The Doors (15-Year Anniversary Edition) (1991) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)'The Doors' were one of the greatest rock and roll bands of the sixties and the quintessential California group of the decade. They so embodied the West Coast counterculture experience that viewing this biographical film about Jim Morrison and The Doors also provides a fascinating view of the cultural and spiritual forces that drove Jim and that entire generation to challenge the status quo of the American mainstream.
What exactly is the true story of the life and death of Jim Morrison? Is it the story of one of the many rebellious young adults of the time who in looking for an alternative way of living got lost along the way in the drugs, alcohol and sexual freedom that so dominated that culture? Or is Jims' story a deeply mystical tale announcing the rebirth of ancient shamanism into the collective consciousness of the twentieth century? The story of someone chosen by the spirits to bring the 'old ways' to a new generation looking for something to fill the spiritual void brought about by the loss of belief in the Christian God?
Director Oliver Stone has played the mythmaker to perfection in this amazing film providing us with the unique experience of entering into the American Dreamtime. Layering mundane worldly events intermitently with glimpses of the psychic, shamanic forces motivating those events we are given the opportunity to chose for ourselves what level of reality we are willing, or ready to accept. A truly remarkable accomplishment.
As for the performance of Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, it couldn't have been better. His ability to capture both the physcial appearance and dark persona of the legendary rock star so completely is beyond extraordinary. Without question Val was born to play this role.
Did Jim really believe he was the "Electric Shaman" called by the spirits to open the "Doors of Perception" to a sleeping world? Was he Dionysus reborn, here to use his suggestive music and lyrics to arouse his followers and bring to fruition his new 'Rites of Spring' with "Golden copulations in the streets of L.A." More likely he was playing the part of the mischevious Indian 'Trickster' leading us once again in the wrong direction. Maybe it's just like his Mother said long ago while the old Indian lay dying along the roadside in the California desert. "It's just a dream Jimmy, that's all it is."
So relax, show no fear, "Kiss the Snake" and enjoy the ride!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Doors (15-Year Anniversary Edition) (1991)

Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer), one of the most sensual and exciting figures in the history of rock and roll, explodes on the screen in THE DOORS, the electrifying movie about a time called the sixties and a legendary outlaw who rocked America's consciousness - forever. Meg Ryan, Kevin Dillon, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley and Billy Idol also star.

Get 12% OFF

Click here for more information about The Doors (15-Year Anniversary Edition) (1991)

The '60s Rock Experience Live (2004) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My experience with the PBS concert series has always been a good to great one. Unfortunately, this is the first one I have been slightly disappointed with. This December 9th, 2004 event definitely does not compare with others such as the many Soul, Doo Wop and Pop events. I expected the 60's Rock Experience reunion to be one of my favorites but I must agree with the last reviewer that the "fake or canned" applause is annoying. Below is my observation:
Pros
----
* Audio: 5 stars (excluding the older footage); 5.1 audio
* Video: 4.5 stars (only due to the stage lighting; clarity is fine on new performances)
* 142 min. long with 29 songs/performances (old and new).
* Good mix of Rock, Folk Rock and Pop artists. Good line-up.
Cons
----
* Fake applause. One example is Scott McKenzie's performance of "San Francisco. A wonderful performance ruined by this annoying "canned" crowd cheer. Same goes for Martha Reeves performance (Rock Experience??) and Eric Burdon. It's not as evident on the pre-taped performance of "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Gary Brooker and Procol Harum.
* Mixed results on old footage. Some pretty good (The Doors), some rare but severely chopped (The original Moody Blues with Denny Laine on lead vocals singing "Go Now") and some just poor.
Still a fun DVD just to see these artists on a nationally televised event. Some voices have aged well (i.e.: Rob Grill, Chuck Negron) and others have suffered slightly but still a good time.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The '60s Rock Experience Live (2004)

