The Doors

It doesn't feel that long ago that I reviewed When You're Strange, the fascinating documentary on The Doors and the first film that really told me about the band dynamics, how they wrote their songs and Jim Morrison's personality cult. I had previously seen Oliver Stone's film The Doors and it didn't mean much to me because I knew nothing about the band. With this now being released on Blu-ray, I decided to revisit it armed with some background knowledge to see if this would help me appreciate the film more. The timing of this release seems quite appropriate as 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death so there is a retrospective element to the film as The Doors' music is still instantly recognisable yet Jim Morrison remains something of an enigma

To completely tell the story of how one band formed, became famous, sold millions of albums, became famous around the world and then largely disappeared in 140 minutes is extremely ambitious, but that's what Oliver Stone (and his writing partner Randall Johnson) set out to do. This biopic begins at UCLA film School where the class and the lecturer are watching Jim Morrison's student film, a rambling non-linear black-and-white piece filled with poetry and images of Nazi rallies. When Morrison is asked to explain the film, he simply says "I quit" and walks out, a fellow student of his, Ray Manzarek, liked the film and catches up with Morrison on the beach who, after reading widely and experimenting with LSD, has began to write songs even though he says he can't sing.

The film largely glosses over how the band were formed and how Morrison and Manzarek were joined by Bobby Krieger and John Densmore, why they played with an organist instead of a bass player but does move quickly on to that awkward moment in every musical biopic when the director has to introduce the band finding that one hook, lyric or melody that the audience will instantly recognise. In this case, it shows the band practising when Robbie Krieger says that he's written some lyrics and begins playing his guitar while singing the opening few lines off Light My Fire. This then proceeds to having the band playing with Morrison singing the lyrics but saying that it needs something else, such as an introduction. Then, with Morrison, Krieger and Densmore heading out on to the beach, Manzarek calls them back in and plays the familiar organ introduction to one of the biggest hits from The Doors' first album.

In terms of biopics introducing a song with which the audience are familiar, this is probably the most contrived and awkward of any film with the best probably being The Buddy Holly Story. In any case, this allows for a dissolve to the band playing live and then, as they become increasingly popular, other songs such as The End, Break on Through and People Are Strange.


The Doors follows the band's rise to fame and fortune and Jim Morrison's increasing drug and alcohol use, his fractious relationship with his girlfriend, Pamela Courson and their descent from one of the biggest bands on Earth to one that is booed by the crowd before Morrison's obscenity trial, his self-imposed exile in France and his death. Morrison's grave in Paris has become something of a tourist attraction and a shrine for Doors fans from around the world - I watched Julie Delpy's film 2 Days in Paris not so long ago and her American friend Jack insists on visiting the cemetery.

Because of his astonishing rise to fame and early death, Jim Morrison has become a musical icon and it really must have been a daunting task for Val Kilmer when charged with portraying such a legendary figure. Kilmer proves himself equal to the task by putting in a career-best performance with his acting and singing and there are several occasions when you hear a song by The Doors and assume it's them playing and Jim Morrison singing but Val Kilmer did just about all of the vocals (many of the songs mixed Jim Morrison's voice with Val Kilmer's) and it is a terrific performance. Sadly, the same can't be said for Oliver Stone's writing and direction which is baggy and with woeful pacing so that, even though the film is only 140 minutes long, it feels almost like a three-hour film with many scenes that are just overly long.


Some of the film is extremely well directed and has the same visual flair that Stone employed in Natural Born Killers but this occasionally becomes a little bogged down in symbolism, such as when the LSD trips and Morrison's 'meditation' is depicted by people in the desert. However, his re-creation of real events, such as The Doors' infamous appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in which Morrison refused to toe the line and said the line "... get much higher" even when instructed not to by the network executives shows the panic and anger that was going on behind-the-scenes extremely well.

Although this is principally a film about Jim Morrison with Val Kilmer's performance naturally becoming the centre of attention, he is well supported by Meg Ryan as Pamela, Kyle McLaughlan as Ray Manzarek and Kevin Dillon as John Densmore. All in all, this is an ambitious project that fails to live up to its own expectations (and those of the audience) because of the sluggish pacing and sheer amount of assumed knowledge - it doesn't tell you a great deal about The Doors and what was happening to the band during their rise to stardom or when Morrison's substance abuse was threatening to tear them apart. There are fleeting references to events such as the car commercial that used Light My Fire because Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger had sold the rights without Morrison's knowledge so the film will obviously resonates much more with people who know and love the band and have a working knowledge of their history than those who only know some of their music.

