AWARD: NOMINATION: 2009 Sundance Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize Documentary: Tom DiCillo
SYNOPSIS:
Uncovering historic and previously unseen footage, this film reveals an intimate perspective on the creative chemistry between drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison — four brilliant artists who made The Doors one of America’s most iconic and influential rock bands. Narrated by Johnny Depp, the film is a riveting account of the band’s history, providing new insight into the revolutionary impact of its music and legacy. Said Depp, “As a rock n’ roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn’t get any better than this."
REVIEW:
Unhappy with what Oliver Stone did to Jim Morrison and the Doors in his 1991 biopic? Here’s the doc for you. Director Tom DiCillo avails himself of archival footage as Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore leave their musical mark on the 1960s. Clips from a film Morrison made of himself in the desert are alone worth the price of admission. Since the movie was first shown at Sundance in 2009, DiCillo (LIVING IN OBLIVION) has tightened the pace and brought on Johnny Depp to replace him as narrator. Good choices. New fans and old will find the experience hypnotic. rollingstone
The Doors and Morrison, alias Mr. Mojo Risin, alias the Lizard King, were together just 54 months - less than five years. The band, formed in 1965, sold more than 80 million albums. As Johnny Depp tells us in WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, almost a million of their discs are still sold every year - 39 years after Morrison's death, in a bathtub, in Paris. In the pantheon of '60s rock gods, Morrison is right up there with Hendrix and Joplin, iconic casualties of the psychedelic era.
Written and directed by DiCillo, and featuring a wealth of rare, revealing footage, WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE offers a worshipful but insightful portrait of the group - centered, of course, on its charismatic front man, whose rumbling vocals and poetic rambles defined such hits as "Light My Fire", "People Are Strange", "Riders on the Storm", and "The End".
WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE incorporates scenes from a 1969 film, HWY, that Morrison - a UCLA film student before he was a rock star - directed and starred in. It's a genius move by DiCillo (the indie director of LIVING IN OBLIVION and BOX OF MOONLIGHT), establishing a narrative framework for all the concert footage, photo montages, and news clips to come. There's Morrison, bearded and lean, loping across a trippy desertscape, hunched over a dying coyote, pulling into a gas station in a black Mustang. Vivid and, yes, cinematic, these scenes bring Morrison back from the dead. He becomes the host of his own memorial. philadelphia inquirer