The ’60s Rock Experience Live’60s Rock anthems recorded live ... from the hit PBS pledge show!While the 1960s recedes further into history with each passing year, the music that came out of the decade remains enormously popular. That is plain to see—and hear—on PBS’ The ’60s Rock Experience Live. This new installment of the smash MY MUSIC concert series contains nearly 2½ hours of the most stirring, personal and yet universal songs ever written.Program Listing1. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) – Roger McGuinn 2. Easy To Be Hard – Chuck Negron formerly of Three Dog Night 3. One – Chuck Negron 4. Nowhere To Run – Martha Reeves 5. Go Now! – classic clip 6. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place – Eric Burdon & The Animals 7. The House Of The Rising Sun – Eric Burdon & The Animals 8. San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) –Scott McKenzie 9. A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum 10. Piece Of My Heart – classic clip 11. Along Comes Mary – The Association 12. Let’s Live For Today –The Grass Roots starring Rob Grill 13. Midnight Confessions – The Grass Roots starring Rob Grill 14. Down On The Corner/Bad Moon Rising – classic clips 15. Nights In White Satin – classic clip 16. Purple Haze – classic clip 17. Light My Fire – classic clip 18. Magic Carpet Ride – John Kay & Steppenwolf 19. Born To Be Wild – John Kay & Steppenwolf 20. We Shall Overcome – classic clipBonus Performances:21. The Pusher – John Kay & Steppenwolf 22. It’s My Life – Eric Burdon & The Animals 23. So You Want To Be A Rock ’N’ Roll Star – Roger McGuinn 24. Mr. Tambourine Man – Roger McGuinn 25. Eli’s Coming – Chuck Negron 26. I’d Wait A Million Years – The Grass Roots starring Rob Grill 27. Jimmy Mack – Martha Reeves 28. Never My Love – The Association 29. We’ve Been Asking Questions – Scott McKenzie

Get 10% OFF

Click here for more information about The '60s Rock Experience Live (2004)

The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition) (1985) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"The Doors Collection" is the best audio/visual source about the band available. It is a stunning, exciting collection of the best of The Doors on film. It is the best Doors DVD out there and a must for big fans, rockers and anyone barely aquainted with the music who wants to know more. All the three segments are excellent documents of The Doors and their hypnotic music and the dynamic persona of Jim Morrison. It is clear from what you see here that he was poet, rock star, artist and genius. The first segment, "Dance On Fire" has some great material. There is the music video for "Break On Through" which is stylish and has aged well, in fact, I saw it air on MTV a few nights ago. There is also the neat video for "People Are Strange" and the legendary performance of "Light My Fire" at the Ed Sullivan Show. The video for "The Crystal Ship" is dreamy, romantic and hypnotic, with a real feel for the song which showcases some of Morrison's best poetry. The performance of "Love Me Two Times" for Danish television is especially entertaining and cool, with Jim all in leather reciting some poetry before breaking into one of their best blues tunes. The video for "Moonlight Drive" is interesting with Jim sporting some black shades and Robby Krieger doing some dreamy slide guitar. The "Roadhouse Blues" footage is especially fun with shots of some wild concert moments and Jim doing a Dionysian dance as images flash by. The second segment, "Live At The Hollywood Boal" is a nice document of The Doors in concert. They performance some of their best songs like "Backdoor Man," "Light My Fire" and "Whiskey Bar." The best performances are those of "When The Music's Over" which is epic and "The End" which is hypnotic. The final segment, "The Soft Parade" is an interesting look at The Doors as the end was coming closer. The beginning features a montage cut to "The Changeling" and shows Morrison and the band in a "superstar" tone. The interview they give is fascinating, especially when Jim predicts advancements in musical technology with incredible precision. The performance of "The Soft Parade" is better than the album version while footage of the band recording "Wild Child" is fun and interesting, not least because it's a great song. The bonus features in the DVD are also great. The commentary by the band members is funny and fascinating with lots of cool facts. Robby Krieger's new version of "The End" rocks while Ray Manzarek's student films are interesting to watch. The memorabilia section is especially fun and interesting, they even show ticket buts. John Densmore's one-man play is really silly and frankly, boring and uninteresting. It's annoying to hear him sing the songs because frankly, he can't sing. All in all, "The Doors Collection" is the best Doors visual collection. It's exhilarating, fascinating, visually alluring and filled with great music and poetry. It shows how there are certain things as timeless music and artists. Though The Doors music and lyrics are kept alive and well by newer bands (Creed, STP, The Cult), nothing beats the originals. The Doors were the first rock band to mix music with poetry and explored dark realms and set in motion things in rock n' roll that we are still living through. This DVD is a great document of how they did that.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition) (1985)

