Worth seeing once but it is sadly all over the place in many regards and almost totally failed to engage me

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2004)

Starting out on his poetic journey as a film student in LA, Jim Morrison meets Ray Manzarek, who he would go on to form The Doors with. With an immediate following and good songs, they get picked up by a label despite them being pulled off stage for Jim declaring his desire to 'f**k his father'. With their music, Jim's creativity and their infamy The Doors become big but Morrison himself becomes bigger and refuses to play along  bucking the system, getting arrested, upsetting the establishment, doing drugs and sleeping with every woman he can. However as time goes on he becomes increasingly erratic to the detriment of the band.
Although I like the songs of theirs that I have heard, it would do others on this forum a disservice to describe myself as a fan. However I was interested enough in them to give this film a try, although the fact that it was by Oliver Stone would have been enough for me to try it out. What is immediately apparent though is that Stone has been overwhelmed by the supposed poetry of the period and the laughable idea that Morrison was some sort of visionary who was guided by spirits in his creativity  it is surreal and hilarious to see the constant presence of a Native American wandering around in all the scenes. It is this forced mysticism that really spoils the film, forcing it down our throats rather than telling us a story and letting us take what we will from it. The story is dragged out by scenes of drug taking etc and it makes the film too long for the material to support, making it dull  surprising if you consider the subject matter!
Stone's direction helps keep it worth seeing, using different techniques to deliver a visually interesting (if slightly uninspiring) telling of Morrison's life. However, having given him that, Stone was also shoulder much of the blame for the major flaws in the film  the overdone mysticism I've already mentioned but even poorer are the half-assed attempts to take meaning from a childhood that we are told nothing about. The fights over whether or not this is a true story is one that I will leave to the fans but for my money I immediately discarded most of what I was being told once the Indian started walking around! After that stuff started to become a big part of the film I just watched it as a film as opposed to a true story. The music is all good and the recreation of shows are pretty enjoyable and, if not accurate, certainly felt of the time to me. It's just a shame that the films narrative is rather weak and just not good enough to make this an engaging film.
The cast is deep with famous faces and most do OK. Kilmer does a great impression of Morrison's voice during the shows but outside of these he is lumbered with a sort of Jesus-like character as directed by Stone; he does try really hard and he is good it's just that I never bought Morrison as the person that Stone would have me believe he was. Meg Ryan is a strange choice and she works as the loyal, girl-next-door type but when her descent happens I was not convinced by it for a second. Support is generally good from MacLachlan, Dillon and Whaley, while the background is filled with well known faces  some in roles, some very hard to spot because they move so quickly. Madsen, Idol, Quinlan are the most obvious but there are a range of small roles (some extras) for Studi, Westerman, Kelly Hu, Mimi Rogers, Crispin Glover, Eagle Eye Cherry, Jennifer Tilly and Stone himself. However a busy cast doesn't guarantee great performances and, while Kilmer is pretty good in the lead role, it is the script that gives nobody very much to really work with that takes away from the cast  the film is about Morrison, having so many people in support just cluttered the film unnecessarily.
Overall this is not a rubbish film it is just not a very good one. It's lack of involving narrative makes it feel overlong and the whole mysticism thing is a total dud that got laughs from me at several points  I don't know how much of the story is true or not but I'm content to believe that all that side of it is just nonsense! Stone directs well and makes everything look interesting (particularly the gigs) but his script takes away from the very thing he was trying to do. By the end of the film (when it arrives) I was bored and really beyond caring. If you really want to know about The Doors then there are plenty of firsthand accounts in books etc rather than relying on this film where Stone just seemed to make up aspects to suit himself. Could have been interesting and, although it's just about worth seeing once, it fails on it's potential and comes across as a rather confused and dull mess.