The Doors on Film

[Johann]

This thread has disappeared as well. what is going on?!
I think it's important enough to re-post.

[Johann]

The Doors on Film


As mentioned in my previous thread, the Doors' whole image is cinematically based. They were UCLA film students, with Ray and Jim getting degrees. (Jim's was in cinematography).
It was not cool at all to be a film student in the mid-60's.
Not cool at all.
That was a course for slackers, go-no-where's, deadbeats.
Francis Coppola was a classmate at the time.
Ray and Jim took a class by the great Josef von Sternberg.
(They were supposed to take classes with Jean Renoir, but for some reason that didn't happen).
Jim was particularly fond of Godard's Breathless, Kurosawa's films, Genet's Un Chant D'Amour, Truffaut, Bergman, Fellini, and of course Antonioni and Sam Fuller (both of whom Jim met- the band met Antonioni re: doing the soundtrack to Zabriskie Point).

Jim also became friends with Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy and met Catherine Deneuve and Truffaut on the set of his "Peau D'Ane" in 1969.

Andy Warhol wanted Jim to star in one of his films, preferably to be filmed getting head from Nico. (Jim declined).
I think the biggest loss over Jim's death was not the poetry or songs that he was capable of writing.
It was the films.
He was keen to get away from the band and get into making films, which he said always fascinated him. (Did you know he saw Casablanca three times in a row at a theatre and ended up being late for a concert because of it? he was in awe of that movie).

Robby Krieger said Jim could've done such greater things than The Doors but he didn't have the discipline. There may be some truth to that. But there's no denying that he had enough discipline to shoot his film "HWY", a meandering "essay on film".
He could've been an amazing director, had he lived to do it.

[Johann]

Some other things you may not know:
Jim went to the movies whenever he could.
He saw each new Godard, Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Battle of Algiers, True Grit, and George Lucas' debut: THX-1138.

The night he died he went to see a movie with Pam, but it's still in dispute which one it was, as Pam gave two different movie titles in her statements to authorites after Jim died: was it Raoul Walsh's Pursued, or Death Valley?
We'll never know.

The short film the Doors made for "The Unknown Soldier" is still an avant-garde piece of celluloid. It still packs a punch, over 40 years later. When I saw that for the first time as a teen, wow man. Jim's "execution"...awesome. I'd never seen anything like it.
It was banned then, and might still be banned.
The song itself made it to number 39 on the charts, a miracle, as John Densmore pointed out, because it was against the Vietnam War.

But anyway, The Doors on Film, should you be interested, are listed as such, according to relevance, quality, and historical merit:

1. The Doors are Open- 1968 Granada TV. The only "proper" document of the Doors and what they stand for (or don't stand for). There is plenty of footage from outside the band edited into it- police confrontations, speeches, scenes of war, etc. and it is extremely compelling, because as a time capsule it is fascinating and the way the info is presented makes it edgy and current, all these years later. The band was really happy with how it turned out, and you should be too.
Time has proven it to eclipse "Feast of Friends" as a good (50 minute) document on the band. Feast of Friends is very crude, choppy, but it is a film that the band made themselves, so it is of very high import to serious fans or music historians. I'll do a review of the film in a later post- I'm waiting for my vhs copy to arrive back from a good friend who's been keeping it safe for me for a number of years.
That's gonna be a hell of a rare review- no one has ever done a complete review of it. I don't think it will ever be officially released. It's just too crude. But I'll give you a good description of what it contains and what I love about it in a later post.
"The Doors are Open" is the best, most important video/DVD on the band. Any serious Doors fan should acknowldege that.
It contains the best snippets of performances, the best soundbites from band members and it really has momentum and a clear purpose. It is an objective document made by Granada TV (of the U.K.) and like I said, the band loved it, fans should love it and even fans of 60's music should love it. It's a vital piece of Doors history. An important piece.
And it's a little difficult to find on DVD.
You might have better luck finding a vhs copy.
But both formats are available. They're out there to track down, and you should if you care at all about the Doors.

[Johann]

2. The Soundstage Performances/A Tribute To Jim Morrison

This is two documents on one DVD. (You can buy them seperately or together on one disc, like I did).
The Soundstage Performances is excellent.
It's a revelation and vital for serious fans.
A constant source of happiness.
You got the band members giving contextual interviews next to beautiful, HISTORIC performances. (Will discuss with anyone who's seen it- I loved the Toronto 4-on-the-floor live version of "The End")

