Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Doors Blu-ray Movie Review

Oliver Stone's visual and sonic voyage into the life of Jim Morrison benefits significantly from production on BD.

Reviewed by Greg Maltz August 11, 2008

The 1960s spawned many cultural icons who helped change society, and no one embodied the charisma, excess and self-destructiveness of rock 'n roll more than Jim Morrison of The Doors. It was just a matter of time before his brief life was explored on film. Oliver Stone, a child of the �60s who identifies strongly with the social upheaval of the time, was the director and co-writer to explore it. Known more for striking visuals and innovative camera-work than for accuracy in his subject matter, Stone has the gift of making an audience feel they are part of the on-screen action. His preceding film, Born on the Fourth of July, earned him an Academy Award for Best Director for capturing the claustrophobia and challenges of an injured Vietnam War veteran confined to a wheelchair. In The Doors, Stone opened up the visuals to make the audience feel like part of Jim Morrison�s trip. But what kind of trip is it--death trip? Acid trip? Stardom trip? Or just a charismatic lost soul pushing the envelope in a turbulent time. Whatever you feel about The Doors and Jim Morrison, the nonstop visual and sonic voyage benefit greatly from 1080p resolution and 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.

One of the main draws of the Blu-ray is to see Oliver Stone's vision of Doors mysticism in 1080p.

The Doors begins as Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer)--near the end of his career--is shown reciting poetry in a recording studio. His words segue into the radio staple "Riders on the Storm", as Stone starts the story at the beginning, when Jim was a child. We see the Morrison family driving across New Mexico when they witness the aftermath of a car accident that has left an Indian chief mortally injured. Jim would later claim that the spirit of the native American elder passed into him as the car drove past. Stone then takes us through Morrison's attendance at UCLA film school, his relationship with Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan), and most importantly his founding of The Doors with classmate/keyboardist Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan), drummer John Densmore (Kevin Dillon) and guitarist Robby Krieger (Frank Whaley). Like Kilmer's portrayal of Morrison, their performance under Stone's direction ranges from convincing to corny. For brief moments, Kilmer is transformed into Morrison, but it doesn't last long before the illusion fails and we are left with just an inspired impersonation. The cast tries their best to meet the challenge, and just about pull it off. But the film is at its best when it stops dramatizing Morrison's relationships with Courson, his band and others, and attempts to recreate The Doors' on-stage experiences and mind-altered moments.

Fans of the music will find these sequences entrancing on Blu-ray, as Stone gets quite creative with the visuals. The pacing is another question. The narrative of young Jim Morrison's metamorphosis into a rock star carries the early part of the film, but after that the plot tends to drag and get a bit repetitive. The Doors also received criticism for its depiction of the band. After the release of the film in 1991, the original members (besides Densmore who collaborated with Stone) were not impressed. Manzarek in particular found the film offensive and he insisted it cheapened the music and persona of Morrison. In May 2008, Manzarek announced progress on a new Doors documentary film that he described as "the anti-Oliver Stone". "This will be the true story of The Doors," according to the keyboardist.

The Doors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The video quality of The Doors is comparable to other Lionsgate BDs from the early 1990s, such as Reservoir Dogs. The 2.35:1, 1080p picture features rich, vibrant colors that appear more lifelike and dynamic than the DVD versions. While not a reference-quality Blu- ray disc, the entire viewing experience of The Doors is transformed by the increased definition and resolution, which enhance the visuals of the film. Watch the cast move about the desert scene, set on sand dunes under a bright blue sky with good presence, as if the sand and sky are stretching out toward the horizon in front of us, and not on the screen. Even when the scene shifts to Andy Warhol's (Crispin Glover) apartment or the performance scenes that feature heavy shadow, the BD delivers a "you are there" quality.

All is not perfect. The details reveal weaknesses and show that The Doors is not as solid or flawless as the best Blu-ray titles, such as No Country for Old Men. But Lionsgate gives up surprisingly little resolution. Motion scenes, such as the concert footage where the camera circles Kilmer in dizzying nonstop motion, make the screen look like it flickered ever so slightly. It was difficult to discern any artifacts or overt signs of digital noise but the picture seemed to suffer from overproduction. Overall, it has good life but the vibrancy and microdefinition was lacking. There was minimal variability from scene to scene, resulting in good clarity and contrast, but it all seemed a bit washed over. Not the greatest detail in the blacks, but it appears deep and inky. Skin tones and contrast appeared lifelike. The only real weakness was a touch less definition than the best Blu- ray can offer. But the picture still shows adequate detail if a tad overprocessed.

