The Doors (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Dolby Digital Trailer Trailer-Almost Famous, La Bamba, Thunderheart
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	134:49
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Oliver Stone
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Val Kilmer Kathleen Quinlan Michael Wincott Michael Madsen Josh Evans Dennis Burkley Billy Idol Kyle MacLachlan Meg Ryan Kevin Dillon Frank Whaley John Densmore Gretchen Becker
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Olivia Barash

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    The Doors is a biopic of one of my erstwhile favourite bands. There is no doubt that Jim Morrison virtually defined the rock god image, and though there were many later imitators (Michael Hutchence immediately springs to mind), nobody did it any better. Val Kilmer assumes the mantle of Morrison in this Oliver Stone directed piece, and he looks every inch the part (many inches in the later scenes).

    After dropping out of the UCLA film school, Jim Morrison stumbles across an old fellow student on Venice Beach one day. This old alumnus was to become the keyboard player Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan). He is inspired by Morrison's poetic song lyrics and suggests that they form a band. Soon joined by drummer John Densmore (Kevin Dillon) and guitarist Robbie Krieger (Frank Whaley), the quartet created what is one of the seminal sounds of the sixties - Light My Fire. Unfortunately, early success and the inability to avoid excess lead Jim into a downward spiral of drunken, drugged debauchery. His true love, Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan), has to put up with his increasingly erratic behaviour and narcissistic pleasures - not least the temptations of rock journalist and witch Kathleen Quinlan (Patricia Kinneally).

    The story unfolds as the band achieve a level of stardom and wealth which affords them a lifestyle most musicians can only dream of. For Morrison however, number one singles and record-breaking album sales do not provide the satisfaction he seeks - that can only be found in the bottle and the pharmacy. His increasingly drunken and erratic behaviour leads to a fateful prosecution for indecency during a concert in Miami. Unable to take the pressure of the jail sentence hanging over his head, a world-weary, alcoholic Morrison heads overseas, to live a more serene life in Paris with wife Pamela...

    The Doors is a very satisfying attempt at portraying the all-too-short life of one of the world's rock legends, and the band which should have been able to produce several more classic albums. It is slightly incredible to think that the band only existed for six years before Morrison's death in Paris. At the time they were creating their early music, the likes of The Beach Boys and The Turtles were headline acts - what a revelation the hard rocking, drug-influenced and psychedelic vibe of The Doors must have been! Riders On The Storm, Light My Fire and LA Woman still get regular airplay today on rock stations around the world - and deservedly so - over thirty years after the death of Morrison at an appallingly young twenty-seven.

    Val Kilmer puts in a simply outstanding performance in the lead role - much of the singing is actually his own, and his likeness to Morrison is at times uncanny. The supporting cast put in some great performances too, particularly Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzarek. Stone managed to produce a hugely satisfying picture, which evokes perfectly the look and feel of the sixties. There was much criticism of the dubious historical accuracy of the film - the portrayal of Pamela Courson in particular is reputed to have been heavily sanitised (she is only rarely depicted using heroin, despite being a well known addict), but this is no documentary - it is a feature film. I can forgive Stone his alleged liberties given that this is undoubtedly one of the best rock bios ever committed to celluloid. The desert scene in particular, with The End playing, is very stylish and the concert scenes have been pulled together so well that you could be forgiven for thinking it was original footage. Highly recommended for fans of Jim Morrison, The Doors or to anyone who wants to see a damned good rock biography.

Video

    The video quality of this transfer is generally good in most areas although it can look a little too soft on occasion.

    The video is presented 16x9 enhanced at 2.40:1 which is the original theatrical aspect ratio. As mentioned above, the overall transfer is slightly soft on occasion, with some minor grain and pixelization evident in backgrounds, but there really is nothing major to get upset about.

    There are a lot of intense lighting effects in the movie - particularly from the "live" concert scenes, so colours are a little contrived at times, but overall very satisfying. Much of the film takes place in smoky bars and concert halls, so there is plenty of opportunity to test black levels - which are usually deep and solid, although shadow detail can be a little lacking at times. Colours are generally solidly rendered, with no evidence of colour bleeding. There is plenty of red and golden lighting in use, with some sepia flashbacks to Morrison's childhood - overall this is a rather warm film, particularly during the striking desert footage. Skin tones look natural throughout.

