Posted on 04/02/2025 5:02:09 PM PDT by Leaning Right
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. A great scene in a great movie.
One of my favorite Westerns, but in the context of his passing, to me the most noteworthy scene is near the end, when he’s dying of TB, and tells Wyatt to get up and go, and don’t look back….
This ancient usage also pops up.
“The phrase has ties to Arthurian lore. A Knight, coming to the service of a damsel would lower his lance and receive a huckleberry garland from the lady ( or kingdom) he would be defending. Therefore, “I am your huckleberry” may well have been spoken to the Earps and the statement’s meaning may be “I am your champion”.”
I heard Michael Mann just finished the screenplay for Heat 2. Sad Val won't be around to see it. He was such a big part of Heat.
Boiled down, that was precisely my immediate interpretation. Was there a different one?
Could it also be something like “I’m the huckleberry in your boot” that has just turned into “I’m your huckleberry”?
Don’t know...never thought about any other way!
He had met his wife, actress Joanne Whalley, when they played each other's love interests in Willow, one of my all-time favorite fantasy movies.
Some years later while he was filming "Dr. Moreau" with Brando in a South Pacific locale, he retired to his motel room one day and turned on CNN, only to hear the news that Whalley, his wife of 7 years, was divorcing him. He had no prior warning. At that point, he & Whalley had a 6 year old daughter and a newborn son.
I remember thinking, Wow! What a great way to find out your wife and the mother of your only children is leaving you ... by flipping on a TV newscast!
What I like about this scene is that Doc had no problem dropping a drunk Ringo.
A completely cold blooded move.
Thanks!
My first memory of Val is probably the Real Genius movies.
I never saw “The Doors”, but I’ve been told Val did a perfect, method actor job of as being Jim Morrison.
To me? His iconic role is Iceman in Top Gun, this, Tombstone...
I actually enjoyed him in “The Saint”.
His Batman was decent, and worthwhile for more exploration.
I know (without looking) he was Julliard trained.
But, again, despite it all, “Real Genius” was my favoite.
https://screenrant.com/val-kilmer-julliard-drama-school-youngest-student/
Meant to say, that my probably favorite line isn’t “I’ll be your huckleberry”.
It’s the “My hypocrisy only goes so much”.
The whole cast was absolutely magnificent. Every actor. Superb direction too.
Very lucky.
I remember that. I loved her in Willow. Such a beauty. Too bad she wasn’t such a nice person. But...who can say?
I love this kind of thing. When I was in college, one of the assignments in an English class was to research a word. They passed out slips of paper, and everyone had their own word. Etymology.
I don’t remember what word I researched, but I recall it was a lot of fun, and very interesting.
It is the only time I seriously got to use that big, thick dictionary (about 8-12” thick) the Oxford English Dictionary, I think...the ones on the fixed stand in the library!
I have that dictionary in storage.
Val Kilmer, chewing gum, shoves his face forward, snaps his mouth shut, and hisses an intake of air showing his top front teeth.
I don't know why, but that facial gesture, that odd, snapping of his jaws shut and the hiss of air, like an angry, venomous snake, of all Val Kilmer's in the movie, is the one that sticks out to me!
His role in Tombstone was far, far more interesting and gave him a wider latitude, but that scene in Top Gun is the one from that movie that was memorable for me.
Absolutely.
My brother is a year older than me, and growing up, he beat up on me fairly often to the point I avoided him.
One of the great things about getting older, is all that stuff as kids makes no difference in the end, and he became my best friend, on par with my best friend who went in the Navy with me and who I also see quite often.
My brother was the Best Man at my wedding, and in his historically long toast, he characterized himself as “The Freddy Krueger” of my childhood!
And I get to hang out with him once a week!
Mine is 4 years older. He did the same to me. Until I took up wrestling and Karate as a freshman. He came up behind me one day, put both arms around me. I hooked his elbow, threw out my hip and wing rolled him over me, flat on his back...while I held his wrist. He never touched me again.
He was my best man also.
His toast to me and my wife was short but very sweet;
May you grow in beauty and strength as the vines of the field.
May your blessings be as bountiful as the fruit of that vineyard.
And may your love be as sweet and rich as the wine made from the grapes of your harvest.
We're very close now. He's a pastor and we have great discussions on theology, movies, beer...the works. I wish we lived closer. Half a continent away now. But we get together in the Summer.
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