The Doors

I loved them but I could not accept that creepy actor Val Kilmer in the role of Jim, and Meg Ryan was miscast as Pam. But I enjoyed the trip down memory lane as far as the music and settings in the film were presented. It seemed very true to the sixties(what remember of them since I was very young.)

The Doors the band was before my time but what I've understood Kilmer did a pretty good job as Morrison? I haven't seen the film since it came out but I remember liking him a lot. Wasn't Morrison cold and narcissistic asshole? Kilmer's just perfect for that.

I like The Doors' music but I very rarely listen to it.

Ahhh yes he was, but he was a beautiful angelic looking arrogant asshole. Kilmer playing him was like Nicole Kidman playing Grace Kelly.

[quote] I remember hearing The Doors growing up I always thought their music sounded so spooky.

When I was a child, "Riders on the Storm" scared me.

[quote]Kilmer playing him was like Nicole Kidman playing Grace Kelly.

I wouldn't go that far. Sure the film was bit middle of the road stuff but I remember Kilmer being quite convincing.

Some years after their split, John Densmore decided to show his daughter what he used to do for a living. He put on one of their records, she listened for a while, then asked him to turn it off, saying "that guy's voice scares me".

My favorite was always LA Woman.

Jim Morrison was "beautiful and angelic-looking" for about two or three years. At the time of his death he was 27, but looked 40.

Meg Ryan, in a godawful red wig, was terrible as Pam. Pamela Courson was much better looking and was a much tougher chick than Meg Ryan's dipsy-doodle flower child portrayal. But I thought Val Kilmer did an admirable job of playing Jim. He was certainly a better choice to play him than...John Travolta! Yes, back when Travolta was a big deal he was considered the top contender for the role of Jim Morrison. What a fiasco THAT would have been.

I was very surprised that Oliver Stone, a guy so very into conspiracy theories, made the movie and almost totaly erased the French Count Jean de Breteuil from the story he told of Jim and Pam's relationship and how they ended up in Paris.

Marilyn Manson said that growing up he confused Jim Morrison with Charles Manson.

The Doors' music is haunting.

R9, Do tell. So how did Jim Morrison and Pam end up in Paris?

Bryce Dallas Howard would be perfect as Pam in a remake.

Towering figure of rock.

"Do tell. So how did Jim Morrison and Pam end up in Paris?"

I heard he went to Paris with Pam in order to get the hell away from his impending imprisonment. He was found guilty of indecent exposure (he supposedly dropped his pants onstage) in Florida and sentenced to six months in jail. The sentence was being appealed, but no doubt the appeal would have been denied. He didn't want to go to jail.

That Count was involved with Pam. Supposedly they were lovers, but he definitely was her drug supplier. Pam had a stash of heroin that got into. That's what he died of. He didn't die of a heart attack. He died of a heroin overdose.

I haven't seen the movie since it came out, and, although I never liked the Doors' music, I thought the movie did an admirable job of showing how on the edge and unscripted the 60's singers were. Nowadays, singers grab a bottle of water onstage, and call their trainer. it was nice to be reminded that there was a time when top 40 rock really was dangerous, and the singers were more likely to grab a bottle of whiskey and call their dealer. I'm not condoning bad behavior, but I liked being reminded that top 40 rock once had an anarchic edge.

Who dies in their own vomit these days? I don't think that "Kylie Minogue chokes on vegetarian sausage after all-night not-drinking binge at safe celebrity nightspot," has quite the same ring about it.

Goddamned hippie deserved to die young!

I knew that Pam Courson died of a heroin overdose about a year after Jim Morrison's death and that the French guy was her supplier. But I thought Morrison did actually die of a heart attack as a result of years of hard drinking and drug abuse. The cumulative toll on his heart was too much.

I found it to be a terrible and pointlessly dreary movie. Mostly I remember the wigs were so awful, it was hard to focus on anything else.

Mine too R7. "Another lost angel, city of night."

I used to know an all - girl group called The Dooorknobs who did campy A Capella versions of Doors songs.

R16 is so fearful of modern culture, he doesn't realize how fucking idiotic he sounds.

R22, they were quotes from AbFab, dear.

John Densmore thought that he was the most handsome man of the band besides Morrison. I understood that when i read his autobiography 'Riders On The Storm'.

Morrison was certainy handsome but the problem with his beauty is that he usually had an empty expression on him. There was no cuteness on Morrison, no colours, just shades of his decadence.

The movie is pretty campy but I guess it couldn't not be considering that The Doors themselves were quite campy.

The scene where Pamela threatens to kill Jim on Thanksgiving Day is pretty great. So is the scene with Andy Warhol (Crispin Glover) and the golden telephone.

