"The Doors" (1991) - Movie Review

As Jim Morrison mesmerized millions during his tenure as the lead front man of the influential and talented “The Doors”, the book “No One Here Gets Out Alive” by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman interested me to peruse through it, so there can be a light on this mystical character. It is the first biography of Morrison with “touches” alleged to be added with exaggerated information to sensationalize and it is a painful book. Not because it did not open up the real Morrison, not because it was not well written but it is a sheer remorseless chaotic acts of him and insight on it is a horror than enlightenment. I did not complete the book and closed when another twenty pages were remaining. Suddenly the icon which influenced every one appeared nothing more than a kid experimenting beyond horizons and stepping on people in that journey. While I love the music of “The Doors”, the book did not answer the puzzle of this young star of the 60s and kind of even felt that I did not want to know about this. So when I watched “The Doors” the film, I knew what I was expecting.

Even the book is blamed for its inconsistencies of giving Morrison to his true nature and hence movie can be less of a fact. One thing is true in both the medium is that Morrison did drugs which were invented 24/7 and he did it like a chain smoker (which he did it with other substances and tobacco). In between that he drank and drank and drank. He is the most self destructive persona you can find and the culture which in some form accepted it. The 60s culture is the time of weird love, immersing in drugs and no one knows what else. It is fun and no one cared about a thing. Oliver Stone does a fantastic job along with some accurate details (as said) of the controversial stage gimmicks Morrison did. Morrison is played by Val Kilmer who not only resurrects him in appearance and mannerisms but in his voice which magnetized the world. Kilmer is unbelievably in to the role. And at times his enactment of this character of disaster is perfect that we feel Kilmer is deteriorating as an actor in this skin of Morrison.

What do we get out of the movie? It is a full fledged “The Doors” experience with Jim Morrison at his best and worst. Do we really need a movie about this destructive character? It is the curiosity of knowing this mystery of a man who never seems to have been sober for a day. But even in that he managed to collaborate with his band mates to produce path breaking songs and sensitive enough to get angry when their song is sold for commercial without his awareness. Who was he? What was it that was going through in his mind during those meditations of chaos? Stone tries to give broken images of something which might have represented his path to death.

Many have the opinion that he was not able to stand the sky high stardom and that emotionally stressed him, quite severely. But for me, he was lucky. Forget the fame and forget the millions who eagerly waited for his arrival on stage. There was Pam played loyally by Meg Ryan who showered nothing but love and tolerated his sporadic outbursts and uneven persona till his death. There was Patricia Kennealy strongly given by Kathleen Quinlan who seem to have control over him but only gets absorbed like every one else in to his den of unknown. And finally was his band members and friends Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan), Robby Krieger (Frank Whaley) and John Densmore (Kevin Dillon). All these people wanted him not to quit drugs or drinks but to slow it down. Does Morrison owe a lot to them? A lot may be but he never seem to ask anything and does not deny it either.

For me, he is a man with multiple souls. And those multiple souls are the results of experimentation in reaching a world he hallucinated. The walls are not real in those places and he never get to touch and feel it either. No one can exactly know what he wanted or dreamed about. His frustration is what haunts every one, as controversy and chaos. The film does justice to it and gives the man spoiled and rotten in his own quest; it leaves the same feeling for the movie.

The scenes with some conversation are the scenes I would have liked to see more. Even if it is chaotic and cryptic, that is what we want. I never have seen the stage show in video but I do not need a recreation of it, in multiple locations over here. It should have been the layers of his unknown universe as the fan or any one even who hated him never got to see. And the film has those scenes but gets buried into the over abundance music. It is a pleasure to hear the music I admire and love, but the film is an exploration into the psychedelic craziness of Jim Morrison, not a musical. It is expected to hear them but is not the only thing.

Morrison did what he wanted to without any rules or conditions. He believed that is how you can stretch the limits, even if it involves hurting a lot of people. After all this, I would ask fans to watch it. To see a man who had the equal caliber of creating art through his music and destroying it in him. And finally to look into the performance of Val Kilmer, an actor who for every reason would have been emotionally pushed over the balance while preparing for this character.