The Doors(stand-alone)

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2010)

By stand-alone I mean the following..my review of the movie is my review of the movie The Doors, and especially the singer who is by now in American history nearly a myth, a modern Dionysus. Yet, Jim Morrison was a little too close to the present in terms of events, his life as a part of and outside of The Doors, to be a myth. A legend, yes, depending on your point of view about rock icons. There are many books about Jim and The Doors none I have not read, and I should, since I like their CD's. And because I like the movie so much. Yet the last part of the statement I just made invites an incredible amount of criticism, so much that the beliefs of other Doors fans become practically catechisms. The church of The Doors that has stoned the director of the film so much is angry, or was at a time. Ray Manzarek is a very good example. I don't think I saw him on video in the 15th year reissue. I don't see Manzarek in any of the special features. Although I love the movie, so much that I've seen it 20 times or more, I have to have respect for a man that was the closest member to Jim Morrison. They all loved Morrison, everyone in the band I mean, even John Densmore. I believe the drummer served to balance out the emotions. After all, the group was not Jim Morrison and The Doors. So, the movie begins with The Lizard Kind in his later days, a little heavier, enjoying the alcohol possibly more than ever, and accompanied by the spirit of the Indian played by Red Floyd Crow Westerman. The native American plays a crucial part of the movie. The spirit is watching Morrison, looking after him it seems. But not able to do anything to help. The movie shows Jim Morrison in a downward spiral. Like I said, this is a stand-alone review of the movie. A lot of things did happen, yet a lot of events and feelings were not explained. This was really a major motion picture, with Hollywood cinema attire, and obviously there are people still alive(or were) connected with The Doors who were offended. There have been many famous people, whether they were actors, musicians, comedians, politicians, poets and writers who have been the subject of movies. But those people, like Jackson Pollock or Nixon or Andy Kaufman were all, to my knowledge, never in docudramas until after their death. This is the big difference between Morrison and those I just named. Apparently, the surviving members of The Doors with the exception of Manzarek were for the movie. Maybe they changed their minds later. The movie The Doors blew my mind, because it was a major motion picture. What is ironically humorous about that fact is that the movie was garnered and placed under Paramount and now belongs to Lionsgate. It was hugely successful...one never knows what movie entities have on their mind. Didn't fit into their library. The uniqueness of the L.A. band in movie terms is that, after seeing a film about The Doors, it's an act that no other band can really top. To see a movie about The Byrds or The Airplane or The Grateful Dead...that might never happen. The reason could be each did not have such a wild poet/singer with so much going on in his life...or those other Cali bands may have just said no to the idea, for any number of reasons. I'm just not one who is angry about the Doors movie. It's too different, and did not make me feel like an idiot. There are so few major pictures about American rock bands.