The Disc

Extra Features

I'm not quite sure if this is limited to just the check discs but, rather confusingly, when the disc loads up it takes you to a menu screen where you pick your locality and the United Kingdom is completely absent. In order to ensure an English language menu screen, I had to choose Australia which seemed to work just fine. In terms of supplementary material, the disc isn't exactly replete as there are only two selections from which to choose.

Jim Morrison: A Poet in Paris (52:09, SD) is a French featurette (unsurprising as this is a Studio Canal release) and delivered almost entirely in French with English subtitles. If one of Oliver Stone's film's faults is that it doesn't quite get under the skin of the band and explain exactly the dynamics between the band members and who Jim Morrison was, this more than compensates. It begins with Morrison's death and a statement by Pamela (read by a French actress) before moving on to a brief explanation of the other band members and why they worked so well together before moving to Morrison's obsession with Dionysus and his literary background which, it is claimed, is much more European than American. This explores various things such as why his life in Paris was a different chapter in his life than as the lead singer of The Doors (now a taboo subject) how he communicated without speaking much French and why the flat in which he lived was in such an important location to him.

As someone who isn't particularly familiar with Jim Morrison or The Doors' lyrics, some of this analysing of him as a poet and Morrison's literary influences left me a little cold and I occasionally felt that some the lyrics, song and album titles were being over analysed. Maybe I'm wrong and he was a lyricist with a remarkable literary background, bringing in myriad influences from authors both contemporary and ancient, but that's probably more for devoted fans than someone like me who doesn't mind listening to their music.

Back to the Roots (55:54, HD) features interviews with various people such as Kyle MacLaughlan, The Stranglers' bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel and a moustachioed Oliver Stone as well as journalists, photographers and people who knew Jim Morrison, from America, France and Britain. They speak about The Doors' musical influences, their importance to rock music and how the recording sessions worked. This is probably more accessible to someone with a casual (rather than obsessive) influence in the band and their music and it's the sort of thing that will make you want to go and buy a fuel of The Doors' albums to listen closely to the lyrics.

The Picture

When the film began, I feared the worst as the Columbia Tri-Star logo, with the white horse, galloping on from the left-hand side, looked extremely grainy and with a great deal of picture wobble. As soon as that was over and the film began in earnest, it was evident that a great deal of time and effort had gone into the restoration process as the colours, definition and contrast levels are absolutely superb although some scenes hints at a slight over use of DNR so the picture looks a little too smooth.

The period design is extremely good so the costumes, hairstyles and other elements of the mise en scène converge to create something that is utterly convincing and it helps that Val Kilmer does have a physical resemblance to Jim Morrison. Most of the concert and performance re-creations are extremely convincing with big crowds, the music blaring and the four actors, particularly Val Kilmer, essaying the real performances and musicians extremely well.

The Sound

The only English option is a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track which is, quite frankly, how just about every Blu-ray with a surround sound master should be presented (either that or a Dolby TrueHD or LPCM 7.1 option). I didn't consider The Doors would be the sort of film that necessitated a 7.1 option but was surprised at just how effective the encoding was as there are many scenes where you have the main dialogue from the front and background chatter and music from the front, rear and side surrounds. The subwoofer is also driven a fairly hefty work out with the live performances having quite a bit of bass (surprising considering The Doors didn't have a bassist) and really pushing the volume up, just as it should.

There is an excellent selection of music in the film, not just from The Doors who are well represented, but from contemporaries of theirs such as The Velvet Underground and The Chambers Brothers.

Strangely, there aren't any subtitle options available either in English or any other language. However, the disc does cater for people in other countries as there are soundtrack options in Italian, Spanish and Castilian, all DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo.

Final Thoughts

I can see why many people love this film and are massive fans of it and equally why others are so dismissive (Mark Kermode frequently uses the invented tagline 'You'll never make it out awake') -- I'm somewhere in the middle. I can appreciate and enjoy the excellent construction, decent script and excellent central performance by Val Kilmer but there are several scenes that bore me and it is a film that could be cut down by 20 minutes without losing anything of substance. I do feel the film loses some of its authenticity as a whole thing was denounced as a travesty by Ray Manzarek, who thought it misrepresented the history of the band. Robby Krieger, however, took part in the film because he was a big fan of Oliver Stone's earlier film, Salvador.

If you are a fan and own this on DVD, it is worth upgrading for the quite superb AV quality as, if you have a 7.1 speaker setup, you can crank up the volume and enjoy the music whilst watching the film with its extremely good HD picture. The extra features (nearly 2 hours in total) cater for devoted Doors fans and newcomers to their music alike, making this an extremely attractive purchase for people who love the film and those who are merely curious.