Customer Reviews

The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Doors Collection" is the best audio/visual source about the band available. It is a stunning, exciting collection of the best of The Doors on film. It is the best Doors DVD out there and a must for big fans, rockers and anyone barely aquainted with the music who wants to know more. All the three segments are excellent documents of The Doors and their hypnotic music and the dynamic persona of Jim Morrison. It is clear from what you see here that he was poet, rock star, artist and genius. The first segment, "Dance On Fire" has some great material. There is the music video for "Break On Through" which is stylish and has aged well, in fact, I saw it air on MTV a few nights ago. There is also the neat video for "People Are Strange" and the legendary performance of "Light My Fire" at the Ed Sullivan Show. The video for "The Crystal Ship" is dreamy, romantic and hypnotic, with a real feel for the song which showcases some of Morrison's best poetry. The performance of "Love Me Two Times" for Danish television is especially entertaining and cool, with Jim all in leather reciting some poetry before breaking into one of their best blues tunes. The video for "Moonlight Drive" is interesting with Jim sporting some black shades and Robby Krieger doing some dreamy slide guitar. The "Roadhouse Blues" footage is especially fun with shots of some wild concert moments and Jim doing a Dionysian dance as images flash by. The second segment, "Live At The Hollywood Boal" is a nice document of The Doors in concert. They performance some of their best songs like "Backdoor Man," "Light My Fire" and "Whiskey Bar." The best performances are those of "When The Music's Over" which is epic and "The End" which is hypnotic. The final segment, "The Soft Parade" is an interesting look at The Doors as the end was coming closer. The beginning features a montage cut to "The Changeling" and shows Morrison and the band in a "superstar" tone. The interview they give is fascinating, especially when Jim predicts advancements in musical technology with incredible precision. The performance of "The Soft Parade" is better than the album version while footage of the band recording "Wild Child" is fun and interesting, not least because it's a great song. The bonus features in the DVD are also great. The commentary by the band members is funny and fascinating with lots of cool facts. Robby Krieger's new version of "The End" rocks while Ray Manzarek's student films are interesting to watch. The memorabilia section is especially fun and interesting, they even show ticket buts. John Densmore's one-man play is really silly and frankly, boring and uninteresting. It's annoying to hear him sing the songs because frankly, he can't sing. All in all, "The Doors Collection" is the best Doors visual collection. It's exhilarating, fascinating, visually alluring and filled with great music and poetry. It shows how there are certain things as timeless music and artists. Though The Doors music and lyrics are kept alive and well by newer bands (Creed, STP, The Cult), nothing beats the originals. The Doors were the first rock band to mix music with poetry and explored dark realms and set in motion things in rock n' roll that we are still living through. This DVD is a great document of how they did that.

Don't worry, Jim. This DVD is the ultimate treat for long-time Doors fans like myself, as well as recent converts. Three full hours of videos and concert footage, showing us The Doors at their best. There's also an interesting commentary track by the original surviving members of the Doors, plus some extra goodies like Doors memorabilia and one of Manzarek's short films. In a day and age when the biggest up-and-coming artists are the likes of Sugar Ray and Jennifer Lopez, it's not difficult to get a bit nostalgic for the days when - without warning - a Jim Morrison would burst onto the scene. "Best New Artist: Christina Aguillera"? Puh-leez! Give me the Lizard King anyday. The man was a true artist, a poet, and he had ideas. They may have been his own personal tripped-out ideas that the rest of us mere mortals can only hope to understand, but at least he certainly wasn't "created" by a record company. What record exec could have possibly ever thought up Jim Morrison and The Doors, anyway? This is a fantastic DVD, and no DVD-buying Doors fan should even think twice about purchasing it.

