Year: 1991
Director: Oliver Stone
This isn’t so much a review of the film itself, but more just that I want to scribble down a few thoughts after watching this for the first time since I saw it 30 years ago in the cinema.
I’m interested in what people think of the film, and of The Doors themselves, and whether Oliver Stone does them justice here.
It’s pretty derided, isn’t it, this movie? The very model of how to make an overblown, ridiculous rock biopic, and taking itself far too seriously. And yet… It must have done something right because when I saw this as a teenager it absolutely blew me away and (along with Pink Floyd’s The Wall) solidified in my head the archetype of the alpha male rock star: that ‘elegantly wasted’ thing, an old head on young handsome shoulders (with leather trousers and a six pack) going on a voyage of self discovery and excess, too cool for the square that is trying to box them in. Is there any one among you who also saw this as a teenager and is going to deny the big effect it had on them?
As we get older, of course, we become aware that the true story of rock and roll lies not with the attractive figureheads with good cheekbones and a decent singing voice, but with all the little uncool guys in the background, the songwriters, musicians and technicians who actually shaped the sound and style of the genre.
The fabled ’27 club’ seems like a mystical, desirable thing to a naive teenager. But the older you get, you realise how stupid that whole thing is, and how much more respect you have for the grafters of the rock world who have grown into a mature career and kept their dignity intact.
So in revisiting The Doors movie I was expecting a sense of ambivalence, a little laugh at my teenage pretensions. The same way I now feel when I listen to The Doors themselves. I can never really listen to them without feeling I have grown out of them. Musically, I enjoy many of their tunes – mainly the ‘pop’ songs like People Are Strange and Touch Me, timeless, faintly goth-y/glam-y vignettes as fresh as anything by The Cure or Bowie. But this rebellious, nihilistic Rimbaud/Blake/Kerouac thing, “We want the world and we want it now!”, “I am the Lizard King!”, “The killer walked on down the hall….” … (with a doom-laden organ drone and exotic sounding guitar, vamping over a single chord for ten minutes at a time…) …. all this stuff just sounds embarrassing to a middle-aged man with bifocals, a mortgage, a lawn-mower and a drawer for lightbulbs and batteries.
But… surprise… it’s actually a really good film. The trick, I think, is to just accept the message for what it is. If you are looking for a portrayal of a narcissistic singer/poet who truly believes ‘a prolonged derangement of the senses is the only way to achieve true knowledge’ (or whatever the Morrison quote is), then this is that movie. It jumps into it wholeheartedly, and pursues its vision with remarkable purity and consistency. These are the kinds of film Oliver Stone makes, I suppose. He just jumps into his subject matter with both feet and doesn’t doubt himself or look back for a second.
It’s all ridiculously over-blown of course. Watching this, you would be forgiven for thinking bonfires, shamanic dances, aggressive policemen and rioting hippies were commonplace at Doors concerts – which makes it all the more sobering when you see actual Doors concert footage – the crowd politely seated, Morrison huddled behind the microphone and barely moving from the spot. But that doesn’t make the concert footage in the movie any less thrilling.
The same goes for the scenes of partying, drug-taking and whatnot (the movie is little more than a well-executed series of these sequences). But does it matter how pretentious it is in the end? The craftsmanship is impeccable, Val Kilmer is the absolute epitome of Jim Morrison, and for all its pomposity the film has remarkable internal consistency. If you switch off your logical, mature mind for two hours then it’s a real trip (man). It’s very similar in style to Stardust (the David Essex film), with a similar tale of the rise and fall of a self-absorbed rock star, and a similar economy of storytelling and scene-building, but with none of that movie’s faint naffness and whiff of fakery (I never believed in Jim MacLaine and the Stray Cats like I believed in Jim Morrison and The Doors).
