The Doors

A riveting portrait of a music legend and the hippie era. Stone, as a traditional myth-buster and provocateur, shows Morrison not only as a sensitive poet but also as a man possessed by inner demons and prone to self-destruction. Val Kilmer not only does a fantastic job as Morrison, but also sings wonderfully, what you hear in the film is not Morrison's voice, but Kilmer's, incredible as it seems. (20.04.2003)

Val Kilmer is more Jim Morrison than Morrison himself. Every single hair in his mane flutters just the way it should. An incredible performance, but not the only one. For instance, Kyle MacLachlan doesn’t lag behind at all in terms of acting. Stone achieved the impossible and manages to put even the sober and un-spaced-out viewer into a psychedelic trance. And he leaves them to drift in the ocean of genius that are Morrison’s texts. Simply one genius takes a closer look at another genius, resulting in a work of genius that came so many horse lengths before its time that even seventeen years later it isn’t duly appreciated. And maybe it never will be, because maybe there is nothing timeless in the movie and only a couple of isolated viewers see it there. Who knows? (15.08.2008)

Stone created an absolutely fascinating and utterly absorbing treatise on The Doors, which many supposedly orthodox and self-appointed guardians of the band’s legacy criticise for not being 100% faithful to the actual events. The band members themselves and several other people have each given their own, peculiarly differing account of what it was like to live alongside Jim Morrison for a while. In his vision, Stone aptly portrays Morrison as an American version of the poetic god who has placed himself among the sinners and succumbed to the mystery of life, the temptations of substances and the allure of death. Many of the aforementioned guardians of the legacy may consider Stone’s gospel to be apocryphal, but as a creative treatise and the work of a master of his medium, The Doors still remains incredible in the way it imprints on both the screen and the viewers the myth of Morrison and the whole ethos of the God of Rock and contemporary culture. Though Stone seemingly composes a conventionally chronological narrative, he did not make an ordinary biopic, but rather a maximally immersive impression not of how specific moments happened, but of the impact that they had or should have had in the context of the Morrison legend. For this purpose, Stone developed his new fragmented impressionistic style of intermingling shots, alternating shooting speeds, deflected camera angles and post-production processing, which he and his court collaborators, cinematographer Robert Richardson and editors David Brenner and Joe Hutshing, subsequently perfected in Natural Born Killers. Like that film, The Doors did not receive the reception that it deserved at the time, but it is thus all the more fascinating and captivating for today’s viewers. And on the big screen, it is an absolutely intense experience that overwhelms, engulfs and drains the audience. (07.01.2023)

Once in the 80s, during a high school literature class, I grounded my teacher with the statement that the cursed poets were a bunch of terribly ill-mannered people who drank, snorted cocaine, were promiscuous, and if they didn't dedicate themselves to worldly pleasures, they could accomplish much more. Not to mention that if I allowed myself just a percentage of what representatives of a graduation question did, I would be expelled from school without hesitation. As a teenager, I simply leaned toward bourgeois life, which prioritized hard work over drinking and drug excesses. No one could convince me later that any artistic work could not be created without artificial stimulants. Alcohol and drug influences are a big obstacle during the process of artistic creation. Jim Morrison was undoubtedly a talented poet, lyricist, and musician, but also - and perhaps above all - an emotionally and ideologically unstable poser who never managed to grow up, a weakling, an alcoholic, and a junkie. I definitely would not want to share a household with him, and there is spiritual harmony to be spoken of. His premature death is not the fault of the FBI or misfortune but exclusively his nature and uncontrolled behavior. Therefore, I cannot identify in any way with the main character, who I find unsympathetic, and I also do not support the music of The Doors. However, that's the problem with a music film...Additionally, in its second half, the film focuses too much - although quite understandably, because it's the basis of this band's legend - on scandalous performances and Morrison's decadent lifestyle. However, dozens of minutes of parties and excesses on stage become a boring stereotype during the long runtime...Morrison is simply an icon of pop culture that, even after so many years, evokes illusions of absolute freedom during a certain age of adolescence, and in small-minded people, feelings of envy towards a man who, unlike them, was not afraid to overcome the barriers of social conventions and did not burden himself with hypocritical pretenses of false emotions and gestures. If there is something worth attention in Stone's film besides the traditionally high-quality direction, this time in "psychedelic" style, it is the performance of Val Kilmer in the lead role. Although I don't particularly like him, this time I take my hat off to him, as he practically transformed into the character. Overall impression: 55%. (19.07.2011)

The golden times when Oliver Stone still didn't think with his knee and directed films that were politically incorrect and sharp as a razor. The Doors also belong to the hall of fame of his work as a captivating biopic about a famous rock band. The story is classically linear (formation, career success, peak, breakup), but it is presented with such a dose of verve and power that it is difficult to breathe during certain scenes. Stone is, of course, technically brilliant as always, his camera escapades and this time also the lighting are superb. The most amazing experience are the concert sequences, which are simply captivating. The whole film has a peculiar and “out there” energy, and it works fantastically. (24.10.2006)

Oliver Stone kann anscheinend eine beliebige Geschichte über einen beliebigen Menschen drehen, welche in einer beliebigen Zeit und auf einem beliebigen Planeten spielt… Das Ergebnis wird immer authentisch wirken. Faszinierend. Für The Doors gilt es auch. Stone schafft es, einen Zuschauer, der nie im Leben eine Zigarette geraucht, geschweige denn Drogen konsumiert hat (also z. B. mich), auf einen berauschenden Ausflug in ein psychedelisches Wüstenwunderland mitzunehmen. Dabei helfen ihm u. a. die Musik, der dämonische Val Kilmer und Richardsons Kamera. Konzerte in überfüllten Hallen stellt er fast wie antike römische Orgien dar. Er möchte, dass die Zuschauer*innen atemlos den Monologen und Dialogen von Menschen lauschen, die unter Drogeneinfluss stehen, und darin selbst einen Sinn finden… Außerdem erzählt er unglaublich viel nicht nur über die Band, sondern auch über die Zeit und das Land, in dem sie gespielt hat! Ich komme aus dem Staunen nicht heraus. (12.01.2014)

We all know that Morrison was about as far from being a saint as Tiger Woods is from celibacy, but this honest depiction of his mental decline completely wrung me out. Ironically, this is not primarily due to Stone's direction and dramaturgy, but to the completely authentic look of all the interiors and sets, and above all the physical appearances of the actors, who play their roles with unprecedented verve. That Kilmer, the Kilmer singing perhaps as well as Morrison, sweating on stage and having sex in agony with perhaps the entire female population, was not even nominated for an Oscar is a greater disgrace in cinematic terms than all of Woods' infidelities combined. It's his heroic portrayal of the famous musician that is the main thing that, together with the gorgeous music, accurate period atmosphere, and ultimately impressive direction by a master of the biographical and tragic, makes The Doors a film worthy of the musical greatness of the namesake and sinful band. 95% (27.03.2022)