The Doors – where good music divides itself from the Justin Gagas and Lady Biebers

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2014)

I've heard and read much criticism about Oliver Stones "The Doors"-biopic. The shortest may have been "I'm nobody, I'm drunk and depressed; I'm famous, I'm drunk and depressed. I'm fat, I'm drunk and depressed and I'm famous and dead" (presumably no longer drunk and depressed). Others have criticized that Val Kilmer looks nothing like the real "Lizard King", or that the story adds little new to story of both band and singer. That may to an extent be all true that "The Doors" is an excellent film.
At the same time I have to warn that is by no means an objective opinion. See, I come from a generation where the music of "Pink Floyd", "The Rolling Stones", "The Who" and "The Doors" was an integral part of growing-up. It didn't even matter that Jim Morrison had already been dead for more than 20 years. See, it was a divided time, where honest music had become scare and channels like MTV had just begun their barrage of intolerable, artificially-hyped fluff (little did we know of the horrors to still come). So there was the alternative between this Pop, some contemporary honest Rock- and Metal-acts like "Guns N'Roses" or "Nirvana", and of course the "Golden Oldies" from father's tape- and record-collection. This was all zealously played on the weekends and when Oliver Stones "The Doors" finally arrived on videotape, this too was zealously watched before, during and often after various parties. As said: Good times that stand between an objective review.
How true to the fact Stones film is, let historians and people from the era decide that. Fact is, that the film captured the essence of the time, the 1960's and 70's, at least to the point where we viewers, who weren't around then, would like to envision it. We cared little about the social-upheaval of the time, the Flower-Power-movement or Vietnam; we cared about honest Rock-music, epic performances and one of the most charismatic band-leaders of the time. All this we got in both the music and the film itself. Again, it is true that Val Kilmer optically didn't look much like Morrison but the performance went far beyond anything that has since (and after) been given by many look-alike characters. Kilmer even did the unthinkable: singing most of the material himself and emulating the Lizard King to a tit. Yes, after a few moments Kilmer has convinced us that he IS Morrison, by virtues of acting, not make-up or special-effects. Indeed, a performance that would have deserved more praise and awards than it got.
If there's any criticism from my side, it may be that the film is too short. Not just from a fans perspective, who would have spent some more time with Jim, Ray and the other boys (all superbly acted by all involved, included extras and cameos), but because we would have wished to learn a little more about the enigma that was Jim Morrison. Like Oliver Stone once said himself (paraphrasing here): "A movie is two hours and you cannot condense a persons full life to two hours". Sure, there must have been more to Morrison than the fast-living hellraiser and drunken hoodlum-poet in the movie, but more often it's what left out from a persons life rather than what's been meticulously shown that turns a life into a legend. That's a balance that Oliver Stone got just right and hence the film gets a very subjective 8/10 from me.