The Doors
Short description
The Doors is a biographical drama about Jim Morrison, the singer and songwriter who fronted the American rock band of the same name. It follows him from his student days, when he meets Ray Manzarek and, with drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger, forms the group in California. As the band's music wins a following during the late 1960s, Morrison's drinking, drug use and erratic behaviour, along with his relationship with Pamela Courson, increasingly shape both his life and the group's fortunes. Oliver Stone directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Randall Jahnson.
The film was released in March 1991 and runs 140 minutes. It was the eighth of the twenty-two features Stone has directed in chronological order, arriving between JFK and Heaven & Earth. Val Kilmer plays Morrison, with Meg Ryan as Courson, Kyle MacLachlan as Manzarek, Frank Whaley as Robby Krieger, Kevin Dillon as John Densmore and Michael Wincott as producer Paul Rothchild. It was made for about 38 million US dollars and took roughly 34 million worldwide, so it did not recoup its budget at the box office.
Reception was mixed among critics, whose rating of 6.3/10 from 63 reviews sits below the audience scores of 7.2/10 on IMDb, from 107,000 votes, and 7.1/10 on TMDB, from 1,656 votes. The film is a drama with historical and musical elements, produced in the United States by Imagine Entertainment, TriStar Pictures, Carolco Pictures and Ixtlan Productions.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film features over twenty songs by The Doors. And Kilmer's vocals were directly overlaid onto the original recordings of the band. He portrayed Morrison so accurately that even former members of the group sometimes couldn't distinguish his performance from the original recording.
- Krieger, Densmore, and Kennelly were the film's technical advisors. At the same time, the band members remained dissatisfied with the final version of the film, criticizing Stone for portraying Morrison as an uncontrolled sociopath, and denying this portrayal.
- The advertisement featuring the song “Light my fire” never actually materialized. Jim did not give Buick permission to use it.
- Jim met Pamela Courson at 'London Fog' while The Doors were playing there, not on the street as depicted in the film.
- According to Stone, Kilmer was the second choice for the role, with Ian Astbury, a British rock singer, being the first. Kyle MacLachlan, a long-time Doors fan, stated he wanted to play Morrison but agreed to the role of Manzarek after Kilmer was chosen.
- Stone paid enormous attention to every detail. For example, to recreate a few seconds of screen time, the houses on Sunset Boulevard were restored to the appearance they had in 1967. The correct addresses were written on the envelopes that appeared in several scenes. In search of material, Stone’s agents scoured Los Angeles and Paris, and many participants in those events agreed to appear as extras and in minor roles.
- It was Joel Brodsky who took the famous photograph of Jim with his bare torso (on the cover of the album 'Best Of The Doors,' 1998), not Gloria Stavers.
- When Morrison is asked in the film to change the obscene lyrics in 'Light My Fire' for an appearance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show,' he expresses blatant disregard for the request due to his rebellious nature. In reality, Morrison insisted it was an accident, that he intended to change the lyrics but was so excited about performing live on television that he forgot to do so while singing.
- Actors such as John Travolta, Richard Gere, and Charlie Sheen were considered for the role of Morrison. Among the directors who expressed interest in the project were Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, and Francis Ford Coppola.
- Producer Sasha Kharari purchased the rights to adapt Hopkins-Sugerman’s book “No One Gets Out Alive” back in 1981, but it took him several years to get the film made. Manzarek and Jerry Hopkins worked on the screenplay, but serious difficulties arose regarding the rights to Jim’s estate, as well as the use of his works. The rights holders – the Morrison and Kurson families – refused to cooperate with any studio. Two script versions were rejected, and work on the third dragged on for months. However, Kharari and his assistant Brian Glazer managed to attract Oliver Stone, by then an established director with two Oscars for “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July,” to work on the film. Stone had been negotiating his involvement since 1986, and in 1989 he joined the project initially as a co-writer. By this time, Jim’s heirs had finally agreed to the use of his music and poetry in the film – in exchange for a confidential sum of money and a commitment not to mention other members of the Morrison family in the script. The Kursons, in turn, made two demands: that Pamela Kurson not be portrayed negatively in connection with the circumstances of Jim’s death, and that Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman’s book “No One Gets Out Alive” not be used as the basis for the script, which Pamela’s relatives characterized as “a disgusting, worthless speculation.”
- Oliver Stone met Jim Morrison shortly before his death early in his career.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
