The Doors (film)

The Doors
Film poster for The Doors
Directed by	Oliver Stone
Starring	Val Kilmer Meg Ryan Kyle MacLachlan Frank Whaley Kevin Dillon Kathleen Quinlan Billy Idol
Edited by	David Brenner Joe Hutshing
Distributed by	Tri-Star Pictures
Release dates	March 1, 1991
Running time	140 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$38,000,000 (estimated)

The Doors is a 1991 biopic about the 1960s rock band of the same name which emphasizes the life of its lead singer, Jim Morrison. It was directed by Oliver Stone, and stars Val Kilmer as Morrison, Meg Ryan as Pamela Courson (Morrison's companion), Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzarek, Frank Whaley as Robby Krieger, Kevin Dillon as John Densmore and Kathleen Quinlan as Patricia Kennealy. The Doors movie was in development for years with different studios. For a long time John Travolta was the front runner for the part of Jim Morrison and lobbied hard for the part.

The film portrays Morrison as the larger-than-life icon of 1960s rock and roll, counterculture, and the drug-using free love hippie lifestyle. But the depiction goes beyond the iconic: his alcoholism, interest in the spiritual plane and hallucinogenic drugs as entheogens, and, particularly, his obsession with death are threads which weave in and out of the film. Attentive viewers (or those who listen to Stone's DVD commentary) witness Death personified throughout the film by Richard Rutowski, who appears in different guises throughout the film, including drag in one scene, an Indian who dances behind Morrison during the band's performance of "Break On Through", and a horse carriage driver in another scene. The film's tagline is: "The ultimate story of Drugs, Sex and Rock 'N' Roll."

Synopsis

The film opens during the recording of Jim Morrison's "An American Prayer" and quickly moves to a childhood memory of his family driving along a desert highway. Young Jim sees an elderly Native American dying by the roadside. The film picks up with Morrison's arrival in California and his assimilation into the Venice Beach culture, followed by his film school days at UCLA; his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson, his first encounters with Ray Manzarek, and the origin of The Doors; Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore.

Jim convinces his bandmates to travel to Death Valley and experience the mind-expanding effects of psychedelic drugs. Returning to Los Angeles, they play several shows at the famous Whiskey A-Go-Go club and develop a rabid fanbase. Jim's onstage antics and occasionally improvised lyrics often raise the ire of club owners; however, the band's popularity continues to expand.

As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsessions with death, sex, and drugs increase. The rest of the band grows weary of Morrison's missed recording sessions and absences at concerts. Morrison is depicted arriving late to a Miami, Florida concert, becoming increasingly confrontational towards the audience and possibly exposing himself onstage. The incident is a low point for the band, resulting in resentment from the other band members and Morrison's trial for indecent exposure.

Morrison sinks deeper into an alcoholic haze and has mystical sexual encounters with Patricia Kennealy, a rock journalist involved in witchcraft. In 1971, Jim Morrison is found dead in a bathtub by Pamela in Paris, France, at the age of 27. Pamela Courson dies three years later of a drug overdose, also at the age of 27. The final scenes of the film before the credits roll are of Morrison's gravesite in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France.

Casting

Kilmer was reportedly Stone's second choice for the role, the first being British rock singer Ian Astbury, who in fact went on to join the reformed Doors, but turned down the offer to play Morrison out of a reluctance to take up acting (particularly as the lead in a major motion picture despite a lack of experience in the craft). Kyle MacLachlan, a longtime Doors fan, was quoted as saying that he had wanted to portray Morrison himself and firmly believed that he could play the part, but settled for the role of Manzarek after Kilmer was selected.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack contains over two dozen of The Doors' songs; in the film, original recordings of the band are seamlessly combined with convincing vocal performances by Kilmer himself. So eerily accurate was Kilmer's portrayal of Morrison, that even the remaining band members sometimes found it difficult to distinguish between his vocal renditions and Morrison's original recordings. In addition to the many themed Doors songs featured, two songs by The Velvet Underground and Nico are also heard throughout the film.

