Tonight's movie. Last time I watched THE DOORS (1991) was on VHS in the 90s, so was well due for a re-visit. I decided to watch The Final Cut of the film, which is out locally on a two-disc Blu-ray release through Studio Canal as part of their Classics Remastered collection. Unlike most special editions, the Final Cut of THE DOORS actually runs a couple of minutes shorter than the original theatrical cut.
Like a lot of other people, I went through a pretty big Doors phase during my early pot-smoking days of the eighties. I had the L.A. WOMAN. MORRISON HOTEL and GREATEST HITS albums on frequent rotation, I'm sure my long-suffering neighbors knew exactly when I was getting stoned. I also read the riveting Jim Morrison bio NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE during this period, and there are so many pivotal and interesting moments in that book which I would have loved to see play out on film. It does make THE DOORS seem like something of an incomplete movie because of it, though I also understand that time constraints limit what can and can't be included, and ultimately this is the version of Morrison's story which Oliver Stone chose to tell.
In comparison to much of his other work from the years just before and after this (PLATOON, TALK RADIO, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, JFK, NATURAL BORN KILLERS), THE DOORS is probably one of Stone's less potent films. It's a fairly standard rock bio flick (with the requisite bad wigs and fake beards), but it's entertaining and decadent and elevated enormously by the truly engrossing and completely immersive performance by Val Kilmer as Morrison - the physical similarities are truly uncanny at times. The Doors' classic blues-infected trippy music also makes the film a delight to watch, of course, and I'd forgotten about many of the interesting supporting players that turned up in the movie - Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzerick, Kevin Dillon as John Densmore, Crispin Glover as Andy Warhol, Paul Williams, Mimi Rogers and Kathleen Quinlan, who is terrific in a rather daring role as a witchy rock journalist.
Break on through.
