The Doors

With this biography of rock group The Doors, and in particular the excesses of lead singer and poet Jim Morrison, Oliver Stone’s obesession with documenting the cultural shifts in America in the 1960s found its perfect subject. Val Kilmer is engaging as Morrison, a young film student who becomes attracted to the promise and liberation of acid-tinged Haight-Ashbury. The formation of The Doors coincided with the LSD experimentation and the counter-cultural revolution in the American underground. Stone traces the band’s increasing popularity, their acceptance by the New York avant-garde, including Warhol’s Factory and Morrison’s decline through drug-abuse. As the band falls apart, only Morrison’s identification with Native American spirituality offers an escape from the materialist Hell he is in. This intense and kinetic film is both a celebration of counter-cultural revolution and a sad lament for its corruption. Co-starring Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Madsen and a cameo by Billy Idol.