The Doors Reviews

(MU) Stone maje Morrison and american hero/tragedy founded in indian dessert imagery/drugs and his fall and death seems a sympton of something bigger. That's too much but it's not underlined in every scene...

On his first lesser outing as director, Oliver Stone's disjointed biographical music film centres on the rise and fall of The Doors, one of the more successful genre-bursting rock bands of the 1960s, but in actuality targets their larger-than-life frontman, Jim Morrison, and therein lies the first of many missteps in the attempt to maximise on such a wealth of material. An opportunity wasted, in my opinion, whereby subtlety falls victim to the pursuit of pretentious self-indulgence and bombastic flair tailored for the MTV generation. Stylistically staid and historically inaccurate, Jim Morrison's early life is barely explored, with Val Kilmer's showy, disconnected performance failing to capture any component of his true personality. Instead of the sensitive poet he probably was, Jim Morrison is portrayed as a sociopathic hypocrite who appears to initially embrace the 1960s counterculture lifestyle before becoming an amoral, uncouth and puerile drunkard. Scarce essence of either the band or its driving force is felt, with Stone foregoing the intricacies of their personal interplay and unified creative output to dwell on convoluted hallucinatory motifs and the unfavourable personality traits of the band's iconoclast. Biographical dramas should endear rather than alienate their intended audience, and "The Doors" is a turgid recreation of actual events, with its fallacy-laden depiction of a rock star poet and overblown, cliched composites of real accounts and persons within a fictionalised cartoon atmosphere. Frankly, the film's script is too restricted to fully communicate or deliver its point, thus failing to achieve its lofty ambitions or even capitalise on its basic conceit, but it is worth a look if you can ignore its vast shortcomings, i.e. a weak, uninspired narrative and flawed characterisation.

loved it - apparently slated as nothing like the true story buy hey I watch it time and time again - OST is spot on.

by Dane Youssef


"Ray Manzarek turned down Stone's many requests to help in the movie. Manzarek has since said that the movie is a horrible account of the history of the band." --FROM Internet Movie Database trivia

Gee, I wish he had participated.

Oliver Stone's "The Doors" is a film that loves "the lizard king's" stage presence. And the poetic and haunting music he left behind.

Stone weaves magnificent unworldly music with mind-blowing visuals, joining the sound and look of two worlds together. We see what the inside of Morrison must've really been like.

But seems to have little to no interest in who the rest of "The Doors" really were.

There is a moment in this film where Morrison is mugging into the camera, making sexy, seductive smiles, cute little pouts and angry-tiger faces for a photographer. Morrison is a Greek sex god as well as a rock god.

The photographer tells him: "You don't need those guys. YOU'RE the talent. You're the one they want. YOU ARE the doors."

She's not the only one who thinks so. A manager who sees them performing at a club says the same thing, offering Morrison a gig if he drops those "others." HE'S THE TALENT, he tells Morrison.

Many agree with this, apparently and especially Oliver Stone himself, who focuses ENTIRELY about Morrison at his best (and worst) and makes every sequence is this movie a drugged-out trip into the lizard-king's idol status and pin-up persona.

The problem--that's ALL this movie seems to be about.

Stone may have misnamed this film "The Doors." Perhaps he should have named it "This Is The End: Life & Fast-Times of Jim Morrison." Morrison was dead by 27, thanks to all the hard work, talent and success to get him there.

Morrison truly is the entire focus of Stone's film, perhaps because he was the true mastermind behind it all. Perhaps Morrison truly was "The Doors."

The rest of the band's stories--from THEIR point of view. What were they about? The movie seems to be made by someone who loved the music and hated the man. Despised him. By the time Morrison moves on to harder drugs, he has gone from a sensitive soulful poet to a raving and destructive monster.

The drugs'll do that, you know.

Morrison was actually a sweet, deep, thoughtful and sensitive man. Not to mention very shy and humble. But his art wasn't really much until he started using drugs to fuel his creative fires. Like Hendrix, Cobin, Joplin, the narcotics gave him musical genius and inspiration.

Himself, especially. He hurts his girlfriend every way he can, he infuriates the other members of the band, he misses rehearsals and performances (well, actually, sometimes he shows up late).

If you've ever seen a backstage band biopic, you know how everything will play out. Passionate, talented kids meet, unique, fresh and with big ideas, the group comes together, they make it big, the seduction of the fame, the money, the power, the sex... and they undo themselves until they're sitting in a pool of their own filth and sick in a state of depression and anger.

Well actually, once again, in this case, that's just Morrison. Most of the band just backs him up and just gets angrier and angrier by his steady stream of destruction. He inhales every drug and woman he can and starts to harm everyone who crosses his path, including himself, so he can "break on through to the other side."

Effective, but I wish Stone could have taken the focus off this for just a little while.

I would have liked some digging into the rest of the band--the history, the bonding, the feelings there. Who they all were. He doesn't even scratch the surface there.

The best of this, I suppose, is when Morrison takes his girlfriend and the band on a peyote-fulled trip out to the desert. They bond over fantasies and nightmares, planning the future---and unraveling. What's going to happen to them?