Historical inaccuracies

The film is based mostly on real people and actual events, but some parts are clearly Stone's vision and dramatization of those people and events. For example, when Morrison is asked to change the infamous lyric in "Light My Fire" for his appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, he is depicted as blatantly ignoring their request because of his rebellious, anti-authority principles. The film suggests Morrison shouted the word "higher" into the TV camera, while, in fact, he highlighted "fire" during the performance. In one version, the real Morrison insisted that it was an accident, that he meant to change the lyric but was so nervous about performing on live television that he forgot to change it when he was singing. In another version, Ray Manzarek says that The Doors pretended to agree to the change of words, and deliberately played the song as they always had, without any added emphasis on 'higher'. In either case the performance on the show was a far cry from what the movie suggests. The movie also suggests Morrison stuck a hand down his trousers, fondling himself, while on air. No such thing happened in real life.

One questionable scene featured Morrison and Courson getting into such a nasty argument that he tries to jump out the window and then throws the frightened, apologetic Courson on the bed and performs what looks like a near act of rape against her. In the book "The Doors" written by all the former Doors, band member Robby Krieger says that Morrison talking about killing himself "wasn't that unusual". However, neither that book, band members Manzarek and Densmore's respective books on the band "Light My Fire" and "Riders on the Storm," or the 1980 Morrison biography "No One Here Gets Out Alive" co-authored by a close friend of Morrison's, Danny Sugerman, mention a barely averted suicide attempt like the one depicted in the movie. The idea of Morrison and Courson arguing violently is not farfetched, however, as their relationship was by all accounts passionate, but volatile. The book "The Doors" by the Doors quotes group member John Densmore as saying of the couple, "They were like Romeo and Juliet. They fought like hell, but they were meant to be together." Morrison is also depicted locking Courson in a closet and setting it on fire, which is said to have never happened. None of the above mentioned books tell this story either. Rhino Records photographer Bobby Klein claims to have had Pam come over to his house when this incident occurred, and to have taken care of her during some weeks after. Doors member Ray Manzarek is quoted as stating firmly that this incident never happened in the record of a question and answer session he did on Universal Chat Network in 1997. However, in his book "Light My Fire" Manzarek is frank about Morrison's tendency to go into senseless rages, which were sometimes caused by alcohol and sometimes by a natural mental instability. The other books authored by former band members are also very open about Morrison's rage problem.

Dialogue that took place between Kennealy and Morrison is reassigned to Courson, and Courson is depicted as saying hostile things to Kennealy, when by all reports their interactions were polite. Drummer John Densmore is also portrayed as hating Morrison as Morrison's personal and drug problems begin to dominate his behavior. In truth, as Densmore describes in his book, "Riders on the Storm," though Densmore was intensely angry at Morrison when his unpredictability began to affect the band's concerts, the two men remained friends and Densmore never directly confronted Morrison for fear of the confrontation that would result.

Krieger, Densmore, and Kennealy are all credited as technical advisors for the film, however they have commented that though they may have given advice, Stone very often chose to ignore it in favor of his fabrications. The settings for the film, particularly the concert sequences, are depicted somewhat realistically and in mostly chronological order, although the crowd scenes contain many blatant exaggerations, such as portrayals of nudity that did not occur. Liberties in wardrobe, supervised by Marlene Stewart, are grotesque parodies of the original article, for example, a bloused black shirt and prominently exaggerated concho belt replace a perfectly dignified white button-top and leather jacket.

The surviving Doors members were all to one degree or another unhappy with the final product, and were said to have heavily criticized Stone's portrayal of Morrison as an "out of control sociopath". In a 1991 interview with Gary James, Ray Manzarek, the Doors' organist, criticized Stone for exaggerating Morrison's alcohol consumption in the movie, saying, "Jim with a bottle all the time. It was ridiculous . . . It was not about Jim Morrison. It was about Jimbo Morrison, the drunk. God, where was the sensitive poet and the funny guy? The guy I knew was not on that screen." In the afterword of his book "Riders on the Storm," Doors' drummer John Densmore says that the movie is based on "the myth of Jim Morrison". In the same place, he criticizes the film for portraying Morrison's ideas as "muddled through the haze of the drink [alcohol]". In a 1994 interview, Robby Krieger, the Doors' guitarist, agreed with interviewer Gary James' statement that the movie "The Doors" doesn't give the viewer "any kind of understanding of what made Jim Morrison tick". Krieger also commented about the film in the same interview: "They left a lot of stuff out. Some of it was overblown, but a lot of the stuff was very well done, I thought."