The Tribute to Jim was made back in the 80's (Danny Sugarman & Manzarek's visages should give you a laugh).
I don't know how much of a "tribute" it is, it's mainly just talking heads. But Sugarman made a damn good point near the end:
Jim gave everything of himself, and never asked for anything in return
That's why I get really angry whenever people attack Jim Morrison. "He was a drunk", "He was an asshole", "he was a druggie"- whoa whoa whoa- stop the fucking bus.
He achieved more as a fucking drunk druggie asshole before the age of 27 than most people achieve in their whole fucking lives.
And he's an Icon because of it. He was smarter than you. He was a genius. He was a poet. Anybody who dismisses that needs a shotgun cocked at their empty head. (My opinion only). I'm sick and tired of ignorant, no-talent guttersnipes passing judgment on people they haven't studied or appreciated more than ten minutes at a time. Get your head out of your ass and drop a knee to a shaman/showman who history has proven to be a Legend.
He did what no one had ever done up to that point in music history: bring real Greek theatre and drama to a Rock concert, really believing that there are NO RULES, that anything can happen, to tell the audience to get fucked, to bum smokes from fans, to be revolution incarnate.
He opened the Door for all the angst ridden music that followed in the subsequent decade of the 70's.
(And Guns and Roses and many others in the 80's...)
Jim Morrison was the first rock star ever arrested on stage.
The first man to ever wilfully destroy his own band, partly because of politics and partly because of the Living Theatre.
When the music started to lose it's mystique, Jim wanted to get away from it. He became trapped. Trapped by something that was supposed to give him unlimited freedom of expression.
The pressures were immense.
How would you like to be forced to write singles on demand, every few months, whether the Muse visits you or not?
How about constant touring? Constant publicity because people think you're too good looking for your own good?
Don't think Jim had it easy by any stretch.
He drank heavily and could be very mercurial and diffcult to communicate with. He'd drop out of sight for days at a time, sending his bandmates and record label in panics...
I totally, totally understand Jim Morrison.
He's my homeboy.
I'll defend him until the day I die.
He's probably the one artist (besides Stanley Kubrick) who was so disappointed in the human race and yet handled reality in such a way that he transcended it all.
It's a detachment from earthly trappings and attachment to creative expression that most people have no clue about.
It's living your life with no timetable, no clock, too smart to have "purpose", other than honoring the Muse..

There's a reason I'm down with those types of people...

[Johann]

This DVD from 2005 by Music Reviews, Ltd. is quite basic- it won't rocks your socks off, but if you're interested in the Doors, there are some insights they provide that every fan should consider.
I'll post some in a minute.

The only "critic" talking head that I know or heard of that is present in this video is Robin LaRose from Vancouver- he was MC for the Riders on the Storm show I saw at the Commodore.
The others I've never heard of in my life, don't know how or why they're qualified to speak with authority on the band, but just about all of them make great points and I wasn't upset with anything in particular anyone said. They know the Doors music well enough to comment on the first three albums in an intelligent, respectful manner.

That band is the most overlooked and misunderstood of bands of the sixties. Society has tried to sweep the "Dirty Doors" under the rug for over 40 years, but the Myths Live On.

-the song "Break on Through":
- the essence of the Doors. Everything they mean and stand for in one song. Really exciting when played live, and they opened most of their concerts with it. That moaning bass...going in and out..ooh yeah!Jim's voice...incredible. 2 and a half minutes of perfection.


-"The End":
--an impressive journey, it takes you up, then brings you down. Total Darkness. Total Mystery. It toys with the listener...Classic, Surreal, an epic that ensured the Doors will always be remembered.

STRANGE DAYS:
a surreal, confusing Art album.
Sleeve photo is like an outtake from Fellini's La Strada..

-"Love Me Two Times":
- song has everything. It's Ray Manzarek's shining moment. Incredible organ. Big Hit. R & B Psychedelia.

-"When The Music's Over":
Fantastic, Epic track. Starts with a blues riff, and then as only the Doors do, builds with an incredible bassline by Ray. a "killer long song" as Robby calls it, A great, great protest song, for it's time and for now: "We Want The World and We Want It Now!" Revolution Now! The studio version was just a prototype. Live, it was a Monster. Intense Passion. Incredible elongated closer to the album..

[Johann]

-"People Are Strange":
- classic song that everybody can relate to at some point in their lives. It's experimentation, cabaret, vaudeville. Robby's trying to do two things at once! The chorus is similar to the Kinks or the Turtles..

-"The Unknown Soldier":
- Wow. Direct stab at the Vietnam War. Jim's first overtly political song. Subversive. Ahead of the game. a prophetic rant. Blaming the media. a 3-Act play. Effective, with gunshots, Jim falling to the ground, as if executed. An unusual song

-"Spanish Caravan":
- the band electrifies with this flamenco-tinged captivating work

[Johann]

If you're ever in Toronto, (and you're a Doors fan) then you must go to the Hard Rock Cafe at Yonge and Dundas, the first Hard Rock in Canada- the first in North America was DT Los Angeles.

It has Jim's original handwritten lyrics to "L.A. Woman" and a pair of his black leather boots.
I'll be taking a photo of them this week and posting them on facebook.
They also have a showcase of awesome items from the Band, from around the time of The Last Waltz, which the cafe plays on loop in the lobby. (Not to mention a really cool framed display of John Bonham's drumsticks)

[Johann]

Watch this.

Jim would've loved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyctRBjHGdU&feature=related