Customer Reviews

When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In the short 4 ½ years that keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger, drummer John Densmore and lead vocalist Jim Morrison enjoyed an artistic collaboration, they produced six timelessly resonant studio albums and the classic Absolutely Live (which still holds up as one of the best live albums ever by a rock band). The Doors were also one of the first rock bands to successfully bridge deeply avant-garde sensibilities with popular commercial appeal. It was Blake and Rimbaud... that you could dance to.

Surprisingly, it has taken until 2010, 45 years (!) after UCLA film students Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek first starting kicking around the idea of forming a band, for a proper full-length documentary feature about The Doors to appear, Tom DiCillo's When You're Strange. You'll notice I said, "about The Doors". I felt that Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic ultimately lost its way as a true portrait of the band, because it was too myopically fixated on the Jim Morrison legend; Morrison the Lizard King, the Dionysian rock god, the drunken poet, the shaman. Yes, he was all of that (perhaps more of a showman than a shaman), but he was only 25% of the equation that made The Doors...well, The Doors. That's what I like about DiCillo's film; he doesn't gloss over the contributions of the other three musicians.

In fact, one of the things you learn in the film is that Morrison himself always insisted that all songwriting credits go to "The Doors" as an entity, regardless of which band member may have had the dominant hand in the composition of any particular song (when you consider that Morrison couldn't read a note, that's a pragmatic stance for him to take). The band's signature tune, the #1 hit "Light My Fire" was actually composed by Robbie Krieger-and was allegedly the first song he ever wrote (talk about beginner's luck). He's a great guitar player too (he was trained in flamenco, and had only been playing electric for 6 months at the band's inception). Manzarek and Densmore were no slouches either; they had a classical and jazz background, respectively. When you piece these snippets together along with Morrison's interests in poetry, literature, film and improvisational theatre (then sprinkle in a few tabs of acid) you finally begin to get a picture of why this band had such a unique vibe. They've been copied, but never equaled.

The film looks to have been a labor of love by the director. Johnny Depp provides the narration, and DiCillo has assembled some great footage; it's all well-chosen, sensibly sequenced and beautifully edited. Although there are a fair amount of clips and stories that will qualify as old hat to Doors aficionados (the "Light My Fire" performance on the Sullivan Show, the infamous Miami concert "riot", etc.), there is a treasure trove of rare footage. One fascinating (but all too brief) clip shows the band in the studio constructing the song "Wild Child" during the sessions for "The Soft Parade". The real revelation is the interwoven excerpts from Morrison's experimental 1969 film "HWY: An American Pastoral". Although it is basically a bearded Morrison driving around the desert (wearing his trademark leather pants), it's mesmerizing, surreal footage. DiCillo must have had access to a pristine master print, because it looks like it was shot last week. It wasn't until the credits rolled that I realized this wasn't one of those dreaded recreations, utilizing a lookalike. As a matter of fact, Morrison has never appeared so "alive" on film. It's eerie.

John, Jim, Ray, and Robbie - probably the closest an American band ever came to The Beatles. Obviously comparing any band to The Beatles will most likely result in some sort of unjust outcry from the masses, but the comparison is there: 4 guys that the stars aligned to get together for a short period of time to create original music that spoke to a generation and is still going strong after 40 years.

For me, I was born in 1964 so by the time I discovered The Doors, Jim had been dead 7 years. I was rummaging through a stack of old out-of-rotation LPs that a local radio DJ gave to my older sister. In the mix was The Soft Parade. Having heard of The Doors, I gave it a listen. I remember thinking to myself, is this really The Doors' music, but the names on the back of the album confirmed it. Anyway, I liked what I heard and wanted to hear more. At that time, my music collection was mainly British bands like The Who, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. The Doors fit right in very nicely.

As to When You're Strange (I have the Blu-Ray version) I found it to be entertaining. I have seen some of the footage before, but not this clean or sounding as good. As to the story, well, most everyone probably knows it, so this documentary doesn't veer to far away from what most fans already know. However, it is edited very nicely and covers as much as an 85 minute documentary can reasonably cover. To truly tell the full story with in-depth album by album coverage would require a multi-disc anthology set.

I recommend When You're Strange to both the casual and avid fan of The Doors. I was very impressed with the clips from Jim's Highway movie as well as clips from his UCLA days and from when he was 16. The film is very fair and represents all band members. Certainly Morrison is the most notorious member and therefore, gets more focus. However, as time has proven, despite the vast musical talents of Ray, Robbie, and John, they really weren't anything without Jim as their catalyst.

What The Doors did in 54 months is incredible and this film reminds us of those accomplishments. It also clearly shows that Morrison knew, well before the other 3 realized it, when the music was over.

Big fan of The Doors and a big collector. I was hoping for more person depiction of Jim. Instead I found it more like the story line of Oliver Stone movie. I hate that the most attractive thing to portray about Jim was his antics, drinking and drugs. There has got to be more to the mans personality that's interesting than this. I did enjoy the cleaned up footage of HWY as the copy I have is not great. I would like them to release a full copy of HWY remastered. I saw this movie on the PBS airing as there was no local film release in my area to my disappointment. I will pre-order the blu-ray disc as I still want this movie for my collection. ( Watching the Critique footage right now as I type this and just love it. Sunday morning and The Doors, you can't beat it!)

