Starring Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kevin Dillon, and Kathleen Quinlan
Directed by Oliver Stone
Music and Lyrics by various
We honor Val Kilmer, who passed away last week, with our first weekday review. The idea of a biopic of the mercurial Doors front man Jim Morrison had been kicked around in Hollywood since at least the mid-80's. Stone was initially supposed to only write it, but the surviving Doors were impressed with his war epic Platoon and wanted him to direct it as well.
The movie was problematic from the start. The Doors and the parents of Morrison and his late wife Pamela Courson objected to how the duo were portrayed in the film, and the Doors weren't thrilled with the historical inaccuracies in the script. Were they right, or like Morrison himself, is there more to this movie than meets the eye? Let's begin in 1949, as a young Jim Morrison (Sean Stone) and his family pass by a dying Native American who will shape much of his later feelings on death, and find out...
The Story: By 1965, Jim (Kilmer) is going to college at UCLA. Among the few students who get his provocative and often political poetry are co-ed Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan) and pianist and songwriter Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan). Jim is so impressed with Ray's songs, he, guitarist Robby Krieger (Frank Whaley), and drummer John Densmore (Dillon) form the Doors to show them off.
After trying psychedelic drugs in Death Valley, they return to LA ready for their first gig. They're a sensation at the wildly popular Whiskey a Go-Go nightclub and pick up a huge fan base. Jim's lewd behavior onstage loses them the gig, but gains them a contract with Elektra Records. They're suddenly one of the biggest bands on the planet, enough to gain a spot on The Ed Sullivan Show. It proves to be their only time on the show, due to Jim refusing to change the lyrics to "Light My Fire" to fit then-broadcast standards.
Both Jim's marriage to Pamela and his relationship with the other Doors are increasingly strained by his wild and erratic behavior. Jim begins an affair with journalist Patricia Kenneally (Quinlan) and even gets involved with her wiccan ceremonies. He's arrested in Miami after exposing himself during a concert. Jim knows his life is out of control, but he continues to fantasize about death, even after he and Pamela finally move to Paris. Jim thinks he's escaping the rock lifestyle, but he can't avoid it when his many excesses and abuses finally catch up with him while he's in the tub one night...
The Song and Dance: For all the problems and inaccuracies, they got the casting right. Kilmer pretty much begged for the role of Morrison, and he totally nails it. He looks like him, sings like him (when his actual voice is used), and throws himself into Morrison's wild lifestyle with total abandon. Ryan, still best known for romantic comedies, is nearly his equal as his abused girlfriend, and later wife. Others who rise to the occasion include MacLachlan as the Doors' quieter pianist, Quinlan as the mystical journalist who also fell for Morrison, Mimi Rogers as sassy photographer Gloria Stavers, and Crispin Glover in his brief role as a pitch-perfect Andy Warhol. Gorgeous cinematography in the real LA, New York, Paris, and Mojave Desert add to the dream-like ambiance.
The Numbers: The first actual number is "California Sun" by the Rivieras, which gives us Jim's arrival in LA and his view of its beach scene. "Love Street" introduces Jim to Pamela when he follows her to her parents' home. We get to see the newly-formed Doors rehearsing two of their most iconic songs, "Break On Thorough to the Other Side" and "Light My Fire," at Pamela' house. "Break On Through" gets a reprise at the Whiskey A Go-Go that gives us our first glimpse of Jim's heavily sexual singing style...and how the women in the audience react to it.
"My Wild Love" is the Doors' song performed during their acid trip in Death Valley, accompanied by nothing but bongo drums. "The End" starts during Jim's Native American vision in Death Valley, but eventually carries to the Whiskey A Go-Go..and ends. "Light My Fire" is reprised for Pam and Jim's wedding as LA flower children celebrate the Summer of Love. "Alabama Song" takes the doors to their first performances on the east coast in New York City. "Light My Fire" comes up again on The Ed Sullivan Show, but the producers do not like it when Jim sings the original sexually charged lyrics.
Jim realizes how "People are Strange" during his photography session with Gloria Stavers. "Heroin" by another pioneering hard rock group The Velvet Underground introduces Jim to an admiring Andy Warhol. "Strange Days" shows his increasingly weird drug trips and obvious affairs. The New Haven concert gives us "Back Door Man" before Jim rants about a cop who sprayed him with mace before the show. "The Movie" accompanies their discussion of starring in a film before they're kicked out of the bar. "You're Lost, Little Girl" provides the accompaniment for the disastrous Thanksgiving that ends with Pam and Jim literally at each other's throats.
"To Touch the Earth" gives us Jim at his wild best in concert...before he comes home and realizes he's not the only one having affairs. We see him increasingly erratic, onstage, with Pamela, and with the other Doors. This leads into a Wiccan marriage ceremony and a genuine Native American ritual dance. Unfortunately, it's effecting his performances. His attempts at "Moonlight Drive" and "The Soft Parade" are slurred and under his usual standards. He's late to the Miami concert, but his electric performance of "Five to One," "Dead Cats, Dead Rats," and "Break On Through" ends with him stripping his shirt and being dragged along by the crowd.
What I Don't Like: The real Doors heavily objected to how Stone played fast and loose with facts and claimed that only the worst sides of Jim and Pamela were portrayed on-screen. Apparently, the problems between the group members weren't quite as bad as portrayed here, either. Jim's student movie was much lighter than the heavy sexual romp seen during his class at UCLA, and he took the Wiccan wedding to Patricia far more seriously than he seems to in the film. Morrison didn't blatantly disregard the request to change the lyrics on The Ed Sullivan Show, either. He simply sang the song as written. (Jim later claimed he meant to change the lyric but was nervous about singing on TV and forgot.) Pamela and Patricia also got along far better than they're seen to here.
I've been a fan of the Doors for a long time, and while I can understand why their music would inspire Stone to get melodramatic, a lot of this comes off as overly pretentious. The lavish sequences with them dropping acid in the desert and Morrison's visions of the elderly Native can just seem like a little too much, even for a rock star known for his insane lifestyle. Stone gets so into the flash, he never really gets under Morrison's skin and shows how or why he fell so hard, so fast.
The Big Finale: Kilmer's sterling performance and some great music makes this worth seeing for fans of Stone or Kilmer's other work, the real Doors, or classic hard rock.
Home Media: Easily found on all formats. The DVD often turns up for under $10. The 4K is "The Final Cut" with some scenes removed and changed. It's currently on Pluto TV for free with commercials.
No comments:
Post a Comment