The Doors movie

[arcadian]

Watched it last night again. Who liked it/didn't like it?

Apparently, the band didn't and Ray Manzerek wouldn't sign off on it or was reluctant to. When they saw the finished product, they were displeased. They didn't like that Morrison was only portrayed as a drunk/drug addled sex crazed rock star who was out of control.

Interesting note, the sound engineer in the booth during Morrison's poetry recordings was actually John Densmore, The Doors drummer. The priestess administering the hand fastening ceremony was the real Patricia Kenneally. I thought this was cool, the grocery store in the scene when Jim and Pam are shopping for groceries for Thanksgiving dinner was the Laurel Canyon Country Store that Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson lived behind.

Also, all the nudity postrayed as having happened during Doors concerts didn't happen.

[Dr. Strange]

1. Saw it.

I liked it. By the way, Robby Krieger makes an appearance in the movie too--very quick, though, so easy to miss.

[arcadian]

2. I have to admit, I liked it.

Regardless of the inaccuracies. I watched the alternate ending on the DVD extras, it looks like Stone was going to end the movie with an earlier depiction of 'Roadhouse' live, instead of 'L.A. Woman' in the studio. I'm glad he went with L.A. Woman. What part was Kreiger in?

[Dr. Strange]

5. It's been a while since I've seen it...

but it's in an early scene, just after they finish their set. They're meeting a record exec (Paul Rothchild, I think), and someone passes between the characters and the camera. The first time I saw the movie I thought it was just awkward directing. But the second or third time, I realized it was Krieger.

[tanngrisnir3]

3. It gargled donkey balls. Much like the Doors themselves.

Hey, you asked.

[BeachBaby]

4. I love The Doors - so I loved the movie.

I even have a concert billboard poster hanging in my son's room - and Steppenwolf opened for them. :)

[Aristus]

6. I liked it the first time I saw it, before I knew much about The Doors.

The film made me a fan of the music. I got to know the history of the band pretty well, and then I didn't like the movie so much anymore...

I think Val Kilmer did the best he could, but Stone should have cast the guy who played Morrison as a cameo in "Death Becomes Her." He would have really rocked...

[Release The Hounds]

7. I have to be drunk to watch it

[no name no slogan]

8. I got preview passes to see it before it was released.

I (the entertainment editor) and another reporter for my college's paper went to see it so we could write a review of it.

At the time, I thought it was alright, except for Kilmer's over-the-top portrayal of Morrison. However, I dont' blame Kilmer for that-- I blame Oliver Stone.

Stone wanted to project his own Jimmy/rockstar fantasies into the onscreen Morrison, which would explain why Kilmer played Jim as a caricature. It was more a projection of Stone's unfulfilled 60s fantasies than it was about the person who was Jim Morrison.

[sazemisery]

9. The placebo effect is awsome

:evilgrin: :smoke: :popcorn:

[Rhythm]

17. You noticed that too, huh?

I actually saw it twice in the theater just to test that out... went with different friends each time, too.

[Robeson]

10. It was O.K. Not great. But O.K.

[Iggo]

11. I saw it once and I don't remember if I liked it or not.

I was a drug-addled gasbag at the time.

I have since heard Mr Manzarek say that if you want to know about The Doors, it's all there in the music.

[underpants]

12. "It wasn't the drugs that killed Jim, it was the leather pants"

Kilmer quote at the time

I thought Kilmer was amazing in it. Apparently he made a casting tape and sent it to Oliver Stone and got the role that way.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. I liked it for what it was. Not a great movie but, a nice, hazy trip

down memory lane.

[cemaphonic]

14. Meh, if I wanted to watch an Oliver Stone movie about an obnoxious narcissist, I'd watch Talk Radio

or Wall Street for that matter.

There's not really anything wrong with it, but not really much right about it either. I think Morrison is just not an especially interesting subject.

Kilmer did a good job though.

[MajorChode]

15. I remember one of the band members was impressed at how...

Val Kilmer "became" Morrison. So perhaps at least some of them liked his performance.

One thing about Oliver Stone movies is you can always count on them not being within a cab ride of historical fact. The cinemetography is generally very good, and he is able to attact very talented actors, but the stories he tells are shit.

[last_texas_dem]

16. I like the Doors a lot, but I didn't care for the movie

I really don't remember specifically certain things that bothered me, but I remember being disappointed in it when I saw it for the first time about three years ago.