Ro

I just finished watching the blu-ray edition and wanted to write a few quick comments. First of all, the only "bonus feature" is a brief (about 9 minutes) interview with Jim's father and sister. Even though it's very short, I found it interesting to hear their comments, especially Jim's dad, as this was the first time he had commented on his famous son. Mr. Morrison had obviously not approved of Jim's chosen path, but had apparently come to terms with it and come to respect it. These all too brief interviews are both touching and sad, showing that Jim Morrison was an enigma to his family, but they still love and miss him. The picture quality is good, but I don't feel blu-ray does much to enhance things, as the original footage is so grainy. There is a stereo and 5.1 audio option, but honestly I found negligible difference between them. There are chapter marks, but no scene selection menu. A fine documentary, but I see no reason to purchase the blu-ray over the DVD.

I purchased this video as a Christmas gift for one of my grandsons, He is a huge Doors fan and he loved the video. He has most everything out there concerning the Doors and or Morrison so it is getting harder and harder to find something to give him for a gift. This video was perfect and one HE DID NOT HAVE. Thanks Amazon you helped me once more!!!!!!!

When You're Strange / A film about The Doors / A film by Tom Dicillo / Narrated by Johnny Depp: This is not a concert film. This is not a `rarities' junk drawer. This is a well made documentary about The Doors (Well, actually, it's about Jim being IN The Doors). As a documentary, it is very good. No, it doesn't break any new ground. There's not that much new ground left! It does its job of presenting the story and it does it VERY well. It is like listening to an old Doors album, you know the material, but it's still a treat to experience it again. Johnny Depp does the narration. He does it very well. Depp has done this kind of thing before, previously working on the film "The Source" about the Beat Generation poets, so he handles the job as expected. If you're a Doors fan, you'll get this film. If you're curious about The Doors, this is the film to see. If you don't like the Doors, you're not reading this review. As a documentary, I like it, so it gets four stars.

I thought I knew it all about the Doors & their masterpieces in song & Morrison's mystical verse, but I was amazed at all the Doors trivia that this documentary imparts. For example, when Morrison was at his flakiest it took 11 months to make The Soft Parade, but their last & arguably best masterwork LA Woman was essentially done in 2 weeks in the studio!

This is the best film made about the cultural phenomenon of the Doors, certainly the best I've ever seen.

Being a longtime Doors fan this was a fantastic collection of footage I had never seen before. In addition, I also really liked Johnny Depp's understated narration. I would rate this video as a "must see" for any Doors fan!

This year will mark the 45th anniversary of the release of the original "The Doors" album. I remember reading a number of years ago that a panel of music critics and music industry heavyweights rated it as one of the top five rock albums of all time; couldn't agree more. I also remember very distinctly the first time that I heard the long version of "Light My Fire"....Blew me away! I had never heard anything like it before; totally mesmerizing and hypnotic. Then, once I heard the remainder of the album it forever changed the way I listened to music and The Doors became my favorite band (and they still are).

It was amazing what these very talented musicians were able to accomplish in such a short time. Their legacy lives on and Morrison's life is forever the epitome of the modern Greek tragedy. Sadly, a lot of "what ifs" had Jim lived.

I am not going to ramble on for five minutes about all the things that I didn't like about this film. Instead I will cut to the chase. Jim's alcohol and drug abuse is common knowledge but it seems to be the basic plot of this film. The narrator mentions this repetitively until becoming very grim and tiresome. When you're strange is an 86 minute dead horse beating. The film should have focused more on the talent and charisma of Jim and the strange mystique that makes this band interesting enough to have two films made about them and still sell millions of records today.

Others have mentioned that the film could have used more interviews from people who personally knew Jim and the band. I couldn't agree more. Before viewing this film I had the opportunity to see an interview with Jim's father Admiral George Morrison and his sister Anne Morrison on the American Masters website, for me these interviews alone were more interesting than this dismal film. I am sure there are dozens of friends, associates, relatives and girlfriends still living who could have contributed an abundance of insight. Someone needs to film interviews with these people while they are still alive to create a true documentary film. One can only assume the three remaining band members are very controlling when it comes to the content of any authorized Doors film fearing outside contradictions may smudge the picture they have painted of the Doors and Jim.

I can't help but notice that remaining band member's consistently come off as if they were three innocent and naive schoolboys stuck in a band with a raging, uncontrollable alcoholic who ruined everything. If that is the case what is with the glassy eyes and indoor sunglasses commonly seen is the archive footage and photos of the other three? Jim wasn't the only 60's rock star living this lifestyle. There is much more to Jim Morrison than alcohol and drug abuse, if there wasn't the band would have faded and been forgotten long ago. This film seems to have overlooked this. It was Jim's raw talent that made the Doors legendary. I wonder if the other three feel abused and cheated when they are cashing in on all those royalty checks compliments of Jim Morrison.

I first saw this on my local PBS station and enjoyed it. I now have it on DVD and the it has a few snippets of nudity and profanity that the TV version cut.

If you are a Doors fan and have read much about them, you won't find out a tremendous amount of new information. What is nice, though, is the footage in the film that you may not have seen before. There is some great footage of Jim Morrison from a movie he put together (HWY). That footage alone is worth the price of admission. It looks like it was shot yesterday. It's that good, and yes . . . that IS the real Jim Morrison, not a recreation.

Aside from those scenes there's not much new, but I did like the film and it held my attention to the very end. It has a good narration by Johnny Depp, and, let's face it . . . it's The Doors in all their glory.