The Man, The Myth, The Legend, The Movie...

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 2007)

First of all let me begin by telling you that I am a huge Doors and Morrison fan that believes Morrison was a beautiful poet, wonderful singer (or crooner at least), highly intelligent individual, and a one of a kind creature. Now this normally means that this is the point that I should begin bashing Oliver Stones film because it "was only portraying Jim as a drug addled fool who was a creep to everyone around him and deserved the premature death that came to him" etc.. Well, I wont be getting that hardheaded today.
In fact I am fan of this film and find it to be highly misunderstood. First of all I personally see the movie as not a biopic of Jim Morrisons life but a biopic of Jim Morrisons myth and legend. We've all heard the stories of the excess of drugs and alcohol he had done, all of the insane antics he had pulled (hanging off from hotel balcony's and setting rooms ablaze), his strange and random sexual promiscuity's, and of course the infamous Miami concert. All of these incidents and more are put into the film as we would have remembered them from our outsiders perspective. Nothing solved and no insight gained, just a straight view of how we've been groomed to remember him. An easier way of putting it is that the film is a collage of memories we, as fans, would have when thinking back on The Doors legend. The ultimate sex, drugs, and rock&roll story. So if you're looking for a "Coal Miners Daughter" kind of insight into Morrisons true life, I recommend that you steer clear from this movie and go pick up one of the many Morrison bio's from the Library (No One Here Get's Out Alive would be my personal choice).
The film begins where, as far as Jim would let us know, his life began. On a desert highway where he and his family passed by the sight of a wreck that killed some Pueblo Indians. Jim would later say that this was the most important moment of his life and believed that the soul of one of the dying Indians jumped into his body. We actually see this Indian soul in the film and get to observe as it follows Jim all the way up till the end. We see nothing else from Jims childhood and are brought directly to the next checkpoint in Morrisons legend, his quiting of UCLA Film School. This trend of going from checkpoint to checkpoint continues all the way up to the last point we know of in Paris.
Val Kilmer, who is always fantastic, once again steals the screen with his performance of the late artist. Not only is he visually astounding in his replication of Jim but he also does some of his own vocals, nearly identical to that of Morrison. Another performance worth mentioning is Crispin Glover as Andy Warhol, he is only on screen for a very short amount of time but what a time it was. If you know anything about Warhol you'll know what I'm talking about when you see him. The majority of the soundtrack is the Doors own music, in fact it's almost played out like a music video for the band half the time and a lot of the dialog spoken is even Jims own lyrics and poetry. All in all Stone did an excellent job in bringing to screen the ultimate rock lifestyle.
To sum it up, see this film if you are into The Doors music, great performances, and an interesting look into the life of a stereotypical rock star legend... just try to understand it's a movie of a myth not a man.
S.C.W.