I had read and enjoyed the slightly sensational bio No One Here Gets Out Alive a few years before, so maybe I was just expecting there would be something new to the movie that wasn't.

I know that some of the kids I knew who were into the Doors in high school had been introduced to them via the movie. For me, it was the music that got me into them, though, so I guess that's really always been what has resonated with me about them more than the other stuff. I tend to largely agree with Manzarek's comment that someone included upthread.

[Archae]

18. Morrison was a total asshole.

I have a friend here in Sheboygan who was a roadie for a lot of bands on the West Coast during the late 60's, and he said Jim Morrison was an absolute asshole while sober, and drunk and/or stoned he was 5 times worse.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

23. Morrison used to hold his brother down and fart in his face...

...that is, if you believe Danny Sugarman's Morrison bio "No One Gets Out Of Here Alive."

:toast:

[Zavulon]

19. Saw it. Some years ago, there was a very popular

Doors biography floating around, and I remember the movie was based on it so closely that I felt like I was having that particular book read to me.

[abq e streeter]

20. Coincidentally, I read Manzarek's autobiography a few weeks ago

He LOATHED the movie, and despises Oliver Stone to the point where on at least 2 or three occasions in the book, he momentarily interjects a quick mention of what he thinks of Stone when he wasn't even talking about him or the movie, then goes back to whatever he was previously talking about. And this is besides the parts where he IS talking about Stone. I can't recall for sure ( gave the book back to the friend I'd borrowed it from so can't refer to it as I write this ) but seems to me he calls Stone a fascist, and I think a racist too ( not as sure about that though). But it really was striking to see how virulent he was in his distaste for both Stone and the movie. Personally, I thought the movie was interesting ( saw it the night it opened here in Albuquerque, where Jim lived as a little kid and again as a middle schooler). I rented it again last year---both times my reaction was that while it was interesting, it did focus way too much on spectacle; and I got pretty tired of all the scenes of 60's excess as if that's all there was to the 60's and to the Doors...And there was disappointingly , virtually no examination of where all that great music came from ( not that Stone or anyone else is obligated to focus on anything but what they feel like focusing on). But I understand Manzarek's anger, when its you and your closest friends being portrayed on-screen in a way that you know is inaccurate or flat out dishonest...Manzarek's book, by the way, is really well written and worth reading for a serious Doors fan. The title of the book is Light My Fire ( wonder how he ever came up with that?) One more thing ; anybody wanna feel REALLY OLD ? Ray Manzarek turns 70 years old this year...Ouch...

[Cant trust em]

21. Maybe it's accurate, maybe it's not. But it is entertaining. NT

[Amerigo Vespucci]

22. Wasn't Kilmer's finest hour...that would be Tombstone...and...

Making a movie about Morrison is like catching a butterfly in a net and sticking it on your wall with hatpins.

Morrison DEFIED a "docu-drama" treatment. He Was bigger than any movie that could be made about him.

Plus, Oliver Stone is a delusional, drug-addled tool.

Other than that, the movie rocked, dude. And by "rocked" I mean "sucked."

[omega minimo]

24. Kilmer in Tombstone was brilliant

[Drunken Girlfriend]

25. Re:The Doors movie

One thing I really liked about The Doors movie was Val Kilmer,
as I really think he did his research,and did an accurate portrayl
of Jim Morrison.

However,I do feel the movie left out a lot of stuff,
and it was way too long.

In the movies defense though,Jim Morrison was quite the character,
and I bet it was quite difficult to fit what they did into this movie,
despite the fact it was about 2 1/2 to 3 hrs long.

I would have liked to see more about the Jim Morrison/Janis Joplin
connection,but you can always read about that stuff on the net.

Rumor has it that Jim's fiance Pam dated Neil Young off and on,
when she was broken up with Jim,yet they never showed this in the movie.

Cinnamon Girl was supposedly written about her.

As well,not everyone thinks that Jim Morrisons death was an accident,
but that Pam was somehow responsible.

Jim Morrison led a short life,but an interesting one.

[noonwitch]

26. Val Kilmer's portrayal was eerily accurate

Patricia Keneally hated the movie, but liked the actress who played her. She thought that Kilmer was possibly possessed by Jim's spirit or something, because she freaked out when she saw him on the set.