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Doors documentaries
Continuing with my brief reviews of documentaries that I've recently watched, here are two about The Doors:
When You're Strange -- narrated by Johnny Depp, this documentary contains "never-before-seen rare archival film" according to the product description on Amazon, but there probably isn't much information here that's new to die-hard Doors fans. Nevertheless, the interviews, news reports, and concert footage were all interesting to watch, though it was sad to see Morrison's steady decline play out onscreen. The movie is framed by clips of a movie Morrison made, showing him driving through the desert; they're dubbed over with radio news reports of Morrison's death, making it seem like Morrison has faked his death and is listening to reports of his own demise. It felt both eerie and hokey to me at the same time, and personally, I thought it was out of character in an otherwise factual documentary.
The special feature on the DVD and presumably the Blu-Ray is an interview with Morrison's father and sister. Although very brief, it was interesting because the father didn't seem like the stern, disapproving authoritarian figure I had imagined from what I'd heard about him in various Doors biographies. Both he and his daughter speak of Morrison with love and affection, and he seems to have come to terms with whatever disapproval he felt towards his son's career, and even seems moved that so many people loved Morrison's music (although he says he's never listened the Doors' records himself). At the same time, though, it's clear that Morrison had become a stranger to his family--his sister said that he had little contact with them after joining the Doors, probably because he knew that his parents would disapprove.
The Doors: From the Outside: Don't waste your money on this one--I'm not sure it was even worth borrowing from the library (which is what I did). I think it was the most boring documentary I've ever watched, mainly containing interviews with various rock critics pontificating on the Doors, mostly in a not very interesting manner. Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, sci-fi/fantasy writer and Morrison's self-proclaimed widow, also appears in the film, as much to defend her relationship with Morrison as to talk about his music: she claims to have married him in a pagan handfasting ceremony, which seems to be true, but it wasn't legally binding (although she took his last name after his death), and other Doors associates have questioned how seriously Morrison regarded the "marriage" or whether it was merely a drunken prank on his part.
If you're really interested in hearing about Kennealy's relationship with Morrison, your time would be better spent reading Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison. I actually read her Keltiad series years ago and borrowed Strange Days from the library out of curiosity after that. It is interesting in a tabloid gossip sense, but should probably be taken with a grain of salt, since as mentioned above, some of the people who knew Morrison and the Doors question its veracity. At the very least, it's an obviously biased account that blames everyone but Morrison himself for his increasingly destructive behavior that ultimately ended in his death: his parents (whom she assumes must have been abusive for Morrison to have hated them so much, although she admits that he never discussed his childhood with her), her rival in love Pamela Courson (for enabling Morrison's addiction, and Kennealy is convinced that Courson gave him a fatal overdose based on alleged hearsay but no actual evidence), and I think his bandmates get blamed for not being supportive enough of him and most definitely get blamed for exploiting Morrison's memory (by post-humously setting music to recordings of his poetry for the An American Prayer album).
Even more disturbing is her novel Blackmantle, in which Queen Athyn (an obvious stand-in for Kennealy) marries bard Morric Douglas (Jim Morrison's full name was James Douglas Morrison) and eventually sets out on a quest to retrieve her husband from the underworld after he is killed.Pretty much everyone who ever betrayed Morrison/Morric dies a horrible death, from the Pamela Courson stand-in who ends her life as a drug-addicted prostitute, and Morric's former band members who (in the book) replaced him with another singer. If one knew nothing about the the Doors and Kennealy's personal life, it would just be mediocre fantasy, but it's such obviously personal wish-fulfillment that I felt kind of embarrased to read it, as if I were reading someone's diary.
I have two more documentaries that I meant to include in yesterday's post but forgot about, so I'll try to get to them tomorrow or the next day.
When You're Strange -- narrated by Johnny Depp, this documentary contains "never-before-seen rare archival film" according to the product description on Amazon, but there probably isn't much information here that's new to die-hard Doors fans. Nevertheless, the interviews, news reports, and concert footage were all interesting to watch, though it was sad to see Morrison's steady decline play out onscreen. The movie is framed by clips of a movie Morrison made, showing him driving through the desert; they're dubbed over with radio news reports of Morrison's death, making it seem like Morrison has faked his death and is listening to reports of his own demise. It felt both eerie and hokey to me at the same time, and personally, I thought it was out of character in an otherwise factual documentary.
The special feature on the DVD and presumably the Blu-Ray is an interview with Morrison's father and sister. Although very brief, it was interesting because the father didn't seem like the stern, disapproving authoritarian figure I had imagined from what I'd heard about him in various Doors biographies. Both he and his daughter speak of Morrison with love and affection, and he seems to have come to terms with whatever disapproval he felt towards his son's career, and even seems moved that so many people loved Morrison's music (although he says he's never listened the Doors' records himself). At the same time, though, it's clear that Morrison had become a stranger to his family--his sister said that he had little contact with them after joining the Doors, probably because he knew that his parents would disapprove.
The Doors: From the Outside: Don't waste your money on this one--I'm not sure it was even worth borrowing from the library (which is what I did). I think it was the most boring documentary I've ever watched, mainly containing interviews with various rock critics pontificating on the Doors, mostly in a not very interesting manner. Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, sci-fi/fantasy writer and Morrison's self-proclaimed widow, also appears in the film, as much to defend her relationship with Morrison as to talk about his music: she claims to have married him in a pagan handfasting ceremony, which seems to be true, but it wasn't legally binding (although she took his last name after his death), and other Doors associates have questioned how seriously Morrison regarded the "marriage" or whether it was merely a drunken prank on his part.
If you're really interested in hearing about Kennealy's relationship with Morrison, your time would be better spent reading Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison. I actually read her Keltiad series years ago and borrowed Strange Days from the library out of curiosity after that. It is interesting in a tabloid gossip sense, but should probably be taken with a grain of salt, since as mentioned above, some of the people who knew Morrison and the Doors question its veracity. At the very least, it's an obviously biased account that blames everyone but Morrison himself for his increasingly destructive behavior that ultimately ended in his death: his parents (whom she assumes must have been abusive for Morrison to have hated them so much, although she admits that he never discussed his childhood with her), her rival in love Pamela Courson (for enabling Morrison's addiction, and Kennealy is convinced that Courson gave him a fatal overdose based on alleged hearsay but no actual evidence), and I think his bandmates get blamed for not being supportive enough of him and most definitely get blamed for exploiting Morrison's memory (by post-humously setting music to recordings of his poetry for the An American Prayer album).
Even more disturbing is her novel Blackmantle, in which Queen Athyn (an obvious stand-in for Kennealy) marries bard Morric Douglas (Jim Morrison's full name was James Douglas Morrison) and eventually sets out on a quest to retrieve her husband from the underworld after he is killed.
I have two more documentaries that I meant to include in yesterday's post but forgot about, so I'll try to get to them tomorrow or the next day.