DOORS COLLECTOR'S EDITION - DVD Movie

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition) (1985)

When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors (2010) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)In the short 4 ½ years that keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger, drummer John Densmore and lead vocalist Jim Morrison enjoyed an artistic collaboration, they produced six timelessly resonant studio albums and the classic Absolutely Live (which still holds up as one of the best live albums ever by a rock band). The Doors were also one of the first rock bands to successfully bridge deeply avant-garde sensibilities with popular commercial appeal. It was Blake and Rimbaud... that you could dance to.
Surprisingly, it has taken until 2010, 45 years (!) after UCLA film students Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek first starting kicking around the idea of forming a band, for a proper full-length documentary feature about The Doors to appear, Tom DiCillo's When You're Strange. You'll notice I said, "about The Doors". I felt that Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic ultimately lost its way as a true portrait of the band, because it was too myopically fixated on the Jim Morrison legend; Morrison the Lizard King, the Dionysian rock god, the drunken poet, the shaman. Yes, he was all of that (perhaps more of a showman than a shaman), but he was only 25% of the equation that made The Doors...well, The Doors. That's what I like about DiCillo's film; he doesn't gloss over the contributions of the other three musicians.
In fact, one of the things you learn in the film is that Morrison himself always insisted that all songwriting credits go to "The Doors" as an entity, regardless of which band member may have had the dominant hand in the composition of any particular song (when you consider that Morrison couldn't read a note, that's a pragmatic stance for him to take). The band's signature tune, the #1 hit "Light My Fire" was actually composed by Robbie Krieger-and was allegedly the first song he ever wrote (talk about beginner's luck). He's a great guitar player too (he was trained in flamenco, and had only been playing electric for 6 months at the band's inception). Manzarek and Densmore were no slouches either; they had a classical and jazz background, respectively. When you piece these snippets together along with Morrison's interests in poetry, literature, film and improvisational theatre (then sprinkle in a few tabs of acid) you finally begin to get a picture of why this band had such a unique vibe. They've been copied, but never equaled.
The film looks to have been a labor of love by the director. Johnny Depp provides the narration, and DiCillo has assembled some great footage; it's all well-chosen, sensibly sequenced and beautifully edited. Although there are a fair amount of clips and stories that will qualify as old hat to Doors aficionados (the "Light My Fire" performance on the Sullivan Show, the infamous Miami concert "riot", etc.), there is a treasure trove of rare footage. One fascinating (but all too brief) clip shows the band in the studio constructing the song "Wild Child" during the sessions for "The Soft Parade". The real revelation is the interwoven excerpts from Morrison's experimental 1969 film "HWY: An American Pastoral". Although it is basically a bearded Morrison driving around the desert (wearing his trademark leather pants), it's mesmerizing, surreal footage. DiCillo must have had access to a pristine master print, because it looks like it was shot last week. It wasn't until the credits rolled that I realized this wasn't one of those dreaded recreations, utilizing a lookalike. As a matter of fact, Morrison has never appeared so "alive" on film. It's eerie.

Click Here to see more reviews about: When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors (2010)

When You re Strange, written and directed bythe award-winning Tom DiCillo, is the first featuredocumentary released on The Doors. Graced by thenarration of Johnny Depp, it carries the audiencethrough the journeys of vocalist Jim Morrison,keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger,and drummer John Densmore. This 90-minutepresentation features never-before-seen rare archival film,pulled from their inception in 1966 to Morrison s passing in 1971.These snapshot scenes of the band s history is as much an intimateexperience, as it is revealing.After being featured at the Sundance, Berlin, Deauville, and San Sebastian Film Festivals, music fans who didn t catch this intheaters can now relish in this extraordinary documentary. It celebrates the collaborative power of this illustrious rock quartetand their revolutionary fusion of creativity and thought-provoking rebellion.

Get 50% OFF

Click here for more information about When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors (2010)