Val Kilmer 

    Val Kilmer, handsome and talented, died at 65 from pneumonia complications. He joins a list that is far too long of actors who died too young.  He had battled throat cancer for years, a malady which altered his voice and finally made it difficult for him to even speak. He had quite a good, if brief, movie career.

Kilmer’s first appearance of note came in a role he seemed born to play. In Top Gun (1986) he portrayed the laid-back fighter pilot Ice. He made a good counterpoint to Tom Cruise’s character, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The two are rivals for the Top Gun trophy that goes to the best pilot. Later they help each other in real battles. The aerial dog fights are outstanding. And yep, you can see these guys in these same roles 36 years later. More on that later. 

As far away as you could get is Willow (1988), a fairy tale with dwarves, wizards, enchanted babies and lots of magic spells. Val Kilmer had a good time playing Madmartigan, a magician able to disguise himself as needed and help the heroes prevail.

    But Kilmer’s big break, and the part for which he is famous, is as Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors (1991).This rock biopic made lots of money and is maybe within shouting distance about the band’s rise to stardom. Val Kilmer does his own singing, and is so very good at it that other band members said they could not tell whether it was Kilmer or Morrison singing. What is perhaps true is the film’s portrayal of Morrison as a drug user, who sees himself as a messianic leader of the rock and roll culture. As the band members tire of Morrison’s antics, including his arrest and conviction for indecent exposure,  the band breaks up and Morrison hightails it for Paris with his wife. She finds him dead in a bathtub. He was 27.

Tombstone (1993) is one of many movies about the gunfight at the Okay Corral beween the Earp brothers and the notorious Cowboys gang, containing Johnny Ringo and the Clantons. Val Kilmer is on the side of the angels here, as Doc Holliday,  an old friend of the Earps. Though very sick with tuberculosis, which eventually kills him, he helps the Earps clear out Tombstone of the bad guys. 

It takes some guts to appear in a film with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, but Val Kilmer pulls it off with panache in Heat (1995). He is Chris, one of the gang of thieves  headed by Neil McCauley (DeNiro). Pacino is Lieutenant Vincent Hannah, tasked with the thankless job of tracking down and arresting the McCauley gang. There’s lots of shooting and double crosses galore and a very complicated screenplay.

All of the movies in this article are available for rent or purchase somewhere. All are for adults. 

                                                       Gene Hackman

                                             Part 5 (enough already!)

Well, it had to end sometime. This is the last article about the late great Gene Hackman’s movies. I could have squeezed a couple more, but enough is enough!

John Grisham’s legal thrillers are always best sellers and also good film material. Gene has been picked to star in three of these. The first one, The Firm (1993) is one of the best. Tom Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a top Harvard Law School grad who signs up with the small, powerful Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Gene Hackman is senior partner Avery Tolar, who mentors Mitch and tries to keep him inside the rails. Mitch discovers the firm’s major work is laundering mob money, and that it has been involved in nefarious doings including murder. He rebels. They come after him.

The Chamber (1996) is lesser Grisham and a lesser film. But Gene Hackman carries the water as a convicted Klan member whose grandson tries to redeem him. 

In The Runaway Jury (2003) Gene is a highly paid jury consultant who is actually a jury fixer. When one of his juries turns up a couple who are for sale to the highest bidder, the fun begins. 

Gene Hackman is the title figure in The Royal Tennenbaums (2001), playing the father of three extremely gifted children whose exploits as young adults are splendid. But when Dad leaves the family, things go from good to awful fairly quickly. Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Luke Wilson portray the children. Their struggles and disappointments pepper the story. When Royal decides to return and reunite everyone just like old times, it’s not just like old times. This quirky film is an acquired taste, but there’s no doubt about Hackman’s portrayal. 

Crimson Tide (1994) a suspenser based on Tom Clancy’s novel, stars Gene Hackman as Captain Frank Ramsey, and Denzel Washington as Lt. Commander Ron Hunter. A Soviet submarine has broken away from the Kremlin leadership and is headed for the U.S. Ramsey wants Hunter’s sub, the Alabama, to act aggressively toward the perceived enemy. Hunter counsels patience, fearful of starting World War III. As the subs draw closer toward each other, the tension mounts. The ending is a good one you won’t find here. 

Get Shorty (1995) is very loosely based on Elmore Leonard’s crimedy and is lots of fun. John Travolta portrays Chili Palmer, a Miami gangster sent to Hollywood to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman), a producer who specializes in dreadful horror movies. Enchanted by the sparkly people and surroundings, Chilli discovers that Hollywood isn’t very different from the mob. Hackman is just right as the smarmy Zimm.

This is good-bye to Gene Hackman. All these movies are available somewhere. All are for adults. 

                                                                Gene Hackman

                                                                 Part 4

Yep, there are still lots of good films from the late great Gene Hackman. So here goes- hang on!

