When You're Strange (2009)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Johnny Depp narrates this impressive documentary that covers the rise and eventual fall of The Doors. The documentary mainly takes a look at lead singer Jim Morrison as he formed a band not knowing how to sing and would rise to the top only to die at the age of 27. This documentary originally debuted at Sundance and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't go for your typical talking heads. We don't get a single interview with anyone who was there during the time all of this stuff was happening. There aren't any current interviews with the surviving band members and we don't get to hear from any rock experts on why The Doors were so great. Instead, all we get is archive footage ranging from home movies to concerts to even a movie Morrison made himself. I'm not a die-hard fan of the group but even I've seen quite a bit of the footage here but I think director DiCillo does a terrific job at keeping everything fresh, exciting and fast moving. I thought he did a wise job not having the talking heads and instead letting the actual footage do all the talking. If you know anything about The Doors then I'm sure you know about the infamous Miami concert where it was said Morrison exposed himself. I'm sure you also know about the Ed Sullivan appearance where the band went against the hosts wishes and sang Light My Fire with all the original lyrics. I think this stuff is always interesting no matter how many times you watch it. What was more interesting was the footage that was shot by Morrison for his movie and we even gets clips of a film he made at film school. Another major plus is that Depp does a terrific job with the narration. Many times people do great jobs with their narrating jobs but at the same time you feel as if they're just reading a script and probably don't know anything about what they're saying. You feel the exact opposite here with Depp who, as a musician, tells us this stuff as if he knows what it means. The one downside is some stuff we've seen way too many times about this era and that includes all the political stuff that was going on at the time.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Johnny Depp narrates this impressive documentary that covers the rise and eventual fall of The Doors. The documentary mainly takes a look at lead singer Jim Morrison as he formed a band not knowing how to sing and would rise to the top only to die at the age of 27. This documentary originally debuted at Sundance and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't go for your typical talking heads. We don't get a single interview with anyone who was there during the time all of this stuff was happening. There aren't any current interviews with the surviving band members and we don't get to hear from any rock experts on why The Doors were so great. Instead, all we get is archive footage ranging from home movies to concerts to even a movie Morrison made himself. I'm not a die-hard fan of the group but even I've seen quite a bit of the footage here but I think director DiCillo does a terrific job at keeping everything fresh, exciting and fast moving. I thought he did a wise job not having the talking heads and instead letting the actual footage do all the talking. If you know anything about The Doors then I'm sure you know about the infamous Miami concert where it was said Morrison exposed himself. I'm sure you also know about the Ed Sullivan appearance where the band went against the hosts wishes and sang Light My Fire with all the original lyrics. I think this stuff is always interesting no matter how many times you watch it. What was more interesting was the footage that was shot by Morrison for his movie and we even gets clips of a film he made at film school. Another major plus is that Depp does a terrific job with the narration. Many times people do great jobs with their narrating jobs but at the same time you feel as if they're just reading a script and probably don't know anything about what they're saying. You feel the exact opposite here with Depp who, as a musician, tells us this stuff as if he knows what it means. The one downside is some stuff we've seen way too many times about this era and that includes all the political stuff that was going on at the time.