| The Doors | | Cast : | Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan | | Director : | Oliver Stone | | Studio : | Artisan Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 01, 1991 | | DVD Released Date : | March 18, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | Before You Slip Into Unconsciousness... | Content
 | One of my favorite stories about Oliver Stone's "The Doors" comes secondhand, from a guy I know who saw the movie with a female acquaintaince. About halfway through, she asked him, "What year did Jim Morrison die?", to which he replied, "1971." "And what year is it now?" "1968." She then sighed, a long and bored sigh.
"The Doors" is not easy viewing. It is also not a strict biography of the band The Doors, because if it were, Frank Whaley and Kevin Dillon actually would have had something to do in the movie, rather than become perhaps the highest-paid extras in Hollywood history.
Once you understand these two joint concepts -- that Oliver Stone is making a movie about an idea rather than about a specific chain of actual events -- "The Doors" becomes essential viewing, not just the story of another band, but rather about a band that tried to break on through and redefine a generation's consciousness. Until the lead singer burned himself out.
Jim Morrison quite clearly burrowed deeper into his own mind than most of us would care to go. This trip, pardon the pun, unearthed song lyrics that were alternately of breathtaking clarity ("The Unknown Soldier") or revoltingly disjointed ("Not to Touch the Earth")... and that was on the same album. By that same token, some scenes in "The Doors" are wonderful: the moment when Morrison composes the second verse of "Light My Fire" as an improv. Other scenes go on forever and do nothing but make you loathe the man: the live performance of "Not to Touch the Earth"; any scene in which he asks a woman to "die for" him.
Where the DVD is occasionally hurt by the loss of subtitles (the dialogue in many scenes is unintelligible), Stone's director commentary is surprisingly spare and informative. There's not much rambling here. He explains which scenes were real, which were imagined (albeit based on real moments), which characters are composites.
I had no idea, before watching the DVD, that one of Stone's associates actually appears as Death, perhaps a dozen times, at first shortly after a direct quote from "The Seventh Seal", and then engaged in a progressive interplay with Morrison that climaxes at a birthday party late in the film. Stone's commentary on Death's role in the movie plays a bit like a routine from "The Simpsons": "That's death!" "No, Grampa, that's Patricia Kennealy." "That's death!" "No, Grampa, that's Nico." "That's DEATH!" "No, Grampa, that's Patricia Kennealy again."
Similarly, I knew that Floyd Red Crow Westerman played an Indian shaman supposedly transferred into Morrison's soul; I did not know that one scene in the movie shows him departing, clearly fed up with the increasing chaos.
This movie may never have worked without Val Kilmer. It is impossible to tell where he ends and Morrison begins. Kilmer seems to recognize that this movie is not a linear bio; even in scenes firmly rooted in historical fact (the meeting with Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach in 1965), Kilmer plays Morrison as stoned immaculate. The sequence of Morrison's final poetry reading, split up as prologue and interludes throughout the movie, show Kilmer effortlessly playing the wise, drunken poet with prescient dialogue ("Enough to base a movie on?").
The DVD advertises 43 minutes of "deleted scenes", though much of that is actually extended scenes, incorporating material already in the movie. Kilmer's take on "Gloria" and particularly "The Unknown Soldier" would have added much to the texture of the movie had they not been deleted.
"The Doors" is now 15 years old, but still looks as if it were produced yesterday. Kilmer's performance achieved the one thing that Morrison could not: immortality. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2005 | | Summary | Dionysus Rising | Content
| 'The Doors' were one of the greatest rock and roll bands of the sixties and the quintessential California group of the decade. They so embodied the West Coast counterculture experience that viewing this biographical film about Jim Morrison and The Doors also provides a fascinating view of the cultural and spiritual forces that drove Jim and that entire generation to challenge the status quo of the American mainstream.
What exactly is the true story of the life and death of Jim Morrison? Is it the story of one of the many rebellious young adults of the time who in looking for an alternative way of living got lost along the way in the drugs, alcohol and sexual freedom that so dominated that culture? Or is Jims' story a deeply mystical tale announcing the rebirth of ancient shamanism into the collective consciousness of the twentieth century? The story of someone chosen by the spirits to bring the 'old ways' to a new generation looking for something to fill the spiritual void brought about by the loss of belief in the Christian God?
Director Oliver Stone has played the mythmaker to perfection in this amazing film providing us with the unique experience of entering into the American Dreamtime. Layering mundane worldly events intermitently with glimpses of the psychic, shamanic forces motivating those events we are given the opportunity to chose for ourselves what level of reality we are willing, or ready to accept. A truly remarkable accomplishment.
As for the performance of Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, it couldn't have been better. His ability to capture both the physcial appearance and dark persona of the legendary rock star so completely is beyond extraordinary. Without question Val was born to play this role.
