The Doors (Special Edition)
by Oliver Stone
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DVD details
Actor: Dennis Burkley, Gretchen Becker, John Densmore, Kendal Deichen, Kevin DillonDirector: Oliver Stone
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-08-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of The Doors (Special Edition)
DVD Review: What really kills me is every time one of these movies are
Summary: 2 Stars
made, glorifing these drunken, drug addicted, disease spreading misogynist as "poets" and "artists" instead of what they really were. If you give it any thought, anyone with 3 martini's in them think they sound poetic and profound. Jim was an ego-maniac, like most of the male singers of that period. Men don't change, free love to them is free sex. And the girls he hurt deserved what they got, you let him treat you like crap then don't complain and boo-hoo about him. Jim was just another spoiled brat "singer" who hit it big with a few good songs, then threw it away by drinking/drugging himself to death. The end. Although, it might have been benificial if this movie delved into his childhood, was he sexually molested? Was his father a drunk, too? Did he hate his mother? Did he have bothers and sisters? Was he an Army brat? Why did Jim treat people so badly? Was he too pretty? Was he secretly gay? We never get to find out, all we see is the stumbling, drunk, jerk he turned out to be. And maybe that's all he ever was.DVD Review: Although I live in the subconscious, our pale reason hides the infinite from us
Summary: 5 Stars
The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone and starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison is an epic and visually stunning film that attempts to tell not only about the rise and fall of a band, and in particular its singer, a complex and enigmatic figure, but also about the "Strange Days" of a unique period in history known as The 60's. People who complain about the facts being distorted are missing the point. Due to the subjectivity of truth and the uncertainty of factual accuracy, this film isn't aiming for objective truth. It is Stone's vision, and besides, a lot of the events didn't occur in the physical realm at all:
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Jim Morrison: 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.
=================
What we have with Morrison is a rock star who wanted to be a poet--who was a poet. He wanted to be Dionysus, the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and he became Dionysus. In becoming the physical embodiment of Dionysus on Earth he may have fudged his facts. He may have neglected to mention that his father was an Admiral, rather than deceased as he claimed. In creating his own myth, he may have played fast and loose with the truth, but once again, you are missing the point.
"Mr Mojo Risin" is an anagram for "Jim Morrison"
Val Kilmer really wanted to play this role, and he tried very hard to be cast, even going as far as recording a demo of himself singing Doors songs. According to Stone and some band members, when given the blindfold test with Kilmer's tape, they couldn't tell the difference. From the first frame of The Doors he IS Jim Morrison. He starts out as a young and relatively innocent Jim Morrison and carries the character through to his final days as a bloated and bearded beast. Jim Morrison was the self proclaimed Lizard King. Morrison WAS the Lizard King, but he could also be an obnoxious drunk, and both things are true. Val Kilmer gave an awesome performance as Jim Morrison, both the poet and the obnoxious drunk, both the man and the myth.
Aiding and abetting Val Kilmer's performance, just as The Doors ably supported Morrison, was an excellent cast with a few standouts that I would like to mention:
Kyle MacLachlan as Doors Keyboardist Ray Manzarek, Kevin Dillon as drummer John Densmore, and Frank Whaley as guitarist Robby Krieger were very supportive. They kind of stayed in the background, but as sidemen that is their gig. When you have a charismatic actor like Val Kilmer playing an even more charismatic singer like Jim Morrison, you know you're not going to steal the show. They all learned how to play their instruments, which took a lot of time and practice, though MacLachlan may have had it in his blood already, as he claims he's a descendent of Johan Sebastion Bach.
Michael Madsen was Tom Baker, an actor best known for a Warhol film, "I, a Man" but he was friends with Morrison long before that. In the film, I got the impression that they met through Warhol, but the reverse is true. Morrison was supposed to play opposite Nico, but management talked him out of it, and he suggested his drinkin' buddy Tom Baker for the role. Anyway, Madsen is menacing as Baker, even though Morrison has already descended to a pretty depraved level, you are concerned when Madsen shows up. Uh oh, this guy is a really bad influence! Actually, Madsen provides one of the best scenes, when Baker berates Morrison for becoming a bloated beast and belittles his accomplishments:
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Tom Baker: [to Jim] Whatcha gonna do for act three, man? Puke on Heaven's door?
=================
Billy Idol as Cat has a good comeback, though. He tells Baker that IF he ever does anything, please tell him so he can whiz on it. Billy Idol was supposed to have a much bigger role but due to a motorcycle accident, it was severely curtailed. A pity.
