The Doors

Director: Oliver Stone

1991

See

Nervously debuting a non-linear poetic vision to his film studies class, Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) drops out because his classmates don’t ‘get it’. But Ray (Kyle McLaughlin) does. And they form The Doors. Pamela (Meg Ryan) sees something in Jim too. The band expressed something about the generational change from the 60s to the 70s perhaps more than any other –from post-WWII repression to the freedom coming around the corner. 

Think 

What made Jim Morrison so mesmerising? The first time I saw this I remember two things. The trippy “vampires” party scene, and Jim Morrison performing with his back to the audience, and my sister telling me it was because he had stage fright. What was it about him that was so enigmatic? It wasn’t the leather pants, rock n roll lifestyle of sex, drugs and booze. He was a poet who spoke through his lyrics, and didn't want to sell out or conform to capitalism. Best shown in the scene when he laughs in a recording studio meltdown, having overindulged in the excess of success from the party scene, by being bemused by the generational anthem Break On Through to be used in advertising. Their producer Paul (Michael Wincott) says he won’t go down the road of seeing a musician destroy themselves, having already witnessed Janis Joplin do so. Both she and Jim Morrison were formative members of 27 Club. “They’re vampires man,” one bandmate says to Jim, who is a man of insatiable appetites; wanting to devour and be devoured. He tapped into a Bacchanalian energy, intimately with journalist and love interest Patricia (Kathleen Quinlan), but also collectively in a confrontational concert, when bearded, wearing sunglasses, then a hat, is abusive of the audience, exposed himself, then descendence into the crowd for the debaucherous revelry that he was able to tap into. 

Feel

Vale Val Kilmer, who died on Tuesday, aged 65. He channeled the performance believable and sang convincingly, so much so that my association of Jim Morrison is this interpretation even more so than the music. Kilmer was also an artist who couldn’t quite confirm. Was beautiful, talented and difficult to work with and categorise. The role of Pam surprised me, from their first encounter which comes across as hypnotic, to the tumultuousness of an unstable life on tour. To the melodrama of clearing the room of guests when they fight over Jim dropping acid before their Thanksgiving celebrations. Jim’s grave  at Pere Lachaise cemetery is a shrine for seekers. It was the most moving memorial there when I went, and listened to The End, still moved by the depth of the music.