The Doors: R-Evolution Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

The Doors: R-Evolution Blu-ray Movie Review

TV appearances are strange.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 20, 2014

Despite their ongoing significance in the annals of rock music, The Doors actually had a fairly short lived career at the top of the U.S. hit charts. If one only counts the Jim Morrison albums and singles (something diehard Doors fans are probably loathe to do), the band’s oeuvre stretches only from January 1967, when The Doors was released, to April 1971, when L.A. Woman came out. And while The Doors had enjoyed two Number 1 singles (“Light My Fire” in 1967 and “Hello, I Love You” in 1968), if one looks objectively at chart data from 1969 through 1971, aside from a couple of bright spots (“Love Her Madly” and “Riders on the Storm”), it appeared at least that some of the bloom was off the rose, and/or the psilocybin. But of course Jim Morrison’s untimely death on July 3, 1971 changed everything. While The Doors attempted to regroup and had at least a modicum of success in their post-Morrison formulation, for most in the casual listening public, The Doors means “the Jim Morrison Doors”, and that era obviously had been closed rather conclusively with the frontman’s demise. On the other hand, that very death suddenly made a host of Doors “rarities” (live performances, bootlegs, television appearances) all the more meaningful, and the cult of the band was no doubt “helped” (if that’s the right word, considering the circumstances) by the passing of Morrison. Now, over 40 years after the band’s heyday, the interest in The Doors has really not abated much, and in some ways the musings of the so-called Lizard King seem to speak all the more clearly to a class of disaffected youth who might otherwise look on The Doors as a nostalgia act or at best an “oldies” enterprise. Doors fans both young and old should be excited by this new compendium of various video archives, including a bunch of nascent music videos that the band themselves had a hand in producing.

Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman mentions The Doors’ relatively short shelf life (in their most prominent period, anyway) in the documentary appending this Blu-ray release (snippets of which are also presented as PiP commentary during selected videos), while also mentioning that there’s a relative paucity of filmed material of the band in their heyday. He mentions that even a band as iconic as The Beatles tended to have more still photographs than moving pictures taken of them, and that’s certainly the case with The Doors as well. Holzman states that he thinks he knows where every last second of Doors film is, and that just about all of it has been used in one way, shape or form over the years. And yet—here’s this rather astounding collection of footage, everything from some of the first attempts at music video (one of the surviving Doors mentions one of them may even be the first music video) to what has proven to be one of the saving graces of archiving musical performances (often lip synched, it should be added) from that era, the American variety television series (along with an exceptionally outré German show).

The Doors were at the forefront of what would come to be known as the music video, and a couple of their early efforts are on hand here, including Wild Child which is a supposed candid (if perhaps just slightly rehearsed) look at an “actual recording session”. The archival footage here shows the boys coming to terms with their own fame, as they themselves talk about in the picture-in-picture commentary and the accompanying featurette. Early appearances like Shebang! (with host Casey Kasem!) or the totally bizarre Murray the K appearance show halting, insecure and almost embarrassed looking band members. By the time they’ve “graduated” to the big leagues on such outings as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, there’s no such self consciousness. The sad thing about many of these supposed “live” performances is that they of course featured the band lip (and finger) synching to prerecorded playback. The worst example here is the aforementioned Murray the K episode, where the guys don’t even have instruments, for crying out loud—they all just kind of sit there while Jim sings “People Are Strange”. But keep your eyes peeled throughout many of the early performances, and you’ll see “little” telltale signs like Robby Krieger’s guitar not being plugged in. (As bad as these examples are, they reminded me of another example which makes these Doors appearances pale in comparison. A Brazilian television special I saw once starred keyboardist Sergio Mendes, where Sergio and his band were performing “live” (yeah, right) on a rooftop in Rio, to a prerecorded playback of Sergio’s rendition of Airto’s great tune “Misturada”. A couple of problems with this formulation: the actual recording has Sergio playing acoustic grand. The special has him on the rooftop in front of a Fender Rhodes. An unplugged Fender Rhodes. As the guys mention in their featurette, video directors are not always the most musically aware people in the crowd.)

While longtime Doors fans may have seen at least some of this footage previously, having it compiled in this format is a really fun and entertaining way to revisit the band's glory days (along with a few outings from the eighties and nineties). Both Jim and Ray had backgrounds in film, and their interest in their filmed (or taped) performances informs at least the band managed appearances. Making this all the more special is the participation of Ray Manzarek, who left us far too soon last year.

