When I first learned of beloved actor Val Kilmer’s passing at age 65, after a long battle with throat cancer, I sat down with Sarah to watch his most Jewish portrayal among decades of memorable film roles: Nick Rivers. Wait – wasn’t Kilmer’s most Jewish role Moses, whom he portrayed in 1998’s Prince of Egypt, from the studio founded by the trio of Jewish Hollywood royalty, Spielberg, Katzenberg, and Geffen? I’ll come back to that film later, but for now, I’d like to sing the praises of Kilmer’s debut performance as the pop-star turned cold war hero in Top Secret! from another legendary Jewish trio – the comedic team of ZAZ (Zucker-Abrams-Zucker), the filmmakers behind the iconic comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun.
Why do I feel that this 1984 spoof merits distinction as Kilmer’s most Jewish role? While the Prince of Egypt is Jewish in its subject matter (what’s more Jewish than the Exodus, after all?), Top Secret! is Jewish in its kishkes. At its core, the humor in the film is a way to process trauma – there’s a reason why the cold-war era East German bad guys look more like Nazi-era Gestapo goons. Also, the movie’s constant stream of jokes leans heavily on a playful subversion of language and genre, which would be just as familiar to the rabbis of the Talmud as to 20th-century New York Jews. Then there are a few scenes which feel particularly Jewish, such as the scene where Kilmer’s character Rivers, learns of the timing of the East Germans’ evil plan. When Rivers learns of the date, he says, “Sunday?? But that’s Simchas Torah!” Everything about this line is quintessentially Jewish. The Jewish filmmakers intentionally chose a holiday that was obscure enough that it would remain a Jews-only inside joke; familiar enough that Jews would recognize it while appreciating the ridiculousness of Kilmer’s reverence for the minor holiday. And most importantly, Kilmer’s Ashkenazi pronunciation was spot-on! And then there’s the scene where we see Kilmer scratching out a twentieth tally on his prison wall, only to learn that these marks represent not days or weeks, but the twenty minutes that Rivers has been imprisoned! We Jews have always understood the importance of marking the passage of time, as a way to distinguish holy from profane, suffering from joy.
So what about Kilmer’s other roles? Is there anything Jewish about them? There’s not much Jewish about Kilmer’s goyishe adonis Iceman, foil to Tom Cruise’s Maverick in Top Gun. Jim Morrison wasn’t Jewish (although his Doors bandmate and prolific songwriter, the guitarist Robert Alan Krieger is!). Tombstone’s Doc Holliday wasn’t a member of the Tribe, but he was a dentist, which is basically the same thing. Batman isn’t Jewish (except maybe he is?), but his creators, Bob Kane and Bill Finger were. And then there’s Moses, whom Kilmer portrayed not once, not twice, but three times throughout his career. He played Moses in a live musical (which also featured Adam Lambert) at LA’s Kodak theater called “The Ten Commandments,” and he also reprised the role in a hip-hop gospel album simply titled, “Moses.” As for his most famous rendition, Kilmer’s Moses in the Prince of Egypt was strong, yet sensitive. Interestingly, Kilmer had a second, uncredited role in the film – as the Voice of God which emanated from the burning bush! What a Reconstructionist approach to the divine!
One last role that Kilmer embodied was Mark Twain. As Rebecca Alter reported in a 2017 article for Vulture, “Mark Twain…is one of the guiding forces in his life. Kilmer makes artwork of Twain. He runs a charity — TwainMania — devoted to teaching Twain to students. He has played Twain in a traveling one-man show called Citizen Twain, which he subsequently turned film presentation called Cinema Twain.”
What might Twain have thought about the Jewish threads that ran through this devoted Christian Scientist’s film career? Twain once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice,” and we should all be thankful for the miles that Kilmer journeyed in Jewish shoes.
Cantor Eric Schulmiller
