The Doors (1991) Review

The Doors (1991)

The Doors follows the meteoric rise and self destructive downfall of The Doors frontman, Jim Morrison, before his death in 1971. 

I have (unintentionally) beat around this movie for years, mainly just because I wanted to understand what kind of person Morrison was that inspired the unique type of music he wrote and performed. Simply put, he wasn’t a musician, but a poet. Within The Doors, his poetry and lyrics, as with much of the dialogue presented in the film, glorify death—the end all, be all. His whole existence felt destined to live early, die early and this biopic captures that outlook on life he carried with him, practically a wanderer who ended up staying in one place too long, ending in his demise. 

Now, while director Oliver Stone takes some serious liberties with certain events, he also realizes that for a film to possess its own vitality it must transcend the preexisting reality, move beyond the surface, beyond everything that is obvious, and express and explore something deeper, acting as a cosmic metaphor for much of the internal thought process of Morrison in life. 

There’s a couple glaring issues I have with this though and they all surround what this movie is trying to portray. As I’ve detailed heavily already, this isn’t a biopic about The Doors, as the title would have you believe. It’s very much about Morrison, or at least the crazy, drunken sides of him. Which is my other issue, in just how it portrays the tragic lead singer. It doesn’t bother with showing the shy, sensitive, and admirable sides of him, just the controversial bits that will undoubtedly get people talking. 

That said, the film includes some pretty decent performances from the likes of Kathleen Quinlan, Michael Madsen, Kevin Dillon, Frank Whaley, Kyle MacLachlan, and Meg Ryan, though it’s one singular performance that stands out above the rest, and that’s from Val Kilmer. Kilmer isn’t just playing Morrison, he is him, embodying him down to his very core making it near impossible to tell where Kilmer starts and Morrison ends, well bolstered by the seamless transition between Morrison and Kilmer’s vocal performances at times that make the two nearly indistinguishable. 

The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone, is almost documentary in nature, recreating so much history with striking realism and detail, and while it has it’s obvious flaws, it’s a visual and storytelling achievement that manages to captivate the viewer as visual auditory experience that any fan of The Doors will love. 

7.8/10