The disc includes the following:

• 1. Break on Through (To the Other Side) – Music Film – January, 1967
• 2. Break on Through (To the Other Side) – Shebang – March 6, 1967
• 3. The Crystal Ship – American Bandstand – July 22, 1967
• 4. Light My Fire – American Bandstand – July 22, 1967
• 5. Light My Fire – Malibu U – August 25, 1967
• 6. People Are Strange – Murray the K in New York – September 22, 1967
• 7. Moonlight Drive - The Jonathan Winters Show – December 27, 1967
• 8. The Unknown Soldier – Music Film – February, 1968
• 9. Hello, I Love You – Musix für Junge Leute: 4-3-2-1 Hot and Sweet – September 13, 1968
• 10. Touch Me - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour – December 15, 1968
• 11. Wild Child – Music Film – July, 1969
• 12. Roadhouse Blues – Music Film – February, 1970
• 13. Crawling King Snake – GTK (Get to Know) – December, 1970
• 14. The Changeling – Music Film – April, 1971
• 15. Gloria – Music Film – October, 1983
• 16. People Are Strange – Music Film – 1980s
• 17. Strange Days – Music Film – 1984
• 18. L.A. Woman – Music Film – 1985
• 19. Ghost Song – Music Film – 1995

The Doors: R-Evolution Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Doors R-Evolution is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision (an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment) and Doors Property LLC with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.34:1 (the accompanying featurette is in 1.78:1). As might be expected, there are varying levels of quality here, but the "music films" look surprisingly strong despite the age of the earliest ones, with solid, deep blacks and decent detail (most of these were shot on 16mm). The television appearances vary the widest in quality. On some of the color outings, the color has faded considerably (Murray the K probably looks the worst in this regard), while on others, it's still surprisingly vivid (the German show, which needs to be seen for the manic dancing if for no other reason). Some of the videotaped performance exhibit video anomalies like ghosting. Overall, the image is decently if not overwhelmingly sharp and detailed, and aside from some transitory damage (small specks and the like), there's nothing much to complain about here.

The Doors: R-Evolution Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Probably the most exciting thing about this release other than being able to see so many appearances in one sitting is the repurposed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track done by longtime Doors collaborator, the legendary Bruce Botnick. There's simply no comparing this track to the LPCM 2.0 option also included. The 5.1 track is so much more forceful, and not necessarily only on the low end, that I personally wouldn't recommend even bothering with the 2.0 track. Botnick has done a wonderful job separating the instruments while subtly opening up the soundfield, but never so radically reworking the mixes that things sound "odd" to those who grew up with various tunes. Manzarek's funky organ licks sound fantastic, and Morrison's voice is wonderfully well reproduced, in both his growly and crooning modes.

The Doors: R-Evolution Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Picture in Picture Interview Commentary presents snippets from the full length documentary (see below).


• Love Thy Customer (Music by The Doors (1080i; 25:06) is a pretty funny promotional video put out by the Ford Marketing Institute (I kid you not) in 1966. One can only hope the boys consumed copious amounts of various substances as they scored this piece. In a sign of Ford's push for the so-called "youth market" and in yet another weird piece of Sergio Mendes synchronicity, Mendes' former singer Janis Hansen (who sang lead on Brasil 66's smash version of "The Look of Love") went on to actually join a touring pop group that Ford put together for car shows and the like. The group was called The Going Thing and appeared in some commercials as well. The group also featured Tom Bahler and his brother John, who were part of the vocal group that actually sang on The Partridge Family tunes. Tom also wrote "Julie Do Ya Love Me" for sixties teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman.


• Outtakes: Malibu U 1967 (1080i; 1:06)


• Break On Through (To the Other Side) (1080i; 5:10) is a live performance from the Isle of Wight Festival in August, 1970.


• Breaking Through the Lens (1080i; 47:13) is a fantastic assortment of reminiscences by various people include Jac Holzman, Bruce Botnik, Robby Krieger, John Densmore and (best of all ) Ray Manzarek. Not to be missed.

The Doors: R-Evolution Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Doors: R-Evolution is a remarkable compendium of a band whose influence is still felt now decades after its heyday. With the recent passing of Ray Manzarek, this compilation is all the more meaningful. With a really great collection of sometimes very weird appearances as well as some fantastic bonus material (the documentary and the Ford "training film" are absolute must-see bonuses), this release easily comes Highly recommended.