In many ways, the Jim Morrison of The Doors movie is a more solid and easier to grasp creation than the mythical Jim Morrison himself. The Doors albums are far more diverse than the movie suggests, and the movie wisely focuses almost solely on the Lizard King poet persona rather than the confusing sidelines of psychedelia, blues, music hall and funk. I think that was a good choice, and it hones and focuses the vision. To try and capture the whole messy essence of the band would have been too sprawling and unsatisfying. With the clear through-line and momentum of Oliver Stone’s direction, you really get a clear sense of the death obsession, the alcoholism, the restlessness of (within the context of the movie) a visionary prophet who is too big for the world.
It’s also clear that the movie is looking at things from a point of advantageous hindsight, a 25-year history of the rock industry shaping and solidifying the template which Jim Morrison pretty much created. You can see this in an endless parade of wannabe transcendent frontmen (from the top of my head, the following all try to ape Morrison in some way with a manly baritone croon, a beatific stare and an affectation of hedonistic abandon: Iggy Pop, Michael Hutchence, Bono, Julian Cope, Nick Cave, Ian Curtis, em… Jim Kerr…). The movie wisely stirs all these things back into the pot, making Val Kilmer into something of an uber-rock star. Maybe only David Essex in Stardust actually comes close to this, and he has the advantage of being an actual bona fide rock star in real life. Is there anyone else on rock celluloid who betters Val Kilmer in The Doors? Maybe Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart has a similar authenticity… maybe… but that’s a whole different type of movie.
Anyway, that’s my slightly rambling take on things. To sum it up, I watched The Doors movie for the second time in thirty years and really enjoyed it.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
The obvious comparison, as I mentioned a couple of times above, is Stardust. But in a weird way this film is also a very good compliment to more cynical takes on the rock lifestyle, like Spinal Tap and Some Kind of Monster. The Doors is the movie where you take the legend and treat it with utmost seriousness instead of trying to slyly undermine it.
dai says
I enjoyed reading that, but not sure I want to revisit. I found it totally laughable as a (nearly) 30 yr old. I think certainly more enjoyable for teenagers. When I was one I went through a Doors phase (as did many of my school friends), but as I got older I realised they (especially Morrison) were pretty average really. Couple of pretty good albums and a whole lot of filler containing much “6th form poetry”. and the best songs were written by Robbie Krieger anyway.
Bingo Little says
I think I was 13 by the time I saw the movie, and I remember being swept along by the wave of hype that accompanied it. My Mum still had most of the albums on vinyl, so it wasn’t hard to lay hands on the records.
I think I saw something different in Jim Morrison though; I wasn’t interested in the leather trousers, abs or Alpha behaviour. It was his leonine beauty, his femininity (all that poetry, all those floating sheer shirts, all that save me/don’t save me vulnerability), and – most of all – his voice. It’s a brilliant, brilliant voice; dark, rich and preposterous, just like the music. I don’t think any of the successors you list have the weird prettiness he had; handsome, sure – but not pretty, and it’s an important distinction.
I still love The Doors. I think they’re a lot of fun, they epitomise that heat-blasted, raving mad, permanently doomed LA thing, and they have some incredible pop songs in their catalogue. Plus, I can do a bang on Break On Through. And they’re super unfashionable, which I appreciate: no one is making stupid claims for them these days, which is refreshing.
I agree that the movie is better than it was given credit for. That said, it’s very of it’s time and I have zero idea how well it captures the end of the 60s; mercifully (😉) I wasn’t there.
Arthur Cowslip says
No, I totally agree with your view of Jim Morrison. I maybe glossed over that a bit by just referring to the alpha male/ leather trousers bit – but I totally get what you mean about that feminine side. Probably a bit of a model for Morrissey as well in that regard?
I feel as if The Doors (the movie and the band themselves) don’t really ‘fit’ in the 60s. It’s as if the 60s ended and then then some time traveller inserted them in trying to stir things up a bit. They feel bizarrely ‘of their time’ and simultaneously outside of it. A bit like The Velvet Underground in that respect.
(The movie actually reflects this outsider-ness and lack of context by showing surprisingly little of the sights and sounds of the 60s themselves – the little we do see is perfectly recreated, and the production standards and attention to detail are second to none, but there is only a smattering of key cultural figures making an appearance, for example – Andy Warhol, Ed Sullivan – only passing references to stuff like Vietnam and Woodstock, and very little music apart from actual Doors music – a couple of Velvet Underground songs actually, both very Doors-y choices: Heroin and Venus In Furs).