For any Doors fan, this DVD is a must have. It's got essentially every piece of footage ever shot of Jim Morrison (except for performances appearing on other DVD's). It's got an audio commentary by Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, and John Densmore. And it's one of the most interesting and entertaining music DVD's ever. From a huge fan of The Doors standpoint.
It's three separate segments (Dance on Fire, Live at The Hollywood Bowl,
and The Soft Parade). "Dance on Fire" features the music videos for
Break on Through, People Are Strange, The Crystal Ship, and The Unknown Soldier. As well as Ray Manzarek's new video for "L.A. Woman" which captures the tone of the song perfectly. It also features the Ed Sullivan Show performance of "Light My Fire". The same one which was the subject of great controversy because Jim said the word "higher" on television. It also features a video for "Roadhouse Blues" which features some great shots of Morrison. The videos for Break on Through, People Are Strange, The Crystal Ship, and The Unknown Soldier are all great. Then we have the performance at The Hollywood Bowl. This is easily the greatest performance ever captured on film of The Doors. Jim Morrison puts on a brilliant performance, especially during the song "The Unknown Soldier" and
"The End" where he improvises a few lines. The final segment "The Soft Parade" begins with a montage of video clips to the background song
"The Changeling". Then we see some performances that were part of a PBS special, including the only video in existence of The Doors performing the song "The Soft Parade". There's also two interviews that were part of the PBS special where Morrison talks about his poetry/lyrics and accurately predicts the future of recording technology, which is very cool. The video of
Jim improving a tribute to Friedirch Nietzsche is very cool too. Also, during the audio commentary we're shown a video of a few girls talking to Jim through the window of a car...Watch where that girls hand goes to...Also, this PBS special was featured on another Doors DVD called "Soundstage Performances" and for some odd reason, the video quality on this DVD is ten times better than it was on "Soundstage Performances". The audio quality has improved as well. Anyway, as for the Bonus Features; we get to see the two student films that Ray Manzarek directed while attending UCLA.
One of them features a shower scene with a man and Ray Manzarek's wife,
that Ray refused to cut causing Morrison to gain respect for him. There's some excerpts from John Densmore's one man play, which is actually pretty funny. One reviewer mentioned that it sucks (I'm paraphrasing here) to hear
Densmore sing, because he can't. Well, no, he doesn't have a very good voice, but the way he's singing the songs are sarcastic to get the audience laughing. Turns out, Densmore is a pretty witty guy. Then there's an instrumental version of "The End" performed by Robbie Krieger, which is really great. It would be cool to her Jim's voice added to it for maximum effect though. There's also an interesting montage of photographs from the "Morrison Hotel" sessions with commentary by the photographer. It's pretty funny to learn how Morrison and crew went into a place called The Morrison Hotel and took some pictures when management told them not to. Another thing, I neglected to mention about the main audio commentary with Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore is that it's obvious that these men loved Jim Morrison and still do. To hear them talk about the events taking place on the tapes with such loving affection is great. Also, I forgot to mention the video's for "Wild Child". The song's not my favorite ever, but it's pretty cool to see The Doors perform the song in the studio. Overall, this is the essential Doors DVD for The Doors fanatic. This is the definition of perfection.

GRADE: A+

This disc is loaded! The first one includes videos or concept videos, if you will. It has the infamous controversial version of "Light My Fire". Where The Doors perfoms at Ed Sullivan and Jim sings "High", even though he wasn't supposed to. Very controversial back then. Seeing this now makes it all look very funny. There's the director's cut of the L.A. Woman video. Wild stuff. Look out after the "Love Me Two Times" video, at the end you can see Jim punching a camera. On the second video there's a full live concert from the Hollywood Bowl. This is the concert where Jim was high on LSD. He looks very stiff, he walks around and looks into cameras. But it is a very good concert. Too bad the sound is outdated. The third and the last video contains some long interviews with the band. They were recorded a time after the Miami incident. And Jim is seen with a big beard and seems very burned out. But he seems to get his message out even though he takes a long time to answer. And there's also some good perfomances. Too bad this was coming to a end of the band. They sure are rocking in this video. As there are extras on DVD's this disc comes with a lot of candy. There are three full commentaries by the surviving band members on each video. Which makes the DVD more valueable. There are two movies directed by Ray Manzerek, he made those when he attended film school. Look out after a very young Jim Morrison in one of the movies. Worth looking for. There is a excerpt of John Densmore's "Riders on the storm" one-man play. He is very funny, but there's some very emotional stuff as well. To those who've read his book, you know what I mean. And last but not least there is a video of Robby Krieger playing a rocking version of "The End. Truly recommended to all Doors fans!

