The Doors (1991)

You won't be disappointed!

Really Surprised!

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The Doors broke onto the scene in the late '60s with a "Carnival Music" sound. Jim Morrison takes you for a ride that could be your last. Follow the "Pied Piper" of Rock and Roll to your doom. The Merry go Round doesn't stop unless you can dislodge yourself and fly away. As Pamela Courson discovered the "Magic Ride" with Jim is short and addictively deadly.The Doors reflected the constant Jungle Warfare in Viet Nam - "The End", "The Musics Over" and several other tunes drag you down into the depths of despair - showing endless war and strife. Jim and his massive alcohol and drug addiction "Lit His Fire" alright, along with countless other lost souls.We survived the War and the Revolution and we're still here - we are the "Beautiful Friend" that Morrison sings about. Addiction took many of us and is still reaping it's deadly harvest. We were able to detach ourselves from Morrison and his Death Spiral - we survived to look back at his destruction along with those that followed him. Oliver Stone showed the uncontrolled Jim Morrison and the destructive power he wielded. No one could stop or prevent the eventual outcome. I however lived to learn from this legendary "Pied Piper".

Back in the mid-1960's, before one of rock's most awesome singers, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, stepped into the limelight (along with his talented comrades) and conquered the world of rock'n'roll - It was singer Jim Morrison of The Doors who ruled (in my opinion) as the reigning King of the Vocal Chords.Right from the start, director Oliver Stone's evocative film, The Doors, makes no excuses for not being a panoramic view of the entire band as a whole. This film's obviously myopic focus is on that of Jim Morrison who is presented to the viewer as though he were both a separate entity and as the entire embodiment of the band, The Doors, itself - All in one whirlwind of a package.The movie "The Doors" contains some of the most exceptionally exhilarating live concert-footage that I've ever seen recorded on film. And, as an added bonus - It would be a literal understatement to say that Val Kilmer, as Jim Morrison, puts in a truly remarkable performance.The only real flaw to mar this otherwise finely-executed film was the despicable performance of Meg Ryan who played Morrison's hippie-dippie girlfriend, Pamela Courson. Ryan really stank, big-time.

THE DOORS Is a stand out Rock bio. first class all the way. Playing right up to the myths of Jim Morrison. The Story of The Doors is a easy one to tell. The Story of Jim Morrison isn't. Oliver Stone does his best here giving us the old John Ford adage. When the legend becomes fact print the legend. Morrison's childhood wasn't an easy one. A true genius Morrison read everything he got his hands on and memorized it books became his only friends.His only true friends in school remember him as a risk taker and a practical joker. The teachers Hated him Because Morrison Had been more well read then them and always thought outside the box. I time he became a Rebel against the system testing people Always testing them. Morrison became interested in film and went to The film school at UCLA there he met Ray Manzerek a Man that became his best friend and mentor . Thru Ray Morrison met Robby Kriger and John Densmore after Morrison read his poetry to Ray on a beach in Venice California after quitting film school Morrison spent a year on a friends roof top taking drugs and writing poetry. To Ray these sounded like songs. The popular line is Ray told Jim let's start a band and make a million bucks and Morrison replied I already have a name for it THE DOORS. That part is true. Morrison was influenced by the works of Huxley and the poems of William Blake took the line if the Doors of perception were cleared everything would appear as it is infinite. Together They created a revolution that is still felt today. The Myths of Jim Morrison are great stories but they eclipse the Actual Jim Morrison. The Jim Morrison that actually was a nice guy that cared about his fans and loved his friends and had a problem in Drugs and booze. The Drugs and Booze twisted Morrison into a bizarre parody of himself. A Morrison that slept with every woman that crossed his path and caught his eye. Yet a Morrison that was hopelessly in love with Pam Courson. They had a stormy and chaotic relationship as the movie indicates. But each was the love of the other's life. Morrison was also a first rate poet and a first rate singer. A fact that gets overlooked by his looks and his body. A fact he hated which is why in his later years Morrison became fat and bearded trying to destroy the sex god image. Oliver Stone touches on all of this and he gives us the myths trying to look like facts. and he omitted a lot. But it's a two hour long movie and Stone had to omit a lot but add in Indians and Foretelling Morrison's death. But the movie itself never suffers from that. In fact the movie is a steady roller coaster ride. Going from one extreme to the next that by the time it ends you just sit back and go Wow. And man does this movie make me miss Jim Morrison. I never knew him but it makes me wonder .What heights could this man have reached If he had still been alive. The possibilities are endless. Or maybe it was a merciful act by fate to take the Lizard King so early. Either Way the movie is a powerhouse keg of dynamite. As for Val Kilmer I've just one question. How the Hell did he NOT get nominated for his portrayal of Jim Morrison ? He should have been and Won the Oscar. His portrayal is simply that powerful. A Incredible movie by any means of the imagination.

I want to add a few words, because reading many of the reviews, it's apparent that many did not get the message of the film or who Morrison was and Val Kilmer tried to be. The Morrison of the film was a Dionysius-figure. Dionysius was a god of the ancient Greeks who was honored by rites in which people went wild for a prescribed period of time. It was kind of like the modern New Years Eve or the New Orleans Mardi Gras, or a wild rock festival, but in context of religious rites.Morrison's books at the beginning of the film show that he was media savvy before becoming famous. It's in the original script, but was unfortunately cut out of the film. He very much wanted to get power as the native-American shamans did, through ritual, drugs, dance and trance.All the fore-mentioned, except the holidays, are a part of religious practice. In the film, Morrison tells his friend that "people want something sacred". He was trying to introduce that into the rock music of the time, while most other white musicians were ripping off licks of the black bluesmen. That's why he was such a sensation at the time, because he was so different.Questions as to whether Kilmer/Morrison were nice guys, did too many drugs, and so on, are totally beside the point. What Morrison wanted was for everyone to lose their rational, everyday mentality for a sacred trance, a druggy religiosity... anything but what was evident in the 60s, i.e. Viet Nam, poverty, racism, and people choosing sides in a political struggle inside the US. The 60s must be seen in relation to what came before, the Eisenhower 50s, a time of plenty, but of little progress on any other front, especially music, except for black music.Oliver Stone does a good job of getting these messages across. The middle sections of the film are the best, the concert scenes, the confrontation with the East Coast establishment, the excess in life, art and substances. Btw, excess in these items was and is still considered one of the ways to knowledge, believe it or not.Hats off to Val Kilmer for his wonderfully talented impersonization of Jim Morrison. A great performance, probably the greatest of his career. He walks, talks and sings the songs as Morrison did. Read more about the film if you want to know how hard Kilmer and Stone prepared for the role. Read the original script to get more background to what the film says, because a lot of context didn't make it into the film.Finally, it's great to go back to a time when things were more free, more uninhibited, before people were hung up in digital toys trance, as they are now. Nothing as strong is going on now. The 60s will return in a different form, as will all the other eras, as they have for millenia.