Bingo Little says
Yeah, I agree about the Velvets and The Doors; both 70s acts who happened to occur in the 60s.
Moose the Mooche says
It makes more sense if watched as a sequel to Top Secret.
Arthur Cowslip says
Oh come on now take this seriously you SLAVE. The world is burning and you squares are just making stupid jokes instead of listening to the wisdom of MR MOJO RISIN’… etc etc.
Moose the Mooche says
The Doors is funnier, of course.
Seriously, that scene between Kyle and Val on the beach reminds me of The Young Ones.
Val was excellent in Heat, though.
Arthur Cowslip says
And Kyle of course was excellent in Dune, Blue Velvet, Sex and The City…. Was he ever in anything else…?
dai says
Twin Peaks of course!
retropath2 says
I was 34 when it came out, and was still in thrall to the band, who had been, and remain, a favourite from 18 odd years before then. I never grew out of the cult of Jimbo, even if hindsight shows he was a bit of a dingus. I already had the book that was possibly the source for the film, Nobody Gets out of Here Alive, and had made the pilgrimage to Pere Lachaise cemetery. No way have I grown out of the music either, but, but I won’t watch the film again, as that may make me feel sillier than I am prepared to.
Sid Williams says
that could have been written by me, apart from 2 years difference in age. I found the book entertaining, it was one of the first rock bios I ever read, and the grave a bit underwhelming although the walk around Pere Lachaise was eye opening.
The only thing I would add is they had brevity on their side. They essentially only existed for 5 years so the dramatic rise and fall, with all the associated drama is contained in a sealed capsule. See also the Beatles.
Diddley Farquar says
I thought it was a pretty bad film. The reduction of Morrison leaves us with a false impression of who he was so I can’t see that as a plus. It’s just lazy and corny.
As for inventing the post 60s rock star, I think Jagger and Richards would have something to say about that. Iggy was already doing his thing in The Stooges, also on Elektra, around the same time as The Doors, even if their debut came a bit later. He had the leather trousers to be fair. Morrison was an influence on later front persons as well it’s true. I think of Patti Smith who wanted to be him as well as being Keith.
I think the 60s began to become the 70s in 1968 and the shift is apparent in all those bands who began to make longer songs with longer guitar solos, a more ambitious approach. There’s a really good doc on Netflix called Echo Canyon about Laurel Canyon and how 60s pop became rock and there was this
transitionary period.
Thinking of The Doors and Velvets, they were probably most influential with late 70s early 80s post punk acts like Echo and the Bunnymen for one. They really got to be name checked at that time, along with the psychedelic Nuggets type bands. They get stick for being adolescent when huge swathes of rock acts are really all about being that age, thinking of metal, prog, so much of rock really.
There’s a lot of pretty good Doors music I reckon. Even The End has great guitar playing and drumming, in a kind of Indian drone style. They also did a bit of bossa nova to get a less obvious souns. At his best Jim was a pretty good lyricist I think. Like on Love Street say. As for singing he wasn’t far off a Sinatra croon at times.
Moose the Mooche says
Stone made Jim’s movie of himself – ie how he saw himself (as an epic tragic poet-genius rather than the drunken psedo-intellectual asshole he actually was, which admittedly would have been a less entertaining movie).
It would be interesting to try and do the same thing with other rock stars – one about DONOVAN that begins with him creating the heavens and the earth in six days, resting on the seventh etc.
Sewer Robot says
Yeah, was just thinking Mac was the most obvious omission from Arthur’s list of “new Jims” – especially when Bingo was complaining none of ‘em had that feminine, pretty quality…
Arthur Cowslip says
Yeah that’s fair. It might depend a bit on how big a Doors fan you are before watching the film. At the time I didn’t know much about them: I had heard that double Greatest Hits album and that was about it. So I was 17 years old, just getting into rock music seriously, and ready and primed to soak up the reductionist legend the movie throws at you.
deramdaze says
I bought the Doors’ LPs on the “Nice Price” range (£3.49) – really cheap compared to the Beatles and The Stones records at the time (£5.99), but, distancing myself from the adoration laid on them by the various post-60s generations/fads at the time, I rarely played those records.