Meg Ryan gave a great performance as Pamela Courson, Jim's girlfriend. She was somewhere between Sally Albright in "When Harry Met Sally" and Bonnie in "Hurlyburly." Kind of a girl-next-door, all bright and bubbly, who with prolonged exposure to Jim's decadence becomes a bonnie bit of guttersnipe. Ryan wavered between and balanced the two extremes well.
Kathleen Quinlan portrayed Patricia Keneally well. Patricia was a rock journalist who questions some of the facts in Morrison's self made myth, but also falls for the devil may care singer. In fact, she's a practicing Wiccan and the two are wed in a Handfast ceremony. Quinlan was also in Apollo 13, giving her a Bacon Number of 1. The real Keneally complained that she was falsely depicted, but Stone admits she was a composite character culled from perhaps 10 different women, compressed into her character in the name of dramatic economy.
Michael Wincott also made quite an impression as record producer Paul Rothchild. Though he no doubt looked nothing like the man who had produced the first six of The Doors albums, besides lots of other credits to his name, Wincott gave another of his trade marked intense performances. Catch him in "Basquiat" if you want to see more of his work.
Like Mr Mojo Risin', Oliver Stone is likewise in the myth creation business. He bent the facts to dramatize the story and make it more cinematic. I wasn't buying so much Oliver Stone's use of the Indian Shaman as metaphor, but I will allow him such conceits. Director Oliver Stone felt a deep connection to the singer that began when Stone was a soldier in Viet Nam. He wasn't a popular music person before that, but hearing The Doors music really struck a chord. His first screenplay, which formed the basis for his film "Platoon" was originally envisioned with the main character played by Jim Morrison, and Stone actually contacted Morrison about playing the role. Stone sees The Doors as filling the void in all that Flower Power during the 60's. They were the darkness amidst all that sunshine. He sees a parallel with himself in that he's an artist who goes to that dark place, who pushes into that deep, dark abyss.
There are a lot of people who didn't like his depiction of Jim Morrison and The Doors, but I take a different view. Ray Manzarek has since said that the movie is a horrible account of the history of the band. Ray did not participate or contribute in the making of the film, though he was asked. Maybe his dissatisfaction prompted him to write his own book in 1998: *Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors*. The other two band members, Krieger and Densmore, participated in the film. In fact, Krieger wanted Stone to do the project because he was a fan of the film "Salvador" and he convinced the other Doors to sign on. Densmore's book, *Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors*, an account of the band's rise and fall from his own perspective, was a primary source of material for the film. It took 20 years for the film to be made, mostly due to getting permission from the band and family members.
So, bottom line: It was Oliver Stone's tribute to Jim Morrison, and if other people saw him differently, they should write their own book or make their own movie. If you want to learn more about Jim, read those other books, or better yet read his poetry and listen to his music.
It's fitting that Jim Morrison is buried in Cimeti?re du P?re Lachaise, alongside such poets and artists as Honor? de Balzac, Guillaume Apollinaire, Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Bizet, Fr?d?ric Chopin, Eug?ne Delacroix, Isadora Duncan, St?phane Grappelli, Amedeo Modigliani, Moliere, Yves Montand, ?dith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Gioacchino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Oscar Wilde.
THE TOP TEN MOST PERTAINENT FILM ROLES BY THE CAST OF THE DOORS
Masked and Anonymous (2003) .... Val Kilmer was Animal Wrangler
Hurlyburly (New Line Platinum Series) (1998) .... Meg Ryan was Bonnie
Basquiat (1996) .... Michael Wincott was Rene Ricard
Apollo 13 (Widescreen Collector's Edition) (1995) .... Kathleen Quinlan was Marilyn Lovell (Kevin Bacon was also in the cast)
Showgirls (1995) .... Kyle MacLachlan was Zack Carey
Reservoir Dogs (1992) .... Michael Madsen was Mr. Blonde - Vic Vega
JFK - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1991) .... Frank Whaley was Oswald Imposter (credited on Director's Cut (Kevin Bacon also in JFK (Oliver Stone directed JFK)))
When Harry Met Sally... (1989) .... Meg Ryan was Sally Albright
Blue Velvet (1986) .... Kyle MacLachlan was Jeffrey Beaumont
Platoon (1986) .... Kevin Dillon was Bunny, Platoon was directed by Oliver Stone
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Jim Morrison: Come on, let's get some tacos.
