The Doors

The Doors (1991) tells the band's story through Jim Morrison. Oliver Stone is not interested in music history; at the centre is a man destroying himself, and the film frames that as something close to mystical. Val Kilmer prepared for months, sang Morrison's songs himself, and those recordings are used in the film. Members of the band said they could not always tell which voice was which. The hardest criticism came from the band. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek rejected the film outright, saying Stone had not known Morrison and that the man on screen was a figure in Stone's head. Drummer John Densmore, on the other hand, consulted on the production, so the band split over it. Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Kevin Dillon and Kathleen Quinlan are in the cast. The rock critic Patricia Kennealy appears in a small role, presiding over a ceremony her own character undergoes. It runs 140 minutes. Good for: sixties rock, Val Kilmer's performance, and Oliver Stone's dense visual manner. Less good for: the film romanticises Morrison and presents addiction as an artistic trait. The other three members of the band barely exist. The women are one dimensional, and the drug sequences repeat themselves as they go on.