When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors Review

By: Dr Matt Warnock

Visit "When You're Strange" at Amazon.com

Dubbed the “anti-Oliver Stone” documentary, in reference to the controversial movie staring Val Kilmer as troubled lead singer Jim Morrison, Tom Dicillo’s documentary When You’re Strange aims to tell the real story behind the meteoric rise and tragic end to the ’60s rock band The Doors. The story that photographers, cameramen and interviewers captured in real time as the band redefined the rock genre and encapsulated what it meant to be a true Rock Star in the 1960s.

Consisting almost entirely of archival footage of band interviews, concert performances, press ops and studio recording sessions, DiCillo has chosen to go to the source in his presentation of the band’s story, rather than hiring actors and running recreations of these now infamous moments in rock history. There are also ample photos, both black and white and color, that stretch from Morrison’s childhood right up until his death in Paris, 1971.

As can be expected, this film is more the story of Jim Morrison, with an aside to the rest of the band, than it is an in-depth feature on the group as a whole. While other artists may have taken offence to having their life’s story treated this way, after learning about each band member’s private lives, this does not seem to be the case.

Robby Krieger, John Densmore and Ray Manzarek may have shared the stage with the extraverted Morrison, but off stage they lived quieter, more subdued lives, a difference that is reflected and not exploited in the film. If you were to tell the story of The Doors from the point of view of the band itself, it only seems appropriate that most of the focus would be on Morrison.

While there is ample footage from different moments in the bands short career, the pictures and film from inside the recording studio provides a glimpse into the working lives of the band that has seldom been seen. If one wants to understand how a band truly interacts, how they think about music and the creative process, there is no better exhibition than the recording studio.

Read GI’s Interview With Doors Guitarist Robby Krieger

The filmmaker’s seem to understand this concept. They use film, photos and narration to show the group’s transition from their first album, where the band was close, to their middle-period records, when the band was distanced from Morrison due to his drinking, and finally to their last album, where the band returned to the “live” sound of their early years and were able to mend old wounds. DiCillo does a solid job of presenting these three stages in The Doors evolution, providing a view of the band that concert goers and T.V. viewers were not privy to at the time.

The story of The Doors is one of the most interesting, and important, in Rock history. Their highly improvised musical approach and metaphorical, imagery-laced lyrics cleared the way for the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal bands of the ’70s and ’80s. The film finishes with a voice-over by actor Johnny Depp, who narrates the entire film, summing up the band’s enormous success and continued resonance in the lives of fans worldwide:

“The Doors were together for fifty-four months, they sold over eighty million albums worldwide. They still sell a million albums every year.”

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