The Doors Reviews
Just like Jim Morrison's film career, this film's beginning is dull and mixed with vague and awful attempts at poetry making it a drag to get through. The only thing keeping me from lowering the score is the amazing range of songs by the self titled band. However, about 1 hour through the film the pace and story begins to improve and become more of what the film was going for. Val Kilmer portrays Jim Morrison to perfection down to his cocky face and arrogant walk. The films long time until improvement and the cheesiness of over philosophising the Doors can make for a conflicting tone that struggles to gain an identity however. Also idk why but that ending was so impactful to me
Stone's adaptation of the maniac genius Jim Morrison. Some of it is true a lot is his interpretation of his short life. Kilmer did a wonderful job, so did Whalley as Kreiger, MacLaclan as Manzarik and Glover as Andy Warhol.
This film absolutley disrespected Jim Morrison. And it Should not be given 79 audience score on rotten Tomatoes,
Val Kilmer was made to play Jim Morrison; they are essentially twins. His performance was amazing, played to perfection. I am a Doors fan, but admittedly did not have a ton of knowledge of the band beyond their music before watching the film. That being said, this depiction did not do anything to elevate the band (specifically Jim) in my mind. Quite the opposite, actually. Morrison is a prick throughout the ENTIRE film. I wanted desperately to find some saving grace for him, but every time I thought it might happen, he was awful again. This entire movie is literally sex, drugs and rock and roll. The music is good, and apparently the acid is even better. I will only reward the cast and the music with stars...
Great acting, great directing, great music. Has nothing to do with Jim Morrison. Val was amazing as a brilliant but troubled rock star sounding like and resembling the singer/poet known as Jim Morrison. No one could have matched his performance, not by a sight. The photography, script and cast were all outstanding. Deducted one star for Stone's infantile, sophomoric, over-idolized emo worship of JM as the drunken uber hippie he wished he could be. The fictionalization of JM presented here is Amadeus-like in scale. When one witnesses such absurdity and "creative" license, what can one say but: Stone. Ollie needs to stay as far away from historical figures as possible. His childish fantasies and love of the sweet leaf have long ago addled his brain. To a man, the remaining three members blasted this fantastic and incredible portrayal of their front man as pure fiction. And that's just what this excellent film is: pure fiction.
I don't care what the critics think. This movie is so much fun and I always love watching it. I love 1970s era American films and this is a great one and very artistic and beautiful.
Oliver stones most offensive biopic. If only he had been more interested in the truth and the brilliance behind the lyrics and instead mythical elements to Jim, this could have been an extraordinary movie. The only saving grace is Val’s devotion to his performance.
I was unlucky enough to take an Oliver Stone class in college. Like all the other kids, I thought it'd be easy, not realizing these classes are platforms for insecure men to profess the ideas of other insecure men until they die. They find one glory hole and they ram at it full force while they wave their tenure around, "This all means something very important-like!", with the big lure being a call from the director himself at the end of class to verify their egos like little blue check marks on Twatter. After years of watching EPK's, hearing directors talk is not exciting or worthwhile, and studios pay people like me to cut them down to 5 second clips of them sounding very exciting and worthwhile. Alas, I didn't know this in college, and I wound up doing really badly with Stone because I didn't realize I hated his movies until the class. Anyway, Val Kilmer is so excellent in this, we can't hold it against him for working with Oliver Stone.
The success of The Doors depends on one's enjoyment of their music. As a fan of the band and '60s counterculture, Stone's rock biopic strikes all the right chords. The melodies and lyrics represent the feelings, emotions, and desires of the decade. The director understands this and seeks to create the same feeling within the film. Kilmer plays Morrison with a similar Method edge as Marlon Brando (Apocalypse Now) and delivers an Oscar-worthy performance. Kilmer is fascinating, captivating, and mysterious, perhaps the reason why Morrison was idolised by so many fans. Stone truly captures the essence of the band's live performance and shares it with us; people who may have never had the chance to experience it first hand.
