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October 09, 2004
The Doors
Originally posted May 5, 2004.
Last night I had difficulty falling asleep. I was unable to successfully tranquilize myself with whiskey and so watched a little TV, leaving me with yet another film immediate enough in my mind to review.
Fortunately, the whiskey left me with exactly the right sort of vibe for what I found. "The Doors" is Oliver Stone's film tracing the career of the Sixties band the Doors, with a special emphasis on the star-crossed lead singer Jim Morrison. I've always liked their music ('The End' and 'People are Strange' were staples of my angst ridden teenage years). What I like about the movie, however, is its unwillingness to dishonestly uphold some romantic image of Jim Morrison (played with eery effectiveness by Val Kilmer).On some level, this guy was simply a narcissistic jerk with delusions of literary grandeur (his poetry was crap; to the extent that it ever worked it was only when paired with his voice and the hypnotic music of the Doors) who was proven wrong in his belief in his own immortality. Stone does an excellent job drawing you into the hypnotic abandon of the hedonistic Pop culture wave that the Doors rode to the top. Think of this movie as a more artistically accomplished version of the VH1 program Behind the Music. The movie is well conceived and executed. If it falls short of being a completely absorbing piece of film the director and cast cannot be blamed: in the end the problem lies with the real life Doors and their retinue, who fell short of being completely worthwhile subjects.
Posted by dag at October 9, 2004 11:17 AM