I did see the film in 1991 and remember absolutely nothing about it apart from (i) quite liking the scene with Love Street playing in the background, and (ii) the fact that there were as many people in the showing I went to (4) as there were in The Doors.
Of course, as the post-60s generations/fads have faded and the Doors’ status has returned to a less elevated, and more accurate, position, I love them. Whatever dodgers do, I do the opposite!
Again, for the same reason, I tend to sideline the debut and L.A. Woman, preferring to listen to the middle four releases.
Never got the awful poetry angle because I never bought American Prayer… why would I?… it was released in 1978. Saw the date on the back, didn’t buy it.
Can’t say I’m that tempted to explore much further into all the various live releases (there seem to be about 20 to 30 on the Bright Midnight label – I simply wouldn’t play them) either – those 6 original albums on CD, the 2-CD “In Concert,” and four or five DVDs are just fine.
In fact, their core catalogue is 65 songs – 62 on LP, 2 b-sides, edited Light My Fire… more than enough… and I tend to value the lesser known, even softer songs (Yes, The River Knows, Unhappy Girl, Blue Sunday, Love Street, Indian Summer) over the more revered and bombastic.
dai says
I like Wishful Sinful. Jim loved cocaine btw …
deramdaze says
The producer definitely did, that’s why recording Soft Parade went on for so long.
I think Morrison just took anything, but round that time the issue with him was drink. Got a date or a quote?
Arthur Cowslip says
There’s a live album that’s only about 20 minutes long! Came out in the mid eighties I think. The LP is insane: it’s still 33rpm and all squashed up like a typical 80s pressing, so each side is about 2/3 blank vinyl.
Moose the Mooche says
Is it the audio of The Doors are Open? I think Granada made that.
Pretty tedious it is too.
deramdaze says
The best one is Feast of Friends, an original documentary from the time.
A taut 50 or so minutes, I haven’t got it on DVD but it appears on Sky occasionally.
Cookieboy says
I stumbled across the set in New York when they were filming it. It was the scene where they go to The Ed Sullivan Theatre.
They blocked off part of Broadway in the middle of the afternoon and (just like in a scene from a different film) people were yelling at the production, team “Hey! Get out of the fucking way! I don’t care what you’re doing! Just fucking move!” Anywhere else people would be so star struck they would do what they were told and meekly let it unfold in front of them. However not in New York. I always admired that.
From my vantage point I could see the four actors that played the members of the band clearly enough to know who was supposed to be who. Three of them were just standing in a huddle chatting but Val Kilmer as Jim was off to one side dancing vigourously to music only he could hear. I thought at the time he was getting into character however he may have just been a twat.
The crew took the advice of the New Yorkers screaming at them to move and filmed it very quickly. They shot it once and packed everything away.
Moose the Mooche says
Thanks for that, especially “I thought at the time he was getting into character however he may have just been a twat” – how many times have we thought that?
LOUDspeaker says
I’ve been thinking about watching it on Netflix for months. You’ve sold it to me as tonight’s film. Also on Sky Doc channel there is a film called Val (2021) about Kilmer that is highly regarded although I personally wasn’t that impressed by.
Viva Avalanche says
Good write up on the movie Arthur and very similar to my own thoughts on it. I was a huge Doors fan through my teenage years so when I saw the movie, it was all that I wanted from The Doors. Every part of the legend was up there on the screen. Val Kilmer was the Jim Morrison that I believed in. It looked like I imagined 60s California to look. And the music sounded terrific through cinema speakers.
But, in retrospect, it’s just an OK film. I wrote a review of the US DVD years ago for a review/features website and, reading it again, I remembered many of the issues that I eventually had with the film.
