I'm willing to admit that much of what I enjoy and consider great art (or at least great entertainment) is considered garbage by most other people. That's fine. Everyone's opinion is valid, and "true art" is typically boring anyway. THE DOORS is one of those films I've yet to get my fill of, and that I watch on TV whenever I can (which unfortunately isn't often, since it's not as popular a film as it once was), along with other films I've "OD'd" on such as the INDIANA JONES series, BRAVEHEART, and various films by Quentin Tarantino. Someday, maybe, I'll have seen THE DOORS so many times that I'll have gotten sick of it, but that date lies far, far in the future - partly because I LOVE it!
I wasn't even born when the band broke up in the early '70s, but I grew up with them because my parents had been in high school and college when the Doors were at the height of their fame, and they were part of my parents' collective playlist along with the Beatles and nearly everyone on the soundtrack of THE BIG CHILL. Over time, as I heard more and more of their repertoire, I came to be fascinated by the Doors. To this day, I consider them the first "modern" rock stars in the sense in which the MTV and VH-1 generations (to which I belong) think of them, and a major influence on both alternative and progressive rock (and heavy metal, too, in some ways). I can hear or at least perceive their influence in many rock bands that followed them, including Blue Oyster Cult, Oingo Boingo, Tool, and even Nirvana. ESPECIALLY Nirvana. Both "Break on Through" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" have helped me to make since of the world during my periods of existential doubt.
So any movie about the Doors - and one by Oliver Stone in particular - is one I am going to revere. Not only is the music great (I don't think the band ever wrote a bad song), but the movie itself is unforgettable. Oliver Stone is a showman on par with Phineas T. Barnum, and so it goes without saying that THE DOORS is nothing short of a three-ring circus. Jim Morrison is shown to be a sort of combination of the Pied Piper and the title character of the famous comic book V FOR VENDETTA, with hangers-on from every which where latching onto him and his entourage. They are a diverse, even (arguably) multicultural bunch: Venice Beach bohemians, New York art snobs, Navajo Indians (albeit in Jim's fevered imagination), bikers and rednecks, and (of course) lots and lots and LOTS of hippies and flower children, decked out in everything from Nehru jackets to flowered headbands to pilgrim hats to skeleton makeup to striped clown pants. Not to mention massive hordes of teenage girls who would regularly become active participants in the stage shows - and would often be wearing absolutely nothing. I'd rather watch this than your average Fourth of July parade.
THE DOORS is not a good film in the "classical" sense, and it doesn't even look like a classic film. At the very least, the cinematography is one-of-a-kind: so razor-sharp that nearly the entire film looks like a documentary (and not one from the 1960s, either, but the '90s, so I almost feel that the Doors are from my time); it reminds me a bit of THIS IS SPINAL TAP (another rock movie I enjoy). And I'd wager that nearly half the scenes in the film (yes, I kept track) are so rich in detail that they handsomely reward repeat viewings. But all that said, as visual storytelling THE DOORS falls well short of being perfect. The first hour is terrific, steadily charting the band's rise to the height of their fame. Then comes the second half, which shifts from Los Angeles to New York and San Francisco and Miami and eventually Paris, France - and the movie turns into a "leave-the-camera-running" exercise in self-indulgence (reminiscent of Andy Warhol, who appears as a character here). The rock concert scenes go on for what seem like hours, and they become repetitive (look, there's another naked girl, another angry cop, etc.). They're so long, in fact, that various other scenes - even some key scenes - end up being intercut with them. THE DOORS is approximately two and a half hours long, but it seems much longer.
But after all's said and done, would I recommend THE DOORS to just about anyone? Heck, yes. The movie is a big mess, but it's endlessly colorful and never dull. Val Kilmer was all but born to play Morrison, and most of the other actors are hardly slouches themselves. And despite having been filmed in the '90s and depicting the '60s and early '70s, it all feels remarkably timeless. The "Age of Aquarius" counterculture is something we are still (and very confusedly) grappling with, and the questions Jim asks himself about where he is going and about life in general are ones that are worth pondering by every human being on earth.