If you like the doors.. buy this DVD. I've watched it several times already. The sound is very well done and this one DVD has videos, the full hollywood bowl concert (sounds as good as the CD), the soft parade 'film', and runs nearly 3 hours. A second audio track is included as well (like most DVDs have), where the remaining doors talk about the footage being shown. "Kirk"'s comment above about the audio commentary is incorrect-- maybe you're on the funny stuff-- There is nearly 3 hours of the guys talking on that second track, man. (Some of those comments had me laughing out loud.) This DVD is well worth the money.

Also, the DVD has other cool bonus stuff, like a memorabilia section, and Ray's student films (Good historical snapshot I suppose-- I dunno-- they make me wonder about my friends' USC student films if these are two examples from UCLA! Video producing wasn't as easy thirty-odd years ago as it is today).

To the doors: thank you for this DVD! The video quality is excellent, and the sound is CD-quality-- it doesn't get much better. I want to see more of the Densmore 1-man play!

By the way doors fans.. Jim teaches an excellent lesson: keep it in moderation!

get your mind together / by blowing it apart

I own the overseas version of this DVD which has a different title - " 30th Anniversary edition". It has the exact same core features except the special features are different (ie. not as substantial as the American DVD). The overseas version does include a RARE video clip for "Break on through" which does give it some merit - this is not included on the American DVD.

Now that we have got that sorted out, let's look at the main elements of the DVD. There are three documentaries of sorts showcasing many of their classics. Each of these documentaries were previously only available separately on VHS Video. This is proof that the DVD alone is exceptional value for money.

I've been searching for a Doors DVD which includes the track "Touch Me" - and I have found it with this DVD. Also included is the famous video from the Ed Sullivan show where Jim Morrison went against orders and sang " Light my Fire" the way he wanted to.

Video quality varies across the DVD but is more than acceptable when you consider the age of some of the material. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a bit of colour footage.

I love the Doors, and am thrilled to finally own this DVD.

Nearly three hours of continous music without interuption. An hour of music video's followed by an hour of live doors and finally another hour of music interupted only twice for two short interview sections. If you want a three hour documentary instead of three hours of music just turn on the comentary feature. Even the "bonus" material was of more interest than I expected. All in all you get nearly seven hours of entertainment for under 30 bucks. What more could you want?

This is the perfect Doors collection. Its very sad that there is so little actual film or video of the Doors during their short, very strange journey. The first section is a nearly vital collection of TV appearances, including the legendary Ed Sullivan show.

We also have the beautifully filmed Hollywood Bowl concert, which makes this collection a positive boon. While it may be true that Jim wasn't exactly on form that night, its still pretty good (a test ... close your eyes and listen.) "When the Music's Over" and the middle portion of "Celebration of the Lizard" show off the band at their weird poetic best. Only the Doors, only Jim Morrison could get away with stopping a song mid-stream and yelling "Wake up" ... rambling into strange poetry back out into a song, pacing the audience, driving the tension up and up until the first drum snap of "Light My Fire." The main let down comes with "The End". Jim haggles with an unresponsive light man to turn the house lights down, ruining the mood. Its humorous, but not exactly good.

This DVD is three hour long video titles re-released. But, if you owned those videos, you know that this is a bargain for the price.

I wanted to see more live Doors than this DVD has, but theres a lot of MTV/VH1 style music videos on here. Studio songs with video dubbed on. Bummed me out. But still there is plenty of great live video of the Doors on here I have never seen, and I've been a Doors freak since about 1969. May as well get this and enjoy it since theres not really anything else out there in terms of live documentary concert footage.

For anyone who has seen the home video version of dance on fire u havent seen it until u have viewed this collection. A new director approved L.A. Woman is worth the price of this DVD alone. The end has been excluded from this version but dont fret because its on live at the hollywood bowl. The commentary is outstanding and the bonus material is great. A must for any Doors fan.