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Makes You Stranger
I caught Tom DiCillo's When You're Strange, a 90-minute doc about Jim Morrison and The Doors, inside a viewing booth at the Park City Marriott early this afternoon. I also saw Ondi Timoner's We Live in Public, a doc about '90s internet pioneer Josh Harris. A study and a history of internet obsession, Timoner's film is easily the more thoughtful and provocative of the two. But DeCillo's is more engaging because Morrison is still a fascinating wild man, and at the same time a little more average-human than he seemed in the Stone pic.
The short reaction to When You're Strange is (a) it's a much more perceptive dive into the legend of the Doors than Oliver Stone's film was, (b) it's in love with Doors music (which I feel is a very good thing); (c) it has a good amount of heretofore unseen footage of Morrison and the band; but (d) it's stymied time and again by DeCillo's trite narration. And I mean "give me a fucking break" trite.
There has to be some way to recount the turnovers and disturbances of the hallucinatory '60s without sounding like Tom Brokaw. You have to write and talk about those times with a sense of psychedelic impressionism. Or you have to talk about them like Peter Fonda did in The Limey -- i.e., with subdued feeling and authority. I can only report that I began to go crazy listening to DeCillo's litany of pat cliches. It's not that the narration gets it "wrong" per se, but it makes one of the most electric and tumultuous times in American history sound so damn tidy and sorted out...almost vanilla.
And I didn't like the voice of the narrator either. (I don't know who it is, but he sounds like an ad agency guy who hasn't done enough and hasn't read enough.) It should have been narrated by someone with a hung-over voice, like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now. Speaking like Michael Herr in Dispatches, maybe, because the '60s were nothing if not a war. A voice that sounds like it knows from strangeness and pot and other-ness, a little shade of the weird and the fanciful.
Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek has said he's had no input into the film, but that he's seen it and likes it, calling it "a tale of American shamanism" with a touch of the "supernatural". He says there's also some rare footage in there that even stumped the Doors archivist. That's all true as far as it goes. I don't want to sound dismissive of this film, but it occasionally irritated the fuck out of me.
Manzarek told Billboard earlier this year that When You're Strange is "the anti-Oliver Stone... the true story of the Doors." Fine. Close enough.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 15, 2009 at 5:06 PM
comment #1
MilkMan
says ...
1. My favorite absurd lines from Stone's movie:
"I played with Dionysus."
"C'mon, Jim. Let's go make the myths."
"I like your work. You've got a great penis."
2. Dispatches is the best book about war I have ever read.
3. The montage that introduces Terry Valentine in the Limey is one of the high points of Soderberg's career, and one of the most sublime marriages of music and imagery ever.
4. Val Kilmer fucked my sister. No shit.
Posted by MilkMan
at January 15, 2009 5:43 PM
comment #2
Mark
says ...
Am i alone in having that Limey scene soured by the Denise Richards lookalike? Her clunky shoes, one-piece bathing suit, and blank smiling just seemed unworthy to be on the receiving end of Valentine's teachings.
It would have been a waste of time to flesh her character out, but even in Rebecca Hall's brief screentime in Frost/Nixon, you immediately saw what both Frost and Nixon saw in her.
Posted by Mark
at January 15, 2009 5:59 PM
comment #3
sumo-pop
says ...
I'm fine with Stone's film. It's an electrifying look at Morrison, hedonism, and the 60s. So he made it from a fanboy perspective? Big fucking deal, at least it wasn't a paint by the numbers biopic like say...J-Lo's Selena.
Posted by sumo-pop
at January 15, 2009 6:02 PM
comment #4
DarthCorleone
says ...
I know too many great stories about the making of Stone's film to dismiss it, and Kilmer was absolutely amazing in it.
Mark>> I like her in the film, and I think part of the reason might be that she seems so unworthy. It takes Valentine's status to an even more mythic level, as the girl - while a pretty face and pleasant company - will simply never be able to get it, even with that wide-eyed, curious admiration. She's very much of the modern day. Similarly, your average viewer did not experience the 60s in Valentine's capacity and won't ever fully get his "zeitgeist" either. Hence, I can relate to Adhara as she listens to Valentine's monologue.
As for Valentine's taste in women, it doesn't surprise me that Frost and Nixon would be aiming a little higher intellectually. Valentine has the ex-wife, and he probably has had all the drama with women he could ever want. At this point I envision his just wanting someone attractive, young, and low-maintenance.
Posted by DarthCorleone
at January 15, 2009 6:17 PM
comment #5
Ray
says ...
Love him or hate him, you gotta give early Oliver Stone props for his wildly inventive, fever-dream style. I just wish he wouldn't have sold out that style in order to continue working within Hollywood. Had he done that, think of all the great films he could have made instead of WORLD TRADE CENTER.
Posted by Ray
at January 15, 2009 6:20 PM
comment #6
MilkMan
says ...
JFK and NBK are monuments of editing and will be studied for years to come.
Posted by MilkMan
at January 15, 2009 6:23 PM
comment #7
Ray
says ...
I totally agree, Milkman. While factually a joke, JFK is a towering achievement; I never get tired of it.
Posted by Ray
at January 15, 2009 7:12 PM
comment #8
shepherd123456
says ...
JFK's so goddamn good it may end up becoming the truth.
Posted by shepherd123456
at January 15, 2009 7:59 PM
comment #9
MindlessObamaton
says ...
Christ, do we really need anythign more about the f'n Doors? Don't get me wrong. I dig the band and still isten to them from time to time but it is just overdone to f'n death.
MM: Agree about THE LIMEY. F'n great intro for PF.
sumo-pop: In some interview I read with, I think, Jane Hamsher, that chick who produced NBK, she wrote about gonig with Stone and a bunch of folks to scout locatiosn and someone put in a 60s tape and it had like The Doors and Jimi and shit on it and Stone didn't know any of the music at all, not even the Doors tunes and he had just made a film about them. Heresay, but still.
Posted by MindlessObamaton
at January 15, 2009 8:52 PM
comment #10
nemo
says ...
My memory of Terry Valentine's girlfriend in The Limey was that as young and blank as she was, she still seemed years more mature than Valentine.
Posted by nemo
at January 15, 2009 9:03 PM
comment #11
MindlessObamaton
says ...
The chick played her used to be on a cheesy ABC soap in the 80s, played this chick Stephie Brewster or some crap like. I hate that I still know that, but when I was young and just outta hs, i stroked it pretty hard to that piece of ass.
Posted by MindlessObamaton
at January 15, 2009 9:19 PM
comment #12
/3rtfu11
says ...
4. Val Kilmer fucked my sister. No shit.
Jealous (not you) me
Posted by /3rtfu11
at January 15, 2009 9:43 PM
comment #13
Pinko Punko
says ...
I'd be interested in the Timoner doc, but Dig!, while entertaining was pretty shallow, and she totally missed the boat on a lot of stuff. She probably had too much footage to wade through. That was my one official Sundance experience.
Posted by Pinko Punko
at January 15, 2009 10:02 PM
comment #14
nemo
says ...
I thought MilkMan's father was the one who was into that kind of thing.
"You're not a person; you're more like a vibe."
Posted by nemo
at January 15, 2009 10:35 PM
comment #15
Rich S.
says ...
I like the Doors, but I think for the most part the mystical stuff was a complete con job. I loved Val Kilmer's performance because I think he captured what a complete narcissist Morrison likely was. The "shamanism" was just another way to bag chicks.
I think even Casteneda admitted a lot of his stuff was made up.
Posted by Rich S.
at January 16, 2009 5:56 AM
comment #16
actionman
says ...
The Doors is, like most of Stone's output, a masterpiece of technique and filmmaking. Say what you want about the liberties he took with the group and the men involved, but it's about as entertaining as movies get. And Kilmer is possessed in the film. It's not acting; it's a case of outright possession. It's a crime he didn't win an Oscar for that performance. If the film came out now it'd be a different story.
The Doors are, and have been for years, my favorite band. I cann't f'ing wait to see this documentary.
I listen to Morrison's AMAZING "An American Prayer" CD frequently. His poem, "Lament (for my cock)," is something very special.
Posted by actionman
at January 16, 2009 7:37 AM
comment #17
actionman
says ...
Oh, and my fav line from The Doors:
"Try acid, Ray."
That scene in the desert is one of the best trip-out scenes ever.
Posted by actionman
at January 16, 2009 7:44 AM
comment #18
MikeSchaeferSF
says ...
Or as Lester Bangs said, "Jim Morrison? He's a drunken buffoon posing as a poet."
Posted by MikeSchaeferSF
at January 16, 2009 8:34 AM
comment #19
Magic Rat
says ...
A friend and I met Tom Dicillo in Sundance in '01. Asked for a quick picture and his response was, "Yeah, quick though. I gotta catch a plane."
A barrage of thoughts assaulted my brain (in this order):
1.) What an asshole
2.) Who the FUCK uses the expression "I gotta catch a plane"?
3.) Has this guy done anything worthwhile except for the twenty-five minutes of "Living in Oblivion" featuring James Legros?
4.) Why am I asking for a picture with this guy?
As for The Doors, I think it's a rite of passage for all young men between the ages of 14-17 to go through a Morrison phase. They're a good rock band - Roadhouse Blues, Crystal Ship, and LA Woman are up there with anything the Stones or Beatles ever recorded - that unfortunately has been saddled with the post-60's, Let's Attach Meaning To Everything movement.
However, Crispin Glover's cameo in Stone's movie as Andy Warhol is a knockout
Posted by Magic Rat
at January 16, 2009 9:04 AM
comment #20
PCP_Patriots
says ...
Jim Morrison was a great lyricist and Rob Krieger was an unbelievable songwriter. Unfortunately Jim was a bit of a sociopath and burned himself out. Stone's film, on original viewing, I disliked it. The second viewing and going forward I respect it more. But it has too many of Stone's artisitc licenses and is really more a character study of one member of the band and unfortunately is more of a string of scenes of chaos and insanity. Plus it leaves out way too much out. Either way, the Doors are probably my 2nd fav band of all time. Looking forward to seeing this doc sometime.
Posted by PCP_Patriots
at January 16, 2009 9:20 AM
comment #21
Floyd Thursby
says ...
William Jefferson Clinton once said Kilmer was underrated. Does that mean Bubba will campaign for him if he runs for gov. of NM?
Posted by Floyd Thursby
at January 16, 2009 9:43 AM
comment #22
George Prager
says ...
This Doors movie should've been narrated by the guy who did the Thanksgiving trailer.
Posted by George Prager
at January 16, 2009 12:26 PM
comment #23
MilkMan
says ...
That's actually a very interesting idea, George.
Posted by MilkMan
at January 16, 2009 12:40 PM
comment #24
PCP_Patriots
says ...
That would be Eli Roth ... I think he did his own narrating for the Thanksgiving trailer.
Posted by PCP_Patriots
at January 16, 2009 12:56 PM
comment #25
TVMCCA
says ...
nemo wrote:
My memory of Terry Valentine's girlfriend in The Limey was that as young and blank as she was, she still seemed years more mature than Valentine.
Amelia Heinle, who played the role discussed above, went back to soaps--was on ALL MY CHILDREN and more recently has appeared on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.
Posted by TVMCCA
at January 16, 2009 1:06 PM
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