Morrison Lives

Rating: 8/10 (26 August 2005)

I am a lover of all things Rock. My Love stretches from the Beatles to Led Zep, from The Who to Guns and Roses and beyond. But one of the bands I find most intriguing and complex is The Doors.
They were around only for a very short time, however despite their drug fuelled lives and the chaotic times in which they lived them, they managed to cut six studio albums in just four years, and all of them pretty damn good.
Here director Oliver Stone, attempts to bring the legacy of Jim Morrison and The Doors to the big Screen, and succeeds admirably in capturing the era, the man, the band and their music.
In an act of perfect miracle casting, Val Kilmer walks the walk and talks the talk as self destructive Morrison, a man slowly being destroyed by his own genius. The character of Morrison was one of the main factors that drew me to The Doors in the first place.
Morrison was as previously stated, a genius. He was a poet, a philosopher and one of the most charismatic and recognisable figures of the late sixties. This power to reach out to people, was however tarnished, by his self abusive and volatile behaviour. Behaviour that not only lost Morrison and The Doors friends, fans and intellectual credibility, but also cost Morrison his life at the painfully tragic age of just 27 from heart failure, brought about quite obviously by years of excessive drug and alcohol abuse.
Kilmer, shows Morrison in a 'warts and all' kind of way. In the early scenes of the film, We see the rising young, talented and self taught philosopher, discussing with his future keyboardist his visions of putting his deep and powerful messages to music...to reach the masses, and as the film progresses we slowly see the light of that glowing mind get dimmer and dimmer as it slowly suffocates under the pressures of his fame, and the sedative influence of his increasing substance abuse forcing his talent, his music and his life to spiral irreparably out of control.
It amazes me how one person with such an incredible intelligence could have destroyed himself so stupidly and needlessly. He was however a product of a difficult time in history, which I suppose must have played a big part in shaping Jim into the kind of person he eventually became.
One of the best Biopics I have have ever seen on any subject and one served up with a big slice of gritty realism that only Oliver Stone truly knows how to prepare.