Did Jim really believe he was the "Electric Shaman" called by the spirits to open the "Doors of Perception" to a sleeping world? Was he Dionysus reborn, here to use his suggestive music and lyrics to arouse his followers and bring to fruition his new 'Rites of Spring' with "Golden copulations in the streets of L.A." More likely he was playing the part of the mischevious Indian 'Trickster' leading us once again in the wrong direction. Maybe it's just like his Mother said long ago while the old Indian lay dying along the roadside in the California desert. "It's just a dream Jimmy, that's all it is."
So relax, show no fear, "Kiss the Snake" and enjoy the ride! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 03, 2005 | | Summary | Thanks a lot, Oliver Stone | Content
| Wow, I really have no idea how people can give this movie good reviews.
The camera work is interesting, and it definitely captured the times and gave me a good sense of who Jim Morrison was (well, at least as Oliver Stone saw him), but it's not really much of a movie.
Jim Morrison was born, he became famous, and then he died. All of the rest of the stuff just happens for no reason, like in real life. I have no problem with a movie being like that, but what pissed me off was Stone's usual pretentiousness in trying to make this movie "meaningful". This movie is just about some guy's life; there's really no meaning to it. Instead of admitting that, he sticks in indians and other weird shots as if that will make the movie deeper somehow. It doesn't, it just looks stupid, and it tells the viewer nothing of The Doors or Jim Morrison.
The movie was also kind of boring. Scenes went on for way too long, and everything blended together into an incohesive mush so that whatever happened seemed unremarkable and pointless (which it was, most of the time). I have no problem with pointless stuff, when it really adds to the characters (as in a Woody Allen movie), but here it just seemed to continue to hammer into the viewer's head the same portrait of Jim Morrison that was crystal clear around twenty minutes into the movie. The character didn't unfold at all; it just gutted itself near the beginning and then pointed to different squishy bits for the rest of the movie.
So thanks a lot, Oliver Stone, for ruining what could have been an interesting movie.
The only reason I give it two stars is for the part with Andy Warhol, when he mentions that he could call God on his telephone, but he has nothing to say to him, so he gives the telephone to Jim Morrison and says "Now you can talk to God."
How could you not love that part? |
| Rating | | | Date | May 07, 2005 | | Summary | Incoherent, negative, and not really about THE DOORS... | Content
| I saw this movie when it first came out (March 1, 1991). I was 21 years old, and a huge DOORS fan. I liked it okay back then, but upon seeing it now, it's boring, and makes it appear that the other members did little or nothing to contribute to the band and its success (Robby Krieger, the guitar player, WROTE 'LIGHT MY FIRE'). I think Val Kilmer does an Oscar-caliber job as Jim, but the others are only there to react to things Jim says and does. They have no other purpose except to fill in those roles-most anyone could have done that. I don't think a lot of people realize that Jim Morrison was many things, BUT HE WASN'T A MUSICIAN. HE DIDN'T PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, and he wasn't THAT great a singer (though I will say that he was damn good when he was good). THE DOORS were a great band, but that was a long time ago. As far as the studio albums go, the first two were great, the second two were mediocre (though 'STRANGE DAYS' has a couple of decent tracks), and the last two were hit and miss. I wasn't there, so I don't know about how they were live (videos and live CDs are NOT THE SAME as being there). Another reviewer said that Meg Ryan was a poor choice to play Pam. I agree. Listening to Stone talk about it on disc 2 tells us why. Ryan sounds like she was/is unable to comprehend the type of behavior that Pam/Jim engaged in, i.e. drugs, rebellion, etc. Stone said the same thing about Darryl Hannah regarding her failed attempt to play Darian in WALL STREET (a far superior movie to this one by the way). I don't understand why Stone would choose to have someone play a role like this when they obviously were unable to 'find and be' the character they were supposed to be portraying. Stone should have chosen more wisely. I think Stone's obsession with Jim is the reason this movie is really all about Jim. Of the many problems in it, the one that probably bothers me the most is that the movie acts like Jim is the center of the universe, as the camera is almost always on him. But Oliver Stone's Jim Morrison is juvenile, destructive, obnoxious, and often, pointless. He hardly comes off as a genius, poetic or otherwise. He suddenly has star status, but the movie doesn't show why-we're supposed to know why. Yet, why should we care??? The character is despicable, at least that's the way he's written here. I couldn't even finish the film-I simply didn't care that he was headed for a youthful demise. When I read 'Riders on the Storm' and 'No One Here Gets Out Alive', I found myself caring about the people involved-not here though. Moreover, the photography was irritating, to say the least. I wanted to know about THE DOORS, instead, I got an MTV-type drug trip with DOORS music behind it. As a big studio movie, I think this fails on all levels except one-Val Kilmer's performance. As another reviewer noted, this is the best acting he's ever done. It's too bad that the movie/script he had to work with was/is over-hyped junk. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 16, 2005 | | Summary | Boo, Hiss - Fake Widescreen | Content
| The movie is interesting and I think Val Kilmer did a good job. I rate this so low because Artisan just put big black bars on top and bottom and then calls it widescreen. This is FAKE widescreen and is a bad, bad, bad thing. |
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