This is what makes The Doors so interesting. All of the opinions,disagreements,conjecture, half truths,eyewitness accounts,

all the people who said they saw something,people who said they ACTUALLY knew The Doors. You could also say there were 10 million people

at Woodstock. Trying to chronicle anything from the 60’s or before is not easy to do. We did not have

the advances in audio-video technology that we have today. What family today doesn’t have a member

who has or had a drug or alcohol problem?. Every family is affected by some type of addiction.

Put the whole Doors’ mystique as part of 60s culture. If you WERE THERE and REMEMBER ANYTHING about the

60’s,,you my friend are doing quite well for yourself.

Peace.

The future’s uncertain and the end is always near.
Rating: 5 / 5

Just watched this on ‘American Masters’ on PBS – really cool the way they put this together. It tells Jim’s story the way the Doors wanted to tell it. The footage that they used from “HWY” – Jim’s film – was incredible! I have never seen any of this before and thought the way they worked these scenes into the film added a lot to it.

The movie starts out with how the Doors met and when they started writing music together. Then it flows through the whole story of the Doors – everything from Jim being stoned out of his mind on acid at the Whisky gig and getting the band tossed and banned – The gig on Ed Sullivan where the band decided to use the word “higher” during “Light My Fire”… even though they were told they couldn’t on national television – The New Haven, CT incident where Jim was sprayed with mace backstage by a cop (who didn’t know who Jim was) then went on stage (eyes still bloodshot) to rant about the “little blue men” in the “little blue suits”, eventually getting arrested – the whole scene at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami(with actual audio from that night – wild stuff!!) where Jim whipped out something to show the audience – to the “END” in Paris where Jim had been complaining of a persistent cough for days. His death is still a mystery… although they didn’t really touch on that in this film.

“When You’re Strange” is a great film about the story of Jim Morrison and The Doors – Really cool! The footage is incredible and looked great in High Def and the audio has been restored and sounded excellent. I only wish the film was a little bit longer but no complaints. Johnny Depp narrating this film was not a distraction in any way. I thought his presence was very low key – did a fine job!

Along with this film, I would also recommend reading the book “No One Here Gets Out Alive” No One Here Gets Out Alive — a great biography written by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman. It really tells the whole story of Jim Morrison’s wild ride with fame and how he lost his grip along the way.

Highly recommended to Doors fans or anyone interested in the band’s story! Check this out when it comes out on DVD.

There will never be another band like The Doors… not even close!

When You’re Strange: A Film about The Doors [Blu-ray]

Also recommended:

The Doors Collection (Collector’s Edition)

Rating: 5 / 5

I’ve seen a few documentaries on The Doors in my time,and have read quite a few books about them,so I come to assume that I know it all and have seen it all…..

Then I saw Tom DeCillo’s “When You’re Strange” and,luckily for me,

found out I was wrong!

This is a very nicely done documentary,very much not in the

“Behind The Music” style (ie.no interviews or re-enactments of events)

Instead,the story of the band is told through excellent narration by Johnny Depp

and loads of footage,much of it seen here for the 1st time.

You’ll see the Doors onstage,offstage,backstage,on TV,

and in the recording studio.

There are 8mm film clips of the teenage Jim Morrison,UCLA student

Ray Manzarek,and a brief glimpse of Morrison’s term project

(a movie he did for his UCLA film class;it was booed when it was screened).

The pièce de résistance are the clips from the unfinished film Morrison made with his drinking buddies,called HWY.

It’s a revelation to see Morrison in an acting role (no dialog)

A treat for the eye,a thrill for the ear,this flick is a must for Doors fans.

Rating: 5 / 5