It’s not a film about the Doors. Densmore, Krieger and Manzarek are boiled down to their essentials while, as you say, it’s not Jim Morrison that’s in the film, it’s the Lizard King and so we get every part of the legend with every anecdote about Morrison that you’ll have ever heard and some that you won’t. So there’s the crash in the desert, the Miami incident, the marriage to Patricia Kennealy and the journey of the blissfully stoned Morrison from pin up to a bearded figure who lost his looks to alcohol.
And it really is the Morrison that I believed it. This Morrison outrages the producers of the Ed Sullivan Show with a lusty, “Girl we couldn’t get much higher….YEAH!” while the real Morrison sings the line pretty straight. This Morrison swings across the stage, he leaps into crowds and he baits the cops. But, as you say, the actual Morrison was often a pretty static figure on stage.
And some bits look fantastic. The Not To Touch The Earth sequence is a rock gig by the way of Apocalypse Now and goes full tilt into the legend of the Lizard King. Fire, a setting like Nero’s Rome, naked dancers, Native Americans and one of the Doors’ better songs (maybe) remixed to have more of a psychedelic throb to it.
It’s all a nonsense though, in the end. And when I remembered that Billy Idol is in this being Billy Idol, some of the shine of the movie wears off. He looks like he staggered in from the set of White Wedding. And he ruins Pamela Courson’s Thanksgiving dinner too. As if there wasn’t reason enough to hate Billy Idol in this film.
It doesn’t mean I love The Doors any less. A properly psychedelic band from the sixties whose work still stands up today. Six great albums and a fantastic live album with almost all of the good stuff actually released. And some of the best songs are often overlooked (The Changeling, Yes, The River Knows and Queen Of The Highway). Some of their best songs are the prettiest, least Lizard King of what they recorded, as deramdaze says a few posts up.
There’s pretty slim pickings beyond those albums (I do really like I Will Never Be Untrue).
Fantastic band but, like retropath2, I’ve never stopped loving them and, while I’ve gone to the grave, bought the poster and tracked down some of the more obscure songs and recordings, I’m more than happy never to watch The Doors again.
aging hippy says
I’ve been a Doors fan since the opening bars of Break On Through and still play them regularly.
I lasted about 15 minutes when I tried to watch the film many years ago and have never been inclined to give it a go again. As for Oliver Stone, I loved Salvador and Platoon. Diminishing returns since.
dai says
JFK was a brilliantly made film, trouble is it was all a load of old nonsense
Hamlet says
I think their first album is one of the best debuts I’ve ever heard. There’s no messing about, tentative steps, etc. – it’s a band fully formed playing brilliant music. I don’t think they ever topped it, but there are some wonderful singles in their career. Great musicians, too, plus one of the best-ever vocalists.
The film is rather silly, but it made them popular again.
Diddley Farquar says
The End sounds rather magnificent here:
mikethep says
I was a Doors head from the word go, bought all the albums up to and including Morrison Hotel and played them non-stop (interesting point above about them belonging to the 70s, it’s as if I decided that a new decade required me to idolise somebody else). I was at the legendary Doors/Jefferson Airplane all-nighter at the Roundhouse in 1968. Everybody was very well behaved. For old times’ sake I even published John Densmore’s autobiography in 1990.
I’ve never seen the film, though. There didn’t seem much point at the time. But inspired by Arthur’s excellent piece I shall remedy that tonight – it’s on Netflix, conveniently.
retropath2 says
Why no LA Woman, @mikethep?
mikethep says
I’ve no idea. Bought it on CD much much later though.
dwightstrut says
Here’s what David Crosby thought of it:
callcopse says
Don’t believe I’ve ever watched it, a situation I’ll remedy forthwith, cheers. Clearly the legend not the man or the band but that’s a choice.
callcopse says
I watched it. Quite enjoyable, though I’d clearly question the veracity of the portrayals of the situations. That’s Hollywood I guess. He was probably quite out of it a fair bit by the sound of it. Who can blame him?
callcopse says
Don’t believe I’ve ever watched it, a situation I’ll remedy forthwith, cheers. Clearly the legend not the man or the band but that’s a choice.
callcopse says
Ah shit forgot the double post issue