    There are no glaring MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Edge enhancement was not a significant distraction and aliasing was never noticeable. Telecine wobble is present during the opening titles, but is not an issue during the film itself.

    Film artefacts are quite frequent, and although usually fleeting, they crop up as black specks (and the occasional minor white scratch) just enough to be mildly annoying on occasion.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are generally very good - following the dialogue closely and providing song lyrics and appropriate audio cues. They do have some minor edits for brevity, and the occasional mistake. At 47:42 where the photographer says "Jim Morrison, the God of Rock...and cock", the subtitles say "Jim Morrison, the God of Rock...The God".

    This disc is single sided and dual layered but I did not spot the layer change on my system.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The overall audio transfer is generally rather good, with a nice ambient surround presence - although surprisingly less so for some of the musical numbers.

    The English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448 kbps. The dialogue is mostly clear, but there are a few occasions where the effect of drugs or alcohol (on the actors - not me) can make some lines difficult to make out. I noticed no major lapses in audio sync.

    The music, as might be expected, is provided courtesy of The Doors. Val Kilmer's much vaunted singing is hugely impressive, and to be honest I could rarely tell when it was Morrison, and when Kilmer was providing the vocals. The film features many of The Doors' greatest tracks, although they are never really played in full. The original music is credited to Olivia Barash - a television actress with this film as her sole composing credit - but to be honest it plays second fiddle to the works of the band.

    The soundstage is frequently very immersive - obviously during the concert scenes, but somewhat less so during the studio recording sessions. Perhaps this is technically correct, but it did feel a little strange to have a heavily frontal soundstage during some of the studio-based or pre-recorded music scenes. For instance, during the opening sequence when Riders On The Storm is played, the surrounds carry the rolling thunder, but no music. The front speakers are nicely used to deliver the dialogue and make good use of the full width of the front soundstage.

    The surround speakers get a heavy workout during the live performances. At 70:24 when Morrison is performing Back Door Man there is a great rocking, thumping vibe to be savoured. Similarly at 103:18 when performing Five To One at the infamous Miami gig, all of your speakers will get a thorough going over. There is an impressive panning effect at 105:16, where Morrison swings the microphone over his head, and you can hear it whizzing past every speaker.

    The subwoofer is used throughout to carry the bass notes from the musical numbers, and does so very well. There is no pretentiousness in the bass support however - no true LFE rumblings as such - and the subwoofer blends in nicely without drawing undue attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are minimal extras on this disc.

Menu

    The main menu is a silent and static photograph of Kilmer looking suitably omnipotent. It allows the selection of playing the movie, choosing one of twenty-eight chapter stops, language and subtitle options and access to the following extra features:

Trailers

    Theatrical trailers for the following movies:

• Almost Famous (1:58) - presented at 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps
• Thunderheart (2:29) - presented at 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps
• La Bamba (1:27)- presented at 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps

    There have been two Region 1 releases of this film. The 1997 Live Entertainment release featured no extras and a letterboxed (non-anamorphic) video transfer. This was followed by a special edition release by Artisan Entertainment (taken from the Laserdisc release) in 2001.

• Anamorphic transfer

• Director's Commentary track
• The Road of Excess Documentary (around 45 minutes)
• Deleted Scenes
• Cast and Crew Filmographies
• Production Notes
• Theatrical Trailer
• Cinematographic Moments (text based details of the cinematography)
• Teaser Trailer

    This is a difficult choice. The Region 1 release has a number of valuable extras, but the Region 4 version sports a superior 16x9 enhanced transfer of the main feature. Personally, I buy a DVD for the film rather than the extras. However if you want the extras (which are reportedly rather good) than you will have to settle for the inferior transfer of the Region 1 Artisan release - or buy both versions.

    The Doors is a masterful rock biopic, with a truly bravura performance from Val Kilmer - debatably his best ever on film. The movie really manages to build a credible feeling of "being there" and for fans of the band or the great Jim Morrison, this will be an essential purchase. For those with even a passing interest in rock music history (despite the questionable accuracy) this is highly recommended as a rental at the very least. Lovely stuff!

    The video quality is fairly good, with only film artefacts and a little softness to weaken the transfer.

    The audio transfer is good, although I would have liked a little more "oomph" from the bass at times.

    The extras are negligible.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall