Nov 25, 2003 12:30 AM
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(Updated Nov 25, 2003 12:30 AM)
I had heard the name Jim Morrison but hadn’t really heard his music or about his life. Until a friend of mine not just introduced me to the music but also a biographical film made on Jim and his band – The Doors.
The movie will begin in five moments,
The mindless voice announced,
All those unseated will await the next show.
The program for this evening is not new,
You've seen this entertainment through and through.
You've seen your birth, your life and death,
You might recall all of the rest.
Did you have a good world when you died?
Enough to base a movie on?
Is the beginning of the film. Directed by Oliver Stone the film begins when Jim was about four years old and traveling with his family when he passed by an accident in which some Indians were hurt while some were dead. It was then that he felt touched by the spirit of one or two of them and believed for the rest of his life that they were part of his soul.
Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind
Indian, Indian what did you die for?
Indian says, nothing at all.
This was the first time that Jim was probably scared and in the years to come the fear of death turned into an obsession.
A poet at heart Jim loved writing about personal experiences. Once when he bumped into an old friend he narrated a song that he had written. The friend suggested that they could be a band and make the most out of their lives. Alongwith Ray joined in John and Robby and The Doors was born. The door to people’s mind was the objective of the to be created by this band.
They did start of with the right ideology and the first song they recorded –their first hit single was C’mon baby Light my fire. With this and many other songs they started touring the entire nation after performing at some clubs.
The 60s was a wild time and so was Jim. He was highly under the influence of drugs and alcohol at all times.
Hey man, you want girls, pills, grass? C'mon...
I show you good time.
This place has everything. C'mon...
I show you.
Although he loved his girl friend who accompanied him wherever he went, it was rather difficult for him not to be lured by the love and the adulation people especially women showered on him. He had affairs with lots of them and one-night stands with countless number of women but never committed to anyone other than his girl.
I'll always be true
Never go out, sneaking out on you, babe
If only you'll show me Far Arden again.
It was close to seven years of making music, being an icon, performing on stage and living like a King. Jim was never really happy. He felt unhappy when his group thought commercially than creatively. And he decided to take a break and start afresh in another country. So he moved to France and one day mysteriously passed away. His girl friend was with him then.
If you read about him you get a better picture and a three-dimensional view about the person. Especially if you read his book of poems An American Prayer which was his parting gift to his friends.
In the film the director for obvious reasons has highlighted only scandalous things from the life of Jim. One can’t be that selfish or that addicted in life not to see beyond “fun”. And then one fine day realize that I have lived young and I should die young as well. With people like that there is always more depth. Which either the director hasn’t understood or hasn’t bothered to explore.
That apart he has managed to get a brilliant performance especially from the lead character Val Kilmer. Meg Ryan (who plays the girl friend) looks like a misfit. Like the director himself quoted in the making of the film – she is a little too conscious, something that the people in the 60s were not.
The film is technically brilliant as well. And certain anecdotes in the film are remarkably captured. Since Jim was fascinated by death, in the film you get to see a character that is death. Be him on the roadside when for the first time Jim sees death. Or riding in the desert on a white horse or the clown in the birthday party – cinematically the moments are beautifully captured.
The film is disturbing to say the least. You can watch it if you want to enjoy the songs (amazingly and aptly used throughout the film – not just the original ones but some even rendered by Val Kilmer) alongwith the life story of Jim Morrison. But if you want to know more about the person you’ll surely have to dig in more.
Is everybody in? Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin.
WAKE UP!
You can’t remember where it was
Has this dream stopped?
