Consistent with many of the most successful biopics about the greatest of American songwriters/bands (i.e., Walk the Line, Ray, Love & Mercy, La Bamba, What’s Love Got to Do With It, 8 Mile, Great Balls of Fire, Straight Outta Compton, Bohemian Rhapsody) in the last 30 years comes Oliver Stone’s (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) distant, unsteady, and unapologetic story of Jim Morrison and his band in the 1991 movie The Doors. Liked more by audiences than critics, the Val Kilmer (Top Gun, Heat) led movie takes us through the formation of the band in the early 1960s to Morrison’s mysterious 1971 death in a Paris bathtub at the age of 27. One of the founding members of the infamous 27 Club, Morrison was an energizing performer whose limit-pushing love of drugs and alcohol led to his early death.

Like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line (a beautiful film about Johnny Cash), Kilmer learned and sang more than 60 songs by The Doors. He was so convincing that when the surviving band members saw the film, they could not distinguish his voice from the voice of the real Jim. When the actor pulls off the unbelievable (like Kilmer did here), he often gets the benefit over biopics like Ray (Jamie Foxx ), Bohemian Rhapsody (Rami Malek), movies where the lead actor did not sing but rather lip-synched the words he often gets the benefit. This often turns a very good film into a better one (as was the case in Walk the Line) or an above-average movie into a good one (as was the case in The Doors).

Digging deeper, Kilmer lived and breathed Morrison for almost a year, dressing up in his clothes and spending time on the Sunset Strip in California, where the famed actor spent much of his hanging in local parts frequented by the actor. He learned how to walk the same way as Morrison and learned all of his mannerisms. He spent hundreds of hours with The Doors producer Paul Rothchild (who also worked as a consultant on the film). Before filming, Morrison, an admitted non-fan of the band) knew more about the lead singer than anyone else. His homework worked. In addition to looking just like the famed icon, Kilmer moved across the sound stage with the same peculiarities as the frontman, portraying superbly the poet/film student turned rock and roll star/drunk.

What I liked most about The Doors was the music. This biopic centered around the music rather than the other way around. Some of the films I mentioned in this post (Love & Mercy) made the music, if not an afterthought, at least a second fiddle. That was not the case in Stone’s film. A good 25 songs extended from the band’s first album, “Break on Through,” to “L.A. Woman.” The interweaving songs constantly connected the movie and served as its architectural key. The film showcased most of the band’s hits. These included the most prominently shown “Light My Fire,” but also  “Riders of a Storm,” “Break on Through,” “People Are Strange,” “Hello, I Love You,” and a host of others.

The Doors was a biopic, for sure. And it had Stone’s mark on it, for sure. And it was a good movie, but not a great one. And, unfortunately, not a memorable one. Stone doesn’t know how to understate things. That is the understatement of this blog. He goes over the top on everything, especially when he was the hottest director in the world in the late 80s/early 90s. So, of course, he’s going to go over the top here, just as he did with his Vietnam War trilogy (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Here on Earth) with his good versus evil themes or Wall Street, where he showcased how big business lead to the consuming power of greed, or a host of his other films. And that’s not a criticism by any means. It only means that you should know what you are in forever before watching one of his movie’s first scenes.

In The Doors, Stone presented Morrison’s story as your typical rise to meteoric fame only to see it all unraveled by women, alcohol, and illegal drugs. Though The Doors didn’t coin the term, Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll, it applied to them mightily. No one would ever question Morrison’s lyrics or stage presence, but his time off the stage clearly influenced his relationship with his band and fans. His drinking and drugs affected his ability to make band rehearsals and even shows on time off the stage. He staggered around and was so far under the influence that he shouldn’t have been performing on the stage. And Stone draws this out. This was more than a period piece. The statement Stone was trying to make was that, in psychedelic excess, any good thing can be ruined.

However, the main problem with the film was how distant we felt from all of the characters. It felt like we were a camera on the wall rather than up and close with these characters. As much as Stone wanted us to know Morrison, we didn’t get to know him nearly as well if he had spent more time in a particular scene rather than trying to rush to the next. Likewise, no distinguishable characteristics existed between anyone other than Morrison in the movie. This should have been a Jim Morrison movie rather than a Doors movie because we didn’t get to know his cast of characters. His main partner includes bubbly Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan – When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle). However, they were in an open relationship, and Jim did not intend to take advantage of that.

The Doors is a movie that every biopic fan should see. While you don’t feel as close to its lead as you would in movies such as Walk the Line, Ray, Love & Mercy, Straight Outta Compton, or Bohemian Rhapsody, it’s still an origin film that does an excellent job of establishing a foundation for its lead, showing the triggers in his life that made him both enchanting and turbulent and instilling in newer generations the powerful and moving storytelling lyrics in songs performed by Morrison and his band. Though you often feel disjointed from the lead, as if you were watching him, his bandmates, and his lovers from a distant lens,

Plot 9/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 6/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 7.5/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
82%

B-

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