In The Doors, Oliver Stone does a good job, despite an abundance of the typical Oliver Stone excesses, of capturing the feel of the times and the mayhem that Jim Morrison immersed himself in. Val Kilmer is fantastic as Morrison as he captures not only the physical appearance but also the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) mannerisms of the subject. The problem with the film is the fact that, instead of dealing with the creation of some great music and how those around Morrison dealt with his substantial shortcomings, the focus is constantly on Morrison, a pretentious narcissist who constantly pontificates in cryptic riddles and absurd poetry. It is a difficult task and somewhat exhausting to spend over two hours watching a protagonist with no obvious redeeming values spin out of control.
One of my favorites.
I don't think anyone but Val Kilmer at that moment in time would have been capable to capture the spirit of the Lizard King as Kilmer did in this film. Oliver Stone hits all the milestones of the short lived group including their controversial Ed Sullivan appearance and the infamous concert in Miami. Part biopic and part head trip. Enticingly entertaining with some great cameos throughout the film. Val Kilmer's best work.
Good music. Messed up movie. No clear narrative direction. Seems like it's just made up of snippets from his life. Well, it IS an Oliver Stone movie! It's not NOT entertaining, but it could be so much more captivating.
Not knowing much of the story, I have learned quite a bit with this. Glad he didn't die of an overdose. He comes out as quite an irresponsible guy, drunk and high most of the time. The other band members are the ones that made Jim pallatable. Long film and the tomatometer says the film missed the circus around him? Could there be enough material for a miniserie?
I guess I'm just saying this because I'm not into poetry but I think that Morrison's poetry was kind of pretentious. Seeing Val Kilmer in a wow, it's kind of hard to take it seriously. It seems that Stone is trying to get across that Morrison was kind of a misunderstood mysterious shy guy. I think one of the best things to watch was how the bandmates would all play off each other and watch how they came up with the ideas that made some of their best songs. I will say Oliver Stone seems to have gone too edgy in this movie. Morrison's comfortability at breaking the boundaries and following his own rules seems to be the things that pushed him forward into being the icon that he was. Morrison seemed to have figures that followed him in his life, Native Americans that sort of sent him messages. If the movie portrays it right, it seems like Morrison was always fucked up on something whether it be drugs or alcohol or both. That Andy Warhol party was fucking weird. Tranny's and shit and the way everyone acted was so weird. Morrison's problem was that he dwelled in the abyss for too long. He didn't really tackle his problems of upbringing. Deep down inside he was a dark guy who thought about death frequently. His past kept haunting him. I like how death was personified as that tall bald guy. He was with Jim everywhere he went. I can't help but feel that Stone was portraying The Doors as kind of like a cult. Not the best biographical music movie but it was entertaining to watch and a trip at times. Kilmer killed it portraying Morrison. I wish the movie weren't so bombastic and edgy and could have focused more on Morrison's childhood and upbringing and could have shed more light as to why Morrison was so reckless with his life. We caught a glimpse, but we could have seen more. Nevertheless, it was a great watch.
Granted, "The Doors" eschews historical precision for sensory-driven, impressionistic indulgences. This isn't a biographical deep-dive of Jim Morrison's mind, but then again, director Oliver Stone never offered that intention. Even the deepest-thinking rock stars carry a cartoonish projection by virtue of their chosen vocation, and this film's indulgence in dramatized character elements are true to form. Val Kilmer's performance as Morrison remains much maligned, but is absolutely in line with Hollywood's exploitations of rock n roll mythology. Kilmer inhabits the sketch with a contrived detachment directly reflective of what Stone was going for throughout the movie. Shot in the era in which impressionist rock videos reigned supreme, "The Doors" leverages those rich indulgences, and marries it with the band's remarkable, unassailable music catalog. Highly recommended, just not for those who expect to find Jim Morrison pontificating from the psychiatrist's sofa. WATCHED IT? THEN WATCHLIST: "This Is Spinal Tap," "Stadium Anthems," "High Fidelity."