“When You’re Strange” Hardly Focuses on The Doors

The documentary “When You’re Strange” written and directed by Tom DiCillo touts itself as a definitive chronicling of The Doors because it contains never-before-seen footage of the group, but as a fellow fan said after we walked out of the screening, “There is a reason it’s never-before-seen.”  Much of the previously un-aired footage fails to enthrall the viewer.  A lot of it is various concert footage, sprinkled incredibly lightly with interviews of the band’s members.  Other boring shots include generic footage from the era of politicians, war, and demonstrations.

As a whole, the documentary focuses much more on Jim Morrison than the entire band itself.  It replays many of the same events retold in Oliver Stone’s film about the group, but makes them watered down and less interesting.  There should be more about the other members’ personal influences through interviews and analysis of their musical styles by experts on the subject.  DiCillo also loses focus on The Doors with ramblings about the life and culture of the 60s that are best left to more general documentaries.

Having Johnny Depp narrate the film seems like an incredibly logical choice because even though Depp is not a rock star, he oozes a certain smooth appeal and charm that Jim Morrison has in his day.  Poor Johnny has to read from a miserable script, filled with little enthusiasm or verbal flair, ultimately detracting from his presence as our omniscient guide.

“When You’re Strange” does effectively tell us about Jim Morrison, through interviews with him and concert film of his onstage antics.  Personally I found out more about Morrison’s aspirations as a poet than I knew of before and I did learn a new fact about the song “La Woman” I was unaware of before.  Morrison’s lyric in the song “Mr. Mojo Rising” is actually an anagram of Jim Morrison.

This film is meant more for the casual fan of The Doors than the die-hard one because it contains little information that is outside public knowledge about the group.  If you are a die-hard fan though, you are probably just be excited to watch the band perform on the big screen and for that aspect I can agree it was worth seeing.  Unfortunately “When You’re Strange” hardly focuses on the band itself, spending too much on Morrison and the 1960s.  A little more specific direction in this documentary would have made it much more engrossing.

My Grade: B-