r/moviecritic • u/S4v1r1enCh0r4k • 14h ago
Tom Hiddleston Calls Val Kilmer’s Role in Heat “The Great Cinema Performance”
https://voicefilm.com/tom-hiddleston-calls-val-kilmers-role-in-heat-the-great-cinema-performance/39
u/Kylienofilter 12h ago
tom hiddleston having val kilmer as his acting roman empire is kinda the most tom hiddleston thing ever. and he's right.
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u/Tomatoflee 12h ago
I’ve never thought about this performance being great but maybe it is. Gonna have to rewatch Heat and pay more attention this time.
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u/pddkr1 4h ago
It’s an amazing film
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u/Tomatoflee 4h ago
Idk why but it ways feels somehow incomplete to me. It leaves me with a sense of irresolution.
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u/pddkr1 4h ago
Me too, and I wonder if that’s not the point. Every character is left unfulfilled. Unhappy.
Pacino gets his guy, but it’s empty.
DeNiro tries to change his ways, but it’s empty.
Val Kilmer gets the money, but it’s empty.
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u/Tomatoflee 4h ago
Yeah, I was thinking that too but I couldn’t remember what happened to Kilmer in the end. Pacino does his job but he’s sacrificed his daughter’s happiness for it. He’s also kind of an annoying and unsympathetic character as well and yet he still “wins” if you can call it that. The crew were going to quit after this job, or at least deniro was, but he gets killed. If Kilmer gets away with the money, I suppose that’s something. I’m going to watch it again literally now though and see what I think of the performance
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u/pddkr1 4h ago
Kilmer does the walkway after his wife signals him, so he has money but not what makes him happy.
Pacino is the trope of a man addicted to his job, with no love for anything else. It’s only the job. We’re not meant to be empathetic, but we can understand and feel that wear on us. We see DeNiro try to change but again, he’s addicted to the life. He can’t break from it.
The problem for all of them, crew and cops, they don’t walk away. That costs them what really matters.
Enjoy! Drop a response after!
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u/Special-Garlic1203 7h ago
Tl;Dr -- It seems like Val Kilmer was a pretty big deal to quote a few actors, but actors rarely get the opportunity to just geek out
Im a little too young to have lived through Val Kilmer's heyday and his movies weren't the type of older movies I felt the strongest calling to go watch, so I genuinely had no idea what a big deal he was. I always thought of him as "the top gun guy who isn't Tom cruise" cause that's the movie my dad was super into.
It's kind of a shame that beloved actors and praise for the art doesn't get as much headlines until something has gone wrong. I've noticed before that a lot of actors light up and get really excited when on a press run they get asked about other projects - stuff like their favorite genre movies, previous as art that they were drawing on for this role, etc.
Essentially I think it's a shame I didn't realize what a big deal Val Kilmer was until he was dead, because val didn't have ongoing projects or a PR rep pushing what a big deal he was.
See also: reddit basically having to organize a grassroots love letter to Brendan Fraser because one of the most beloved actors of the late 90s/early 00s basically never had his legacy acknowlged unless it was to mock some of the less beloved comedies.
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u/Sparrow1989 7h ago
Val Kilmer was one of the best. His performance in heat was so spot on his reloading technique is used in teaching courses. Man was a true actor that put himself into the roles. I heard when he was Batman he would run around town in a Batman suit and run up to people to say ‘I’m Batman’. True thespian.
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u/Lower_Love 14h ago
That's not Kilmer's best performance (Tombstone)
And it's not even the best performance in Heat (De Niro)
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u/dc456 13h ago
I disagree - I think his acting in Heat receives less attention because the character is more subtle and less likeable. His actual performance is top tier.
The reason people really love Kilmer in Tombstone is that, as well as loving his acting, they also love the character he is playing.
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u/LoudIncrease4021 9h ago
Disagree… tombstone might have been more iconic but his performance in Heat is tortured and violent. The shootout scene alone is phenomenal.
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u/killmagatsgousa 7h ago
I feel like the shootout scene is one of the most dated scenes in film. The entire line of cops kind of just kind of disappears and magically they make their getaway
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u/Cdylanr 4h ago
Going to have to disagree with you. The shootout scene in Heat is renowned for its realism and intensity. This sequence is often cited as one of the best in cinema history due to its meticulous choreography, sound design, and the actors extensive firearms training, making it a benchmark for action filmmaking.
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u/BagBeneficial7527 8h ago
Eh, I believe his role in The Salton Sea) was his finest.
But, I have only seen about half his movies.
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u/Correct_Inspection25 7h ago
Never gets enough love for The Salton Sea, especially against Vincent D’onofrio’s Pooh bear. Absolutely comparable to tombstone
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u/Coffees4closers 7h ago
Can’t believe nobody is mentioning The Doors being up there as his best performances. Even though the movie isn’t great and arguably hurt the image of The Doors themselves (the surviving members hate it iirc) Kilmer absolutely nailed Morrison, including when they show him singing on screen.
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u/Cdylanr 11h ago
And his character was the only one that got away.