Val Kilmer gives perhaps the best performance of his life. He looks like Morrison, as well as sings just like him (rumor had it the real-life band could not tell the difference between Morrison and Kilmer's vocals). He also prances around the stage with as much perverse, energy, fire and gusto as Morrison ever did. He's larger and bigger than life. He captures all the little things about Morrison, as well as the big ones. He has his soul. He does not impersonate Morrison, he possesses him. Perfectly.

But a little of Jim goes a long, long, long way. Stone doesn't seem perturbed and keeps laying it on. I got the wild image of Morrison early on and I would've liked to know more about this soul and poet.

"They want my d**k, not my words," he remarks sadly.

Other performances are strong, with Kyle MacLachlan as Morrison's truest believer and band-keyboardist ("Blue Velvet," "Twin Peaks" and "Showgirls"), Frank Whaley as guitarist Robby Krieger ("Swimming with Sharks," "Jimmy Show" and "Homage"), Meg Ryan, Billy Idol and Kevin Dillion. They don't really shine, but then they're all never really allowed to. It's all Kilmer's show as Morrison---like the real "Doors"?

Apparently, the movie seems to think so. By the end of the film, of course, Morrison has died--of course. It plays out not so much like a tragedy as really the best thing for everybody (especially Morrison himself--he's finally achieved his dream).

Kilmer's performance, the Door's music and Stone's crazy LSD-eyed view make this movie really worth seeing... it's all like a crazy three-month long trip while The Doors are blasting all the time---Morrison at the center of it all. Still blowing everyone away with this fire...

Still, I recommend the film. But be forewarned--this is the life of Jim Morrison... Sorta.

"Pretty pretentious, Stone."


--For The Lizard King, Dane Youssef


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"I believe in a long prolonged derangement of the senses to attain the unknown... Although I live in the subconscious, our pale reason hides the infinite from us."

Acclaimed and controversial director Oliver Stone has yet again tackled heavy subject matter and trodden on dangerous ground with this rock biopic. The Doors is a film that takes a look at the band of the same name and their profound influence on rock music during the 1960s. There is no doubt that the lead singer of the band, Jim Morrison, virtually defined the rock god image. Despite imitators being a regularity no-one has ever done it better than the talented young rocker. The Doors has always been among my favourite bands as I am fond of classic rock music frequently produced during the decade of hippies, drugs and sex. Stone's biopic interested me for two reasons: Stone is a good director who habitually produces fine work, and I like most of the music produced by the band.

The Doors examines the band's history, beginning from the formation until the eventual demise of leader singer Jim Morrison (Kilmer). More importantly, the film's central purpose is to examine the career of Jim whose life was cut short at the appallingly young age of 27. The opening few scenes bring the audience up to date with the happenings in Jim's past before proceeding to stardom.

After dropping out of film school, Jim meets one of his old fellow students, Ray Manzarek (MacLachlan), on Venice Beach. Ray is profoundly moved when he hears the poetic lyrics written by Jim and suggests they should form a band. Ray and Jim are soon joined by drummer John Densmore (Dillon) and guitarist Robbie Krieger (Whaley). Together the foursome created some of the seminal sounds of the 1960s - namely their principal hit Light My Fire. As the years go by and their popularity skyrockets, lead singer Jim Morrison eventually spins off in an uncontrollable spiral of drugs, alcohol and sex. His true love Pamela (Ryan) becomes increasingly frustrated with Jim's erratic behaviour and egotistical pleasures. His career as a singer is something budding musicians would have wet dreams about; however record-breaking songs and wealth does not give Jim satisfaction he seeks - instead finding satisfaction in booze, drugs and girls. These life choices eventually lead to a fateful prosecution following a gig in Miami, after which he decides to attempt to live a serene life with Pamela in Paris.

In all my years of viewing films, I have never seen such attention to detail and such potency in a depiction of the 1960s. Stone captures every detail and models it to perfection. This includes several graphic illustrations of drug usage and sex. Characters are regularly stoned. There is also explicit nudity (prominently female) and many scenes that feel like a prolonged drug trip.

The film is very atmospheric with its realistic depictions of the period and frequently playing a song by the band; however the whole film feels incredibly tedious and towards the end just downright excruciating! It's impossible to actually feel engaged in the events during the final third. Stone has defended the film's feeling of an agonizingly lengthy drug trip, but I feel it's not overly very entertaining. The film is not a documentary and hence was never meant to accurately show the history of the band...on the other hand it's hardly an entertainment piece. In amidst all the depictions of the 60s the whole film is lacking something...and the script continually meanders.

The character of Jim Morrison is played passionately by Val Kilmer. In most of the scenes Kilmer even does his own singing. If you didn't know better, you could honestly say Kilmer actually is the real Jim Morrison: his mannerisms, his voice and even his looks. The resemblance is uncanny! This is the performance of Kilmer's career!

Overall, The Doors is a film that was dealing with difficult subject matter. Stone is a talented filmmaking who possesses the potential to make a film a lot better than the one we've been presented with. Even the real Ray Manzarek finds the film an appalling look at the history of the band. Draw your own conclusions...

6.2/10