We should never take film as fact. That’s probably the case with Oliver Stone’s The Doors as some liberties have been taken and characters combined. Does that mean that it’s a bad film? On the contrary, it’s still a nice slice of the time period and features the great music of the band.
It does say “an Oliver Stone film” so perhaps we should interpret the film as Stone’s vision and take on the iconic rock band. He did have some idealized casting, as Val Kilmer closely resembles Jim Morrison and sounds eerily like him.
In fact, tales go that when Kilmer auditioned he gave Stone a tape of Morrison tunes and told him to pick which ones were Kilmer and which was Morrison. Stone gave his choices only to discover that Kilmer had fooled him and that they were all Kilmer’s voice.
The film tells of how the band formed and Morrison’s volatile relationships with girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan) and his bandmates, keyboardist Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan), guitarist Robby Krieger (Frank Whaley), and drummer John Densmore (Kevin Dillon).
I know that Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan), even though she served as an advisor on the film, has never had nice things to say about the movie. Luckily, I don’t think that reality television is real and don’t trust my history to films. Any film is subject to the director’s vision or interpretations.
Stone’s film is a psychedelic journey through the 1960s and in that it is an interesting time capsule as to what those times could be like (according to Oliver Stone I suppose). The film has Stone’s full bag of directors tricks and fascinates. Look for Stone as the college professor that teaches Morrison’s film class. The film looks as best I’ve seen it on home video in this Blu-ray release.
The Doors is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features include a commentary from director Oliver Stone. “The Doors in LA” is a 19-minute look back at the film and comes from the 15th Anniversary DVD and is in high definition.
The remainder of the special features are presented in standard definition. “Jim Morrison: A Poet in Paris” is a 52 minute French documentary (with English subtitles) about Morrison’s time in Paris. “The Road of Excess” is a 38-minute making of that also doubles as a look a Morrison.
There’s also a 6-minute 1991 featurette. Next are 43 minutes of deleted scenes with an introduction by Stone. There’s also the 1-minute theatrical trailer and 5 TV spots (3 minutes). Finally, there are some trailers for other Lionsgate products.
The Doors is Oliver Stone’s vision of the iconic band and features an interesting look at the time period from whence they sprang. It all hinges on Val Kilmer’s mezmerising performance. It looks the best that it has on home video with this Blu-ray release and thankfully they port over the special features from the other releases. I am the lizard king.
The Doors [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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