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DVD Review: End of Stone's 60's Trilogy
Summary: 4 Stars
While the fans of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin wait endlessly for film bios of their Rock `n' Roll hero's Doors fans have long had the bio-pic of Jim Morrison courtesy of Oliver Stone.
I gave this review four stars, but for the movie itself it's only three stars the fourth star is for the bonus features. The movie starts off well enough with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in a recording studio reading his poetry ("Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a movie on?") Then flashes back to Morrison's childhood when he witnessed an accident in the New Mexico desert in which some Indians had been in a car accident and the young Jim Morrison felt as if the soul of one of those Indians leapt into his. Then we pick up Morrison as leaves the UCLA film school to self imposed exile on a Venice Beach rooftop where it's inferred that Morrison was writing. He meets Pam Courson (Meg Ryan) and bumps into former UCLA classmate Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan) who asks Morrison what he's been doing, Morrison answers writing songs, and Manzarek asks him to sing one. Jim sings Moonlight Drive and Ray says they should start a rock band and make a million dollars.
The movie closely follows the highlights of The Doors/Morrison's career from playing The Whisky a go-go where the Oedipal section of The End was first heard and got them fired only to be picked up by Elektra Records, to playing the Ed Sullivan Show and being asked by producers to excise the word higher in Light My Fire, Morrison refused, the New Haven concert where Morrison became the first rock star arrested on stage, Miami, his obscenity trial, his Wiccan wedding with Patricia Keneally (Kathleen Quinlan) and one unintentionally hilarious scene where Jim and Pam get into an argument and Jim stomps a duck. There are a lot of cameos in the movie including Doors drummer John Densmore, Billy Idol, Eric Burdon, Paul Williams, and Doors producer Paul Rothchild.
The acting is good, although Michael Madsen seems wasted in such a small part of Tom Baker, a friend of Morrison's. Oliver Stone gets most of the facts right, and gives a good feel for the 60's and the music. What he doesn't get right is pretty major. Besides directing Stone also gets a credit as screenwriter, but when he runs out of things for Morrison to say he just inserts Doors lyrics, as if Morrison was running around quoting songs all the time. The movie also tends to only portray the sensationalistic side of Morrison's personality, and while I understand film is an active medium there is one scene missing, a scene which shows Morrison sitting and writing the songs.
I gave one of the rating stars to the bonus features and this DVD is crammed with bonus features, deleted scenes, commentary, and the rarely seen English documentary The Doors Are Open which was shot on The Doors first European tour in 68.
The Doors movie by Oliver Stone may be part of a 60's trilogy. Each third represents a different aspect of the 60's.
Platoon-The Vietnam experience.
JFK- About the political atmosphere of the 60's and how we lost faith in our leaders because of an alleged conspiracy.
And finally The Doors. To illustrate the counter culture experience of the 60's. This movie & JFK have both recieved reviews panning them due to not sticking with the facts. But these 2 movies are also outside of Stone's range of experience so it might have been a little harder for him to internalize the experience and present them to their best effect.
DVD Review: Pretty good! Pretty neat!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you were there and can remember being there then you can relate to this movie. If you were not there then it won't make a lot of sense. The late 60's and early 70's were a crazy time and this movie shows that to the extreme. Val Kilmer does an outstanding job of portraying Morrison and Oliver Stone did a great job of setting the mood of rock and roll during those years. I think Jim would approve....maybe! DVD Review: a classic
Summary: 5 Stars
what can i say, a classic movie about a classic rock band on high def blue ray.....get it.
Description of The Doors (Special Edition)
Thanks in large part to its meticulous re-creation of the late-1960s and early-'70s rock scene and the uncannily authentic performance by Val Kilmer as legendary Doors frontman Jim Morrison, Oliver Stone's hypnotic film biography is standing the test of time. Capturing the carefree mood of the Age of Aquarius, the film charts the meteoric rise of the Doors on the California club circuit (including a memorable scene showing the creation of the hit "Light My Fire"), and chronicles the band's exploits with hallucinogenics and Morrison's battles against charges of public indecency on stage. Kilmer's performance is hauntingly perfect, and performances by Meg Ryan, Kathleen Quinlan, and Kyle MacLachlan are similarly impressive. The movie doesn't fully probe the depths of Morrison's character, but as a portrait of excess it is vividly true to the spirit of the self-destructive poet known to his fans as "The Lizard King." --Jeff ShannonGeneral DVDs
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