So hurrah for THE DOORS! To paraphrase the William Blake poem that inspired the bands name, Stone's opus allows us to see reality as it really is - infinite.
I wasn't even born when the band broke up in the early '70s, but I grew up with them because my parents had been in high school and college when the Doors were at the height of their fame, and they were part of my parents' collective playlist along with the Beatles and nearly everyone on the soundtrack of THE BIG CHILL. Over time, as I heard more and more of their repertoire, I came to be fascinated by the Doors. To this day, I consider them the first "modern" rock stars in the sense in which the MTV and VH-1 generations (to which I belong) think of them, and a major influence on both alternative and progressive rock (and heavy metal, too, in some ways). I can hear or at least perceive their influence in many rock bands that followed them, including Blue Oyster Cult, Oingo Boingo, Tool, and even Nirvana. ESPECIALLY Nirvana. Both "Break on Through" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" have helped me to make since of the world during my periods of existential doubt.
So any movie about the Doors - and one by Oliver Stone in particular - is one I am going to revere. Not only is the music great (I don't think the band ever wrote a bad song), but the movie itself is unforgettable. Oliver Stone is a showman on par with Phineas T. Barnum, and so it goes without saying that THE DOORS is nothing short of a three-ring circus. Jim Morrison is shown to be a sort of combination of the Pied Piper and the title character of the famous comic book V FOR VENDETTA, with hangers-on from every which where latching onto him and his entourage. They are a diverse, even (arguably) multicultural bunch: Venice Beach bohemians, New York art snobs, Navajo Indians (albeit in Jim's fevered imagination), bikers and rednecks, and (of course) lots and lots and LOTS of hippies and flower children, decked out in everything from Nehru jackets to flowered headbands to pilgrim hats to skeleton makeup to striped clown pants. Not to mention massive hordes of teenage girls who would regularly become active participants in the stage shows - and would often be wearing absolutely nothing. I'd rather watch this than your average Fourth of July parade.
THE DOORS is not a good film in the "classical" sense, and it doesn't even look like a classic film. At the very least, the cinematography is one-of-a-kind: so razor-sharp that nearly the entire film looks like a documentary (and not one from the 1960s, either, but the '90s, so I almost feel that the Doors are from my time); it reminds me a bit of THIS IS SPINAL TAP (another rock movie I enjoy). And I'd wager that nearly half the scenes in the film (yes, I kept track) are so rich in detail that they handsomely reward repeat viewings. But all that said, as visual storytelling THE DOORS falls well short of being perfect. The first hour is terrific, steadily charting the band's rise to the height of their fame. Then comes the second half, which shifts from Los Angeles to New York and San Francisco and Miami and eventually Paris, France - and the movie turns into a "leave-the-camera-running" exercise in self-indulgence (reminiscent of Andy Warhol, who appears as a character here). The rock concert scenes go on for what seem like hours, and they become repetitive (look, there's another naked girl, another angry cop, etc.). They're so long, in fact, that various other scenes - even some key scenes - end up being intercut with them. THE DOORS is approximately two and a half hours long, but it seems much longer.
But after all's said and done, would I recommend THE DOORS to just about anyone? Heck, yes. The movie is a big mess, but it's endlessly colorful and never dull. Val Kilmer was all but born to play Morrison, and most of the other actors are hardly slouches themselves. And despite having been filmed in the '90s and depicting the '60s and early '70s, it all feels remarkably timeless. The "Age of Aquarius" counterculture is something we are still (and very confusedly) grappling with, and the questions Jim asks himself about where he is going and about life in general are ones that are worth pondering by every human being on earth.
So hurrah for THE DOORS! To paraphrase the William Blake poem that inspired the bands name, Stone's opus allows us to see reality as it really is - infinite.