Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Steineded How sad is this?

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Michael_Elliott 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.

jnarimbaud I expected something that embodied the the approach, the spirit, the intelligence & interests of the band. This did not, it played out for what it was a feature length advertisement for the re-issues of their back catalogue.It desperately needed to highlight what made them different from any of their peers & it failed. An in-depth exploration of their motivations & influences (musical, cinematic & literary) & how they fit together is what this should have been. It fails to capture anything that The Doors meant to me; & Is only good for a few short clips of rare footage.I'm quite surprised that UCLA film school graduate Ray Manzarek is not as ashamed of this as he is Oliver Stone's awful mess of a biopic. Is this the kind of film Jim would have wanted to be represented by? I can't answer that question other than by judging it against his own work; It would be a resounding no.

testacorsa "When You're Strange" is a music Documentary, which takes you through the short career of a world famous 1960's band, The Doors. For this alone, the documentary is worth watching. That said, this is so interesting to watch, because it is a story with so many levels, mainly because it took place in a time, when things were changing.It was the 1960s. A still growing group of people invented in the 50s, namely the young, could and would not be ignored any longer. As Morrison put it: 'we want the world, and we want it now' To them things were not black and white anymore. Men and women were not men and women, but human beings. The solution was definitely not war, but the absolute opposite. On the other hand the parents, and older generations, were stubbornly holding on to the old order and its values, and a larger and larger gap was growing between these two fronts.The spotlight in this film is heavily focused on the Doors most famous member, Jim Morrison, and for a good reason. Jim Morrison became a clear symbol of the new, and the young, mainly because he wanted more out of life than the norms allowed, and simply went for it. On top of this, Jim had an interesting background, which is a prime example of the generation gap. Jim Morrisons father George Morrison was an admiral in the navy, and was involved in the Vietnam war. He was against Jim's involvement in rock music, wanted his hair cut, and to get an education. Jim ignored his parents to such an extend that he claimed his family dead, when asked by journalists.If you know the story of The Doors and Jim Morrison already, this will be a stringent summary of the events with a well written and good narration by Johnny Depp. There is nothing new in the story itself and thankfully no conspiracy theories about Morrisons death. Where this documentary really shines and adds yet another level, is through the footage and the way this is put together. Some of this footage has never been shown before, and parts of it is still so crisp and clear that it's eerie. It is bound to send you on an emotional ride, if you were a fan when it mattered the most - when you were young. So in conclusion this falls two stars shy of ten because of the only fall through i noticed. When a letter from Morrisons father is brought up, it mentions only one paragraph of this well meaning letter, and uses it out of context to create drama. This is a 2 star fail in an otherwise clear cut and to the bone fact telling documentary.

Kakueke As an avid Doors fan for more than 40 years, and with the vast growth of the DVD/Video market and the enormous reservoir for footage that the Internet and YouTube have, I have seen almost all there is to see of The Doors. That includes Jim Morrison's own films "A Feast of Friends" and "HWY," footage from which is contained in "When You're Strange." And most everyone has seen some things on "When You're Strange," such as the scene of The Doors descending from the stairs of an airplane on their European tour, and the bright-eyed look when Jim turns and identifies himself as "Jim." But setting that aside, this documentary film contains considerable behind-the-scenes and archival footage that I have never seen. The tone is set early with scenes of Jim driving a car through a desert. His own home movie, Doors-like atmosphere, and dialogue. And yes, there are a lot of scenes with the group together, on the road, and interacting, as well as context shots, of locations and other things. The Miami Incident? I must confess, while some people writing about this movie say it gives you a definite answer of what happened, that is not true of this viewer; actually, I don't think anyone will ever know for sure. Still, it has a good presentation.But the narrative, the commentary? Sorry, it leaves something to be desired. It was very superficial. To have something new and insightful for a hard core fan like myself would be challenging, but still viable. However, I believe it is accurate to say that even for casual fans who know just the basics, there are no revelations. There is certainly nothing on the songwriting process, which some of the more recently released DVDs have some discussion on. Narrator Johnny Depp's words are just the same old story.It is time for Ray Manzarek to take it upon himself to conceptualize a film containing the very elements whose absence from the Oliver Stone film he used as a basis for criticizing it: namely, Jim's fascination with various French and other literary and theatrical figures. We know many of those names: Rimbaud, Nietzsche, Blake, Artaud, Baudelaire, beat writer Jack Kerouac, and of course Celine: "Take a Highway to the End of the Night." Fans of Jim know, from the many books about him and The Doors, that he memorized many passages of his favorite authors and would challenge visitors to his dorm room to read him the passages so he could cite the page numbers, which could make for a great scene. He was really absorbed. The film could convey how those influences shaped Jim and contributed to his writing of the great songs from The Doors powerful first two albums, The Doors and Strange Days; a few songs on later albums; and his poetry. This could be combined with other elements, including Jim's acid trips in the days when he was sleeping on the Venice rooftops and seeing "television skies." I am surprised that Director Tom DiCillo did not try to find a way to include some of this in his film, whose audience would be looking for something new.