There's an interesting bio on Morrison that came out a few years ago. There's a quote from someone who knew Morrison well. He said that Morrison told him he was molested by an uncle and that when Morrison told his parents they accused him of lying. That's why he pretty much stopped speaking to them from 65 on.

He also didn't bathe, r25. That was a turn off.

Densmore was stunning and he aged well. He was an under-rated musician, too.

The movie was based on a 'memoir' by a guy who was a gofer for them near the end. He didn't have a lot of contact with the band, and he really didn't know them well.

Here is a Densmore interview from earlier this year.

any gay scoop on Jim?

anyone been to his grave in Pere Lachaise? I was about 5 years ago. I heard they have it fenced off now. Used to have a guard stationed near there 24/7

Morrison was a fucking psychopath, careerist and rapist.

Jean de Breteuil intentionally dealt Morrison a "hotshot" of pure heroin to kill him because he was in love with Pam Courson. She later spun out due to guilt after realizing her addiction led to Morrison's death. De Breteuil later spun out because everyone in Paris was on to what a scumbag he was. Lie down with dogs....

Oh, and that movie SUCKED.

Rapist, r31?

I've heard the murder theory a lot over the years. No one would fuck with this guy because of his connections. People, even rock writers, always alluded to Morrison's 'mysterious' death.

Yes, Rapist.

r33, source, links, story? I've never heard that.

A much older friend told me that Morrison was so high in one Florida performance, that he jerked off on stage to the taunts of the audience. In the movie, it's simulated with a shaken coke bottle.

The police in both scenarios were there to take the ultimate bad boy singer off stage for indecent exposure. Florida, of that time period, was known for super conservative Bible thumpers. Incidentally super model Janice Dickinson talks about going to a similar Doors concert in her teens in her autobiography.

I like their music.

The thing I remember most about the movie is a friend insisting I stay for the end credits to see something "really funny," which turned out to just be Paula Abdul credited as choreographer.

I love their music too Kelt.

Now as it comes to their characters... Ray and Robby were sweethearts. They stayed for the same woman for years. Ray stayed with Dorothy Manzarek until the end of his life. Robby is married with Lynn since 1972. Isn't that sweet?

Now John Densmore...hmmm...i think he was and probably still is more touchy than Robby and Ray. He had three failed marriages. That says a lot...He filed for divorce from his third wife, Leslie Neale.Actually, he filed divorce papers in Los Angeles County Superior, citing "irreconcilable differences." The couple has one child, a 14-year-old daughter, Luka.

*they stayed with the same woman

Bump. Watching it now. It's over the top, as Oliver Stone movies are, but Val Kilmer is amazing. His singing voice is uncanny, and the body language and moves are perfect. Did he get Oscar-nominated for this? He certainly should have been.

"let's go get some tacos!"

R26: "The Doors themselves were quite campy."

And lounge-y. And I absolutely LOVE those things about them. But loving The Doors is apparently tres un-cool and something that is to be hidden these days. Someone on Twitter said to me, "Um, shouldn't you have left that back at the frat house?" Whatever, bitch!

I didn’t know Manzarek had died. Googling it he died of bile duct cancer 2 months after he was diagnosed, in 2013.

Another bump. I watched this film for the first time and I could NOT believe how campy it was! It was much more enjoyable than I was expecting, oddly enough. I like a few songs by The Doors here and there, but I've never felt a need to seek the film out. It's a few notches away from being a camp classic, I'd say.

Were the wigs so awful on purpose? Was Oliver Stone trying to make a point of some sort?

I like the song about the next whiskey bar. That’s all.

R29 I was at his grave in the early 80s and it looked like this. I was there last year and they'd cleaned it up, the bust long gone, and several trees covered with coats of bamboo to allow people from every country in the world to stick their chewing gum. An odd tribute to The Lizard King.

He was anarchy and ritualistic dark ecstasy. A little ayahuasca and a good sound system and you can invoke The Lizard King Himself from the Other Side. Fuck your culture, fuck your expectation and protective identities, break all open to something dark and light and New.

R14, Much older friend had close relatives living in FL where The Doors performed in concert.

Egged on by the crowd, drunk and high, Jim Morrison not only "dropped trou" he pretended to or actually did masturbate on stage spraying the audience with something. In the movie it's simulated using a shaken up coke bottle filled with vodka or water. Friend said it wasn't simulated in real life.

FL was super conservative, religious fundie at the time.

R46 Speaking of the Miami concert, after watching the movie I was curious about the whole incident and it was interesting to listen to, indeed. Sounds like a wild night. It says a lot about the talent of Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore, that they were able to sound pretty good, despite Morrison!