Gene is Secretary of Defense David Brice in the edge-of-your-seat thriller No Way Out (1987). Impressed by his ability, he hires Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) as his in-house operative. Farrell begins an affair with Susan Atwell (Sean Young) unaware that she is Brice’s mistress. When he discovers her wandering, Brice kills her. He attempts to pin the murder on Farrell and there’s all sorts of chicanery leading to a very surprising ending.

Hackman stars as Lt. Col. Gene Hambleton in Bat 21 (1988), another suspenseful thriller. He is an electronics weapons expert with critical knowledge. He is shot down over Vietnam but radios his position as he parachutes down. The North Vietnamese know exactly who he is and want badly to capture him. The rest of the film is about his eluding capture and attempting to escape with the help of Captain Birddog Clark (Danny Glover). Their adventures make for really good movie action. 

Mississippi Burning (1988) is the highly fictionalized story of the murder of three civil activists (Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner) in 1964. FBI agents Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) and Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) are sent to find the missing civil rights workers and charge those responsible. They receive only hindrance from the locals, under the thumb of the Klan and the local sheriff. But they eventually find the bodies in an earthen dam after a tip, and charge some of the responsible men with civil rights violations. Hackman was nominated for Oscar but lost to Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man. The film itself and its director were also nominated but lost to Rain Man.

Postcards From The Edge (1990) is mostly about a young actress, Suzanne Vale portrayed by Meryl Streep and her movie star mother, Doris Mann (Shirley Maclaine). Both are trying to kick debilitating drug and alcohol addictions and are somehow supposed to help each other. Gene Hackman has a nice turn as film director Lowell Kolchek, who tries to rehabilitate Suzanne with work in his movie. Carrie Fisher wrote the screenplay, based on her book. Mike Nichols directed. 

Unforgiven (1992) won Oscar as Best Movie and was nominated for seven other statues, losing them all. Director and lead actor Clint Eastwood was one of the casualties as was Gene Hackman. Eastwood plays Will Munny, reformed outlaw and owner of a failing farm in Kansas. He is talked into trying for the reward offered for the capture of some bandits in Big Whiskey, Wyoming. The sheriff there is the notorious Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), whose skills as a lawman tends toward beating up or killing suspects. 

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for adults.

                                                       Gene Hackman

                                                            Part 3

    Coming now to the middle part of Gene Hackman’s storied career. Plenty of good ones in this chapter. 

A Bridge Too Far (1977) is, at nearly three hours, really long. One critic said it should have been title “A Film Too Long”. Anyway, it’s based on the true story of the Allies offensive, Operation Market Garden,  in World War II. Allied forces are dropped far into the occupied Netherlands. Their mission is to capture the Arnheim Bridge, the only route for the Germans to get out of Holland. Things go badly from the start and the attack totally fails Gene Hackman portrays the Polish General Sosabowski whose attempt to bail out the surrounded Allies is too late. 

Gene Hackman received lots of boos and hisses for his performance as Lex Luthor, sworn enemy of Superman (1978). This is the one with Christopher Reeve, and probably the best. Luthor plans to drop a missile on the San Andreas fault, blowing the West apart and making his desert property beach front. Really! Anyway his plans are thwarted by Superman, who reverses time by spinning the world the other way and stopping the missiles. Superman II (1980) is even crazier, and more fun. Hackman again is Lex Luthor and this time is out to destroy Superman and America. Superman uses his special powers (!) to stop the bad guys and correct the memories of those who know his secret, Great stuff!  Gene is back in Number 4 but it is a barking dog!

Reds (1981) won a boatload of awards as the almost true story of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Warren Beatty directs and plays journalist John Reed, at first a big fan of the Bolsheviks and later not so much. Gene Hackman has a couple of scenes as Pete Van Wherry, Reed’s editor and not much in favor of the Russkis. But he puts up with Reed for a while and nails his two scenes. 

It’s hard to tell the bad guys without a program in Under Fire (1983) as journalists from the West attempt to cover the civil war in Nicaragua. Gene Hackman is on board as Alex Grazier, a famous war correspondent. He gets perhaps too close to the action but, hey, it’s a job. Ed Harris, Nick Nolte and Joanna Cassidy are on hand as his fellow journalists, trying their best to make the best of a cluster&%#@.

You want a great basketball movie, or how about one where the little guy triumphs against impossible odds? Okay, we’ve got Hoosiers (1986). In Indiana, when the high school basketball playoffs start, there are no size divisions- just teams. Gene Hackman is the coach of little Hickory, which most of the time can’t scrimmage because it doesn’t have enough players. But Coach Norman knows what he’s doing and after some flack from the town people, the team begins to rise though the playoffs, against schools 10 times their size. Dennis Hopper is on board as the alcoholic pal of Norman, who really knows basketball. With the score tied in the finals, Norman devises a play with superstar Jimmy as a decoy. But Jimmy just says “I’ll maker it”. And he does!

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for grown-ups.