The Doors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The highlight of The Doors BD is the 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Totally immersive and engaging, the soundtrack is essentially a compendium of Doors songs, overdubbed with Val Kilmer�s vocals to lend more authenticity to his performance. Even during dialog, there tends to be Doors material playing in the background. The 7.1 presentation is quite immersive, with good use of the surround channels and LFE. I could have lived with 5.1 and sacrificed the addition two channels for higher sampling rates in the mastering of the audio. The DTS-HD MA is overall very good, but percussive and other treble sounds did not pop with absolute realism and instruments did not have the air around them that I associate with reference quality sonics. As far as home theater goes, though, it sounds rich and defined from top to bottom. The multichannel is engineered right, with ambient and off-screen sounds coming in the side and rear surrounds, with the bulk of the content anchored up front. The dialog is well-resolved and gives up very little to reference-quality lossless PCM.

But the strongest moments of high resolution soundtrack are the on-stage performances recorded as the film rolled. Listen to the hard-driving �Five to One�--vocals sound rich and organic, but with a slight digital sheen. The keyboard and guitar pulse with a midbass bravado that has a liquid or organic characteristic--a wall of sound--never appearing harsh or overly distorted. Crowd noises and ambient sounds materialize with good presence in the side and rear surrounds, such as a screaming fan, applause or other audience participation. The overall presentation, while not beyond criticism, is solid, absorbing and immersive. It was well recorded but a bit too many digital tools were used during production of the 7.1 and I believe this adversely impacts the presence. But this is a small bone to pick. Most importantly, the DTS-HD MA pays off the songs as vehicles for Jim Morrison�s onstage persona, and Lionsgate is to be commended for going through the trouble of producing a 7.1 mix for The Doors.

The Doors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The bonus material on the BD is the same as the supplements on the 15th anniversary edition DVD released in 2006. And--surprise--many of the featurettes from the 2006 DVD were on the special edition version from 2001. So if you managed to miss the DVD versions of The Doors, now's your chance to hear director Oliver Stone's insipid audio commentary and other interviews.

Audio Commentary: Stone blabbers on and on, covering some details of interest. Mostly he sounds uninvolved, emotionless and boring.

Road to Excess: Clocking in at 40 minutes, this documentary covers Jim Morrison's better known exploits, habits and anecdotes. An old featurette that didn't really cover anything new when it was first released. What's the excuse now?

Jim Morrison: A Poet in Paris: At one hour in length, this featurette focuses on Morrison's final months in France.
The Doors in LA: A 20-minute documentary covering the club scene in Los Angeles during the 1960s.

The supplementary material also includes a collection of deleted scenes, a trailer, TV ads, a making-of documentary and an "electronic press kit" that covers the making of the film. Again, all bonus material is from the DVD versions and none of it is unique to the BD.

The Doors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is The Doors Blu-ray an easy recommendation for fans of Jim Morrison? I just don't know anymore. Maybe the right answer is that it's an easy recommendation for fans of Oliver Stone, for it's his vision that is really featured here, even more than Jim Morrison's. And a powerful vision it is. The imagery is as intense as The Doors' music. The melding of an entranced Morrison performing onstage with native American spirits and shamans ties into Doors lore and Morrison mythology, but it didn't happen like that. I need to defer to Manzerek's take on the film because he was there and I wasn't. He says it makes a mockery of everything The Doors and Morrison stood for. That makes sense. Many of the artists of the '60s didn't make it big because of who they knew or an appearance on American Idol. They made it because they were driven to perform and share their music and creativity. The Doors is at its best when it shows that innocence and spark of creativity and mysticism that surrounded Morrison. At one point in the film, Morrison finds out the rest of the band has sold one of their songs to an ad agency for a TV spot. This prompts the singer to chastise them for selling out, and he insists the music is not to be used for commercial purposes. But that's exactly what Stone's movie is: one big push to commercialize Jim Morrison and his music.