THE DOORS (1991)

‘Let’s just say I was testing the bounds of reality. That’s all. I was just curious. I always preferred to be hated like Eric von Stroheim in the movies. The man you love to hate. It’s meant to be ironic like courage wants to laugh. Essentially, a stupid situation! I go out on the stage and howl for the people. In me they see exactly what they wanna see. Some say “lizard king,” whatever that means. Or some black-clad leather demon, whatever that means. But really, I think of myself as a sensitive intelligent human being but with a soul of clown that always forces me to blow it at the most crucial moments. I’m a fake hero. A joke that God’s played on me.’

James Douglas Morrison was absolutely larger than life icon that last century ever witnessed and he's  the man with many faces and myths- a wannabe film maker, a poet, an iconic rock star, an extravagant  rebel, self proclaimed lizard king, a self indulgent degenerate, Neanderthal prima donna or a child who didn’t evade the ghosts of that childhood accident and blown away his own versions to it. Whatever he was, the man and the band is something so groundbreaking thing that happened to the history of rock music. Oliver Stone’s film version of this legendary Mojo Risin’ is not only one of the finest and captivating bio-pic worthy to watch but also a homage document portraying that counter culture of sixties. Drugs, psychedelic rock, Vietnam war, anti-government demonstrations, political activism, public nudity, hippie culture, Che Guevara, Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali, Godard, Brecht, Dylon, Hendrix and Warhol!  It was the age of rebel…the age of anti establishment culture and the age of youth. And amid all this came the mythical super-rise and fall of ‘The Doors’.

Stone almost honestly captured the film with linear narration and almost covered all significant events and personal accounts of the band highlighting the main Dionysian protagonist Jim Morrison. It features that three infamous controversial gig incidents of his career- the earlier one where he’s making out with a fan on backstage followed by mess up with cops and his last gig where under heavy intoxication and stoned condition he kept blowing things out of proportions and directly insulted his audience with profanity and lewd behavior; including that infamous show up of his private part to live audience. The overdose of booze and drugs runs throughout the film and Stone set the tone and mood of the film with hypnotic and hallucinatory imagery including that Indian that keep floating on surface of Morrison’s sub conscious. The soundtrack keeps running throughout the film playing all those chart busters Bill board hits of the band including that rare concert where Morrison shared his poetry on stage.

But it wouldn’t be the same without the performance of Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. This is his act of life-time and he portrayed one of the effing brilliant method act I’ve ever seen. The hysteria, his show off on stage, his love and hate relationship with his beloved Pam and his inherent untamed self is something Kilmer brought to the screen with brilliant detailing and he absolutely deserved award for this one. As a bio-pic it’s epical in length but Stone was the writer-director and master technician who knows how to keep his audience hooked without a pause but than what’s more epical than the man named Jim Morrison!

Ratings-8.5/10