"You got a problem with doors?" - Pamela Courson

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2014)

Within the span of a year, three of Rock's legends were dead. Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison were pretty much household names among music fans of the era, and their passing shocked and confused everyone. They were all twenty seven years old which conjured up a sort of bad luck omen for other musicians on the way up. This all happened over forty years ago and it seems like just yesterday.
I don't think I've ever seen an actor channel another person's identity the way Val Kilmer did here. Not only in the uncanny resemblance to Jim Morrison, but the way he captured Morrison's voice and sound was simply amazing. Recalling those days back in the Seventies, I can't say that I was that much of a Doors fan though I did enjoy their music well enough. You knew there was something definitely 'out there' with the lyrics to many of Morrison's songs. What I didn't know at the time was how much he indulged in alcohol and mind altering drugs to the point of incoherency on a regular basis.
You never know watching films like this how much license was taken with the characters and events as shown on screen. Oliver Stone adds another whole dimension to that. For what it's worth, the picture seems to do a fairly credible job, at least chronologically, of the band's rise to fame and Morrison's role as front man. It's just a shame that hugely talented artists like Morrison and his contemporaries couldn't refrain from their self destructive tendencies. They'd still be performing for audiences today if not for lack of self control.