Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - The Story of LA Woman Blu-ray Movie Review

Is this the end?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 29, 2012

When I was 15, my parents bought me a Eurrail pass, gave me a few hundred dollars, and shipped me over to the Continent for a summer, leaving me pretty much to fend for myself, which they felt would be a “maturing” experience for me. My eldest sister was then running a Service Club on an Army base in Heilbronn, Germany, and I was able to use her digs as a kind of home base, but for all intents and purposes, I was on my own, free to plan my own agenda and go and do what I wanted (within reason and available funds, of course). This was long before the days of cell phones, and it had a bit of an added element in that my late father, who was still alive then, was a Major General in the Army with Top Secret clearance, so I did have to “check in” with appropriate consular authorities from time to time, which I guess gave my parents some fleeting sense of security that I hadn’t been kidnapped by the evil Communists or gotten myself into trouble via my own nefarious means.

One of the oddest things that happened to me was during my sojourn to Paris (and, no, it wasn’t a naïve young boy trying to figure out what the frell a bidet was for, but I digress). My second morning there, I arose and went downstairs in the little pensione I had gotten a room in, and the sweet elderly lady who owned the place looked at me and said in heavily accented English, “So, you want to see Jim Morrison’s grave?” Now I hadn’t exactly grown up during The Doors’ heyday (though some would argue it was “close enough for jazz”), and even more to the point, I simply was more into jazz in my teens and sixties rock, then several years in the past, just was not (yet) on my radar for the most part. I frankly had to think for a moment that Parisian morning long ago to even figure out who this “Jeem Morrison” (as it sounded) really was. I more or less graciously told the woman that, no, I wasn’t really interested in that and would probably prefer to hit other tourist traps like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, but that moment has always stuck with me as a very potent symbol for what American culture means overseas and how, frankly, Europeans may perceive Americans and their supposed interests. The fact that this older French woman would look at a young American and instantly think of Morrison's grave as being a likely destination spoke volumes, rightly or wrongly.

Luckily my musical education was brought up to speed during my college years when a buddy of mine who knew I was pursuing work as a professional keyboard player brought me a bunch of records by Ray Manzarek, whom he considered (rightly or wrongly) the king of rock keyboard players. That in turn led to me revisiting The Doors’ albums from the years before and what became immediately apparent was how vital these supposed “relics” from an already bygone age still sounded. That same vibrance is mentioned now decades later in this really interesting documentary which focuses on The Doors’ final album L.A. Woman but which manages to give at least a generalist overview of the entire history of the band.

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin' - The Story of L.A. Woman actually telescopes events just slightly, reviewing the infamous Miami concert where Morrison supposedly exposed himself, leading to an arrest and conviction for public indecency, before moving directly into the emotional turmoil that was part and parcel of the band as they started to prepare for what would become L.A. Woman. The documentary includes copious interviews with the surviving band members, as well as notables who were there at the time, like producer Paul Rothschild, who actually suspended his involvement with the band, and engineer Bruce Botnick, who picked up the pieces, got the band out of a recording studio they didn’t like, and helped to facilitate a remote recording of sorts at the band’s rehearsal space on La Cienage in Los Angeles. Some aspects of this tumultuous time seem to be at least slightly revised, not always favorably, in some of these first person interviews. For example, there has been conflicting information about whether or not Morrison actually exposed himself that fetid night in Miami, with a lot of “official” reportage stating now that he didn’t, but there’s a clear implication given here that he quite possibly did.

What Mr. Mojo Risin' (an anagram of Jim Morrison, in case you didn’t know) makes abundantly clear is how much a part of its time The Doors really was, despite the timelessness of a lot of their music. The Beatles are often held up as the exemplars of the sixties in terms of rock and pop music, but Mr. Mojo Risin makes a compelling case that in America at least, The Doors were uniquely in tune with the counterculture movement, always “on the edge” (in terms one of the band members uses), and in many ways the best example of rock superstardom, its excesses as well as its nobler aspects, of a brief, perhaps not so shining, moment in American history. Morrison was obviously a lot smarter than many ever gave him credit for being, something of course exacerbated by the supposedly “stupid” world of rock and roll, but that very intelligence may have led to his early demise. He was a man being destroyed by an image and a lifestyle that perhaps didn’t suit his turbulent inner world. Luckily the music still lives on.

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - The Story of LA Woman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin' – The Story of L.A. Woman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This documentary features a wide variety of archival footage interspersed with contemporary (and archival) interview footage, and as should be expected, quality varies greatly. The older concert footage which is sourced from 16mm (and perhaps even 8mm) is incredibly grainy and soft, but still looks really surprisingly good considering its age. A lot of that footage is in black and white, which only increases the appearance of grain. On the other hand, the contemporary interview sequences are quite sharp and well defined, with excellent color and acceptable levels of fine detail. There is at least one archival interview included with producer Paul Rothschild, and that, while not at the level of the older black and white footage, is noticeably softer and fuzzier than the newer footage, again as should be expected. Quite a bit of the archival footage is remarkably free of damage despite being in smaller millimeter formats, and should be enjoyed by The Doors' many fans.

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - The Story of LA Woman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin' – The Story of L.A. Woman features three audio options, two lossless, an LPCM 2.0 mix and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, as well as a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Both lossless mixes sound very good to excellent, though some of the source elements in terms of the archival recordings simply can't completely overcome the limitations of how they were recorded. Those wanting unedited concert footage of The Doors are going to be disappointed, as this is much more a talking heads piece than anything. That said, fidelity is strong throughout this presentation and for a documentary there's also a surprisingly wide dynamic range at work, offering everything from simple spoken word to Morrison's scream of pent up fury as he sings. The surround mix isn't especially impressive in terms of over the top immersion, especially since the music comes and goes in dribs and drabs, but both lossless tracks certainly get the job done without any problems whatsoever.

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - The Story of LA Woman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• John Densmore on L.A. Woman (1080i; 6:17) is an unedited segment with the drummer, where he goes into quite a bit of detail on various elements, like using brushes (a jazz staple) in rock.
• Ray Manzarek Discusses "Riders on the Storm" (1080i; 9:58) talks about the inspiration of "Ghost Riders" on "Riders on the Storm".
• The Doors Guide To L.A. (1080i; 4:55) is kind of quasi-hallucinatory footage of Los Angeles set to Doors music.
• Thoughts on Performing Live (1080i; 10:53) includes some live footage of the band with commentary by Manzarek and others.
• Crawling King Snake (1080i; 3:21) is a black and white music video of sorts.
• She Smells So Nice (1080i; 9:34) plays to shots of the band.

The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin - The Story of LA Woman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is Jim Morrison's grave still the first thing elderly French women see when they set eyes on a young American tourist? Somehow I doubt it, and frankly it was even a bit strange back in the day. But that said, Morrison's impact, as well as The Doors' generally, can't be underestimated. No other American band of that timeframe quite had The Doors' counterculture cachet, and that proclivity comes through loud and clear on this really interesting and well done documentary. Filled with excellent interviews with the surviving band members and a number of well informed associates, and featuring a lot of great archival footage, The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin' – The Story of L.A. Woman should appeal to The Doors' many fans. Recommended.