The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition)
by Ray Manzarek, Rick Schmidlin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Kerry Humpherys, Ray Manzarek, Robby KriegerDirector: Ray Manzarek, Rick Schmidlin
Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 172 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-04-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Don't Hesitate! No Way to Lose! 3 for the price of 1!
Summary: 5 Stars
Instead of The Doors Collections this set should have been called 3 for 1, a joking reference to the song 5 to 1. This DVD is three previously released videos from the 80's and early 90's, Dance On Fire, Live At The Hollywood Bowl, and The Soft Parade.
Dance On Fire is a slow start for the DVD, it is formatted like a 60's era LP, a collection of songs strung together that may or may not have a connection to each other. Jim Morrison once suggested that between tracks on a Doors album they should put some of his poems which is exactly what happens here between each video is a poem by Morrison.
Some of the video's are rare such as the rarely seen Elektra promotional film of Break On Through. Others were created in the 80's, directed by Ray Manzarek with the specific intention to be video's shown on MTV, such as Wild Child, and surely the centerpiece of this is meant to be L.A. Woman. L.A. Woman is almost entirely shot by Ray without any vintage Doors footage and has a mini drama of a prostitute and a serial killer, with John Doe from the band X as the killer. It gets a little bogged down in the middle instrumental section as Ray gets in some esoteric artsy images. But it also has the iconic image of the L.A. highway at night, that looks like liquid light swarming around L.A. and Oliver Stone liked it so much "borrowed" it for his movie The Doors.
Live At The Hollywood Bowl-filmed on July 5, 1968.
The Doors gave this show at the Hollywood Bowl for Dave Diamond, a DJ who supported The Doors early on. Famously, Mick Jaeger and Keith Richard were in the audience that night so there might have been a little pressure on The Doors. Afterwards, a reporter is supposed to have asked Jaeger how he liked The Doors and he said `not really,' but this always sounded like rock star jealousy to me.
The concert is The Doors on a somewhat sedate night, not that they weren't good but some of the theatricality and tension isn't there. What is really cool about this concert is that it's just the Hollywood Bowl footage, no editing from other concerts or performances to make the video more dynamic, and the sound is live.The highlight of this DVD has to be The End. Morrison starts with his famous rap to the light man, "hey, Mr. light man turn down the lights," and has an extra poetic section about being at a party and there's an accident outside. It's classic Doors, and a very cool version of The End. Also, are bits of Celebration of the Lizard used as introductions to more well known Doors songs such as Light My Fire.
The Soft Parade
This is Ray's answer to Oliver Stone's The Doors movie. Ray has contended that Stone's movie didn't show the Jim Morrison he knew, the funny, articulate, thoughtful Jim Morrison.
This section starts hot! With The Changeling and you're immediately swept into the world of The Doors, as they travel through airports, backstage and with their significant others. Ray's wife Dorothy is featured, as is Pam Courson (Morrison's cosmic mate)and Jim, and Robby's future wife. We see The Doors in a recording session of the song Wild Child and you see a bit of how they built a song. The erudite Morrison is shown in the PBS interview with Richard Goldstein, and the humorous Jim, in a segment a minister at large confronts Jim and Morrison explains "I can try to explain anything." In this same section you're able to see a roadie picking cable and some sources think it's Harrison Ford making a few bucks before making it big, but you'll have to look quickly. And let's not forget Jim's backstage ode to Frederich Nietzsche as he pounds on a piano and recites a funny libretto about Nietzsche's life. And the video ends with The Doors performing The Soft Parade, which sounds almost too pretty for Jim Morrison to be singing until he takes it to the next level and makes it a ROCK song.
One little shortcoming is that The Unknown Soldier is included in the Dance On Fire section and in The Soft Parade section and is essentially the same video and makes it a bit of a redundancy.
A really weird thing about this DVD is that the menu doesn't appear until the end of the videos, but it does have a slew of bonus features that an avid Doors fan or a growing fan will want to see. The most prominent among these are Ray's films Evergreen, and Induction, which are very Godardesque films he made while at the UCLA film school. Induction features a party scene and if you look quickly you can see Jim Morrison as an extra in the scene.
The bonus features also has the almost obligatory audio commentary which really doesn't add anything to the viewing of the videos. Ray can be pretentious at times, and Robby and John seem along for the ride. Although, Ray and John also have their own special features about a 10 minute clip from Densmore's one man play Riders On The Storm, and Robby presents a reworked instrumental of The End which sounds more Emerson, Lake, & Palmer. And Henry Diltz offers rarely seen pictures from the Morrison Hotel photo shoot with a five minute commentary.
You really can't lose with this DVD. It has something for everybody from live performances, to Doors videos, to rarely seen films, it won't disappoint.
Summary of The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition)
THIS AMAZING COLLECTION FEATURES DANCE ON FIRE, LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL, AND THE SOFT PARADE PLUS COMMENTARY BYMEMBERS OF THE DOORS.If you are a new or original fan of the Doors, this spectacular DVD should give you enough incentive to jump on the DVD bandwagon without reservation. It's quite simply the finest single audio-visual source of Doors music and history, presented with the full participation of the band's surviving members (Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, John Densmore) and featuring a variety of bonus features that will send any Doors-phile into a state of rock & roll euphoria. We're not kidding, folks--this is a must-have disc for anyone who's ever been mesmerized by Jim Morrison and the late-1960s, early-'70s rock phenomenon known as the Doors.
The primary content consists of three acclaimed films, all running about an hour long and directed by Manzarek, that give the viewer a deeper appreciation of what the Doors were all about. Not only was the band filmed in a variety of live concert settings (especially at the legendary Hollywood Bowl show, included here), but they were also precociously aware of the value of film, creating music "videos" long before MTV and taking their cue from Manzarek's mid-'60s stint as a UCLA film student. Also included are clips from several TV appearances (including a PBS interview in which Morrison predicts the future of recording technology with astounding accuracy), revealing backstage footage, and, of course, some of the most hypnotic concert performances ever filmed.
Two of Manzarek's student films (Evergreen and Induction) indicate that the keyboardist could easily have become a successful director, but fate blessed him (and us) with a future in one of America's all-time greatest rock bands. What The Doors Collection conveys more than anything is that these four young men formed a unique cohesion of talent, that they all loved and admired Jim Morrison (and still do), and that they continue to share that love--along with some conflicting recollections and amiably contrasting opinions--on a commentary track that's wise, fun-loving, and refreshingly free of drippy nostalgia. Indeed, when Manzarek uses the word "atrocious" to describe Oliver Stone's 1991 film about Morrison and the band, he's merely defending the fact that Morrison was himself a sweet, lovable young man who had a dark side--no one's denying that--but who also fronted a band that continues to unite listeners and viewers in the positive spirit of creativity and freedom of expression. --Jeff Shannon
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