In the book called "The Doors," an anthology on the band compiled by its surviving members, Manzarek says, "That Oliver Stone thing did real damage to the guy I knew: Jim Morrison, the poet." In this book, Densmore says of the movie, "A third of it's fiction." In the same volume, Krieger joins Manzarek and Densmore in describing the movie as inaccurate, but also says, referring to the film's inaccuracy, "It could have been a lot worse."

As the credits point out and as Stone emphasizes on his DVD commentary, some characters, names, and incidents in the film are fictitious or amalgamations of real people. Stone states in particular in the 1997 documentary The Road of Excess that Quinlan's character, "Patricia Kennealy", is a composite, and in retrospect should have been given a fictitious name. Kennealy in particular was hurt by her portrayal in the film. Ryan's character, "Pam Courson", involves liberties of a different sort. The former Doors do not think the movie depiction of her is very accurate, as their book "The Doors" describes the Pamela in the movie as "a cartoon of a girlfriend". Courson's parents had inherited Morrison's poems when their daughter died, and Stone had to agree to restrictions about his portrayal of her in exchange for the rights to use the poetry. In particular, Stone agreed to avoid any suggestion that Courson may have been responsible for Morrison's death. However, Alain Ronay and Courson herself had both said that she was partially responsible. In "Riders on the Storm," Densmore says Pamela said she felt terribly guilty because she had obtained drugs that she believed had either caused or contributed to Morrison's death. This information may have been omitted from the film because of the Coursons' objections, or possibly they only wanted to make sure Pamela was not portrayed as murdering Morrison, since such a rumour has been circulated.

However, Doors keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, did not share the same enthusiasm of how Morrison was portrayed by director Oliver Stone's interpretation. In Manzarek's biography of the Doors,"Light My Fire" he often goes out of his way to bash Stone and also includes myriad details that discredit Stone's account of Morrison. For example, in Stone's "re-creation" of Morrison's student film at UCLA, he has Morrison watching a D-Day sequence on TV and shouting profanities in German, with a near-nude Germanic exchange student dancing on top of the TV sporting a Swastika armband. According to Morrison's best friend and bandmate (Manzarek) the only similarity between Stone's version and Morrison's was that the girl in question was indeed German .

There are also blatant factual errors in this movie. In explaining how she tracked down Morrison's parents, Kennealy states early in the movie that doing so was easy because schools like UCLA and the University of Florida still had records on Morrison. However, he did not go to the University of Florida. Morrison, in fact, attended Florida State University from 1962-1964.

The Doors Documentary

In May 2008, it was revealed that Ray Manzarek was working on a new Doors documentary film that he described as "the anti-Oliver Stone. This will be the true story of The Doors".

Film trivia

• Doors drummer John Densmore has a cameo as the recording engineer for Morrison's spoken-word "American Prayer" sessions.
• Patricia Kennealy appears briefly as a sword-wielding high priestess in the handfasting scene.
• Oliver Stone makes a cameo as the film professor during the UCLA scenes.
• At the birthday party scene, Mark Northover is in the background. Mark Northover played the role of Burklekutt in the fantasy film Willow, also starring Val Kilmer.
• Billy Idol appears as a roadie on crutches, he recently had been in an accident and was in a cast.
• Val Kilmer got the part after making a video of himself performing Doors material and playing it for Oliver Stone. He told Stone that songs were mixed up between his own singing and Morrison's. He asked Oliver Stone to tell them apart; after he made his guesses as to who was singing what songs Kilmer admitted that the entire video was him singing.
• The commentary track for the last scene of the movie captured Oliver Stone calling the song they were recording Roadhouse Blues, when, in fact, it is L.A. Woman. However, a live version of Roadhouse Blues was featured later in the credits.

External links

• The Doors at IMDb
• The Road of Excess at IMDb, a documentary of The Doors, included with the 2001 DVD
• The Doors at AllMovie
• The Doors at Rotten Tomatoes