The Doors (Movie) is the story of the famous and the influential 1960's rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.
The Doors is a 1991 movie directed by Oliver Stone of the Wall Street/ Platoon fame. It stars Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison and Meg Ryan as Pamela Courson.
Although titled "The Doors", the film mainly focuses on the life of the lead singer Jim Morrison. It depicts his rapid rise to fame as a young rock and roll star and his equally rapid descent into the world filled with drugs and booze. it begins with Morrison's arrival in California as a curly haired boy, where he meets his future girlfriend Pamela Courson and encounters Ray Manzarek with whom he goes on to form "The Doors"
As the movie progresses we see Morrison introducing his band-mates to psychedelic drugs and we see the all important and controversial highlights of his life, including the famous Whisky a Go-Go concerts and the controversial appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
As his fame grows, Morrison becomes obsessed with his on on stage image of the "Lizard King:". From here onwards he begins to self destruct as efficiently as possible with his life spiraling into the haze of drugs and alcohol and affairs with a number of women, most notably rock critic Patricia Kennealy with whom he has a number of mystical sexual encounters involving drinking blood and other witchcraft. The movie ends with his death at the age of 27 in a bathtub in paris. In the final scenes we see his grave site which is a Mecca, even today, for his fans who have scribbled obscenities and messages all over it and over the surrounding tombs/
An important theme through the movie is death and Morrison's infatuation in it. This comes out in his haunting lyrics, and the soundtrack of the movie is brilliant, being composed of some of The Doors' greatest songs. Probably the best part about the movie is the songs and the amazing performance by Val Kilmer who uncannily looks exactly like Jim Morrison in the movie. This is probably one of Val Kilmer's best performances.
However the movie has been widely criticized, especially by the other band members who state that it only dwells on the inebriated Jim Morrison, the Lizard King and not on Jim Morrison the person. It only shows his drug infatuated side but does not really capture what made him tick. The movie is sure to shock you with its excesses and there is a lot of drug/alcohol/sexual content so if you are easily offended, then do not watch it. But on the whole, I liked the movie and the acting was great and the performances felt so real that the movie could pass of as a documentary.
Here is the Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoaUXvo4Gk
(Sorry, all the trailers I could possibly find on YouTube are all mysteriously disabled against embedding)
**Just a point I wanted to reiterate, this movie has A LOT of very inappropriate material like drug and alcohol abuse, sexual content. Aptly Rated R on IMDb. Please take this into consideration before thinking about watching this movie. Thank You.
Contributed by Jash Banker
Although titled "The Doors", the film mainly focuses on the life of the lead singer Jim Morrison. It depicts his rapid rise to fame as a young rock and roll star and his equally rapid descent into the world filled with drugs and booze. it begins with Morrison's arrival in California as a curly haired boy, where he meets his future girlfriend Pamela Courson and encounters Ray Manzarek with whom he goes on to form "The Doors"
As the movie progresses we see Morrison introducing his band-mates to psychedelic drugs and we see the all important and controversial highlights of his life, including the famous Whisky a Go-Go concerts and the controversial appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
As his fame grows, Morrison becomes obsessed with his on on stage image of the "Lizard King:". From here onwards he begins to self destruct as efficiently as possible with his life spiraling into the haze of drugs and alcohol and affairs with a number of women, most notably rock critic Patricia Kennealy with whom he has a number of mystical sexual encounters involving drinking blood and other witchcraft. The movie ends with his death at the age of 27 in a bathtub in paris. In the final scenes we see his grave site which is a Mecca, even today, for his fans who have scribbled obscenities and messages all over it and over the surrounding tombs/
An important theme through the movie is death and Morrison's infatuation in it. This comes out in his haunting lyrics, and the soundtrack of the movie is brilliant, being composed of some of The Doors' greatest songs. Probably the best part about the movie is the songs and the amazing performance by Val Kilmer who uncannily looks exactly like Jim Morrison in the movie. This is probably one of Val Kilmer's best performances.
However the movie has been widely criticized, especially by the other band members who state that it only dwells on the inebriated Jim Morrison, the Lizard King and not on Jim Morrison the person. It only shows his drug infatuated side but does not really capture what made him tick. The movie is sure to shock you with its excesses and there is a lot of drug/alcohol/sexual content so if you are easily offended, then do not watch it. But on the whole, I liked the movie and the acting was great and the performances felt so real that the movie could pass of as a documentary.
Here is the Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoaUXvo4Gk
(Sorry, all the trailers I could possibly find on YouTube are all mysteriously disabled against embedding)
**Just a point I wanted to reiterate, this movie has A LOT of very inappropriate material like drug and alcohol abuse, sexual content. Aptly Rated R on IMDb. Please take this into consideration before thinking about watching this movie. Thank You.
Contributed by Jash Banker
