The Doors

For a movie about my favorite band, or one of, I don't really harbor the hatred for it like others.

The only things I ever heard about it were it severely misrepresented Jim Morrison, fans hated it, critics hated it, The Doors themselves hated it, and I....liked it just fine. It sort of is a hard movie to fully in context talk about, the way it's directed is more like an experience. You are on this rollercoaster of a experience following the origins, rise, and end of The Doors, leading to the eventual and still quite sad ending of it all. And for a movie over two hours, the pace is quick and the editing may seem odd at first but there is a rhythm to it all. It's artsy as hell, I can so easily see people brush this film off as pretentious bullshit with how Stone directs it all and while I can somewhat agree with that at points, it didn't hurt the film majorly. It's very centered on Jim which is to be expected, you really can't talk about one without the other, he was the face and the first person people acknowledged of that band and this film takes it's liberties with the more far out stuff with Jim, but the shrieking throes of people who give Val so much good grief for his performance is nothing but a fallacy. Oh he's just this drunken maniac, oh Jim was so much more than that, but there are several instances where you really do see the real Jim. The writer, the poet, the intellectual, and it does make you look at him as a person, not an idol. People are f***ed up, weird, strange to begin with, but the drugs and excessive alcohol did have an effect on him. I have read articles, bought the collection of his writings and really appreciated a good bit of it in the script, listened to interviews, and Jim Morrison was an interesting guy with a lot more to him than just a rock star. Val Kilmer pulls it off in aces, the singing, the poetry, the mannerisms, he blends so well in this role you really forget Jim is dead. Not many actors have achieved such a thing. I personally think Kyle (or Kale if you prefer) MacLachlan was a damn good Ray Manzarek, Frank Whaley brought some innocence to Robby Krieger which I quite liked, Kevin Dillon played a hardcase John Densmore but I do get why they did it, even Meg Ryan playing Pam is really nice and you do get that strange love affair chemistry. So cast does admirable work, the visuals get trippy and symbolic, the film certainly warrants that hard R rating like no one's business, this is the strangest musician movie I've ever known. And to think this was in 1991, Val Kilmer only had a few big movies to his belt and he got to play James Douglas Morrsion, that's impressive man. It's a brief 101 for new fans, the more heavily detailed fans could probably poke holes in it all day, but I did like it and I'm happy I saw it. 3.5 stars, 7.5/10, one more before the end of this week.