems as though Val had reached some sort of level of enlightenment with art.

Throughout all of the videos he shows us in this film we see that money and fame has never been the prime focus of his goals. He's just been looking to see how he can envelop a character while placing a small piece of himself into it. There are also metaphors of how some societies believing that the soul is taken from the camera. He explains to us that in some ways the camera truly did take a piece of his soul because they bought his time to be in the movies that he starred in. It makes complete sense when you watch the movie.

Overall, I was deeply engaged to this movie. It had me fixated from start to finish. It was almost like watching someone read out their diary to you. This sheer sense of intimacy had me engulfed in Val's story. I think you'll fall under this same spell too if you watch it. That's why I have to give this movie an 8.5 out of 10. I will definitely be encouraging my friends to watch this movie, especially my friends that love his movies.

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About the Creator

Brian Anonymous

I have tons of opinions that change constantly. I watch a lot of movies and play video games. There are some articles on my struggles with languages and dance as well.

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