“Val Kilmer is extraordinary as Morrison, holding the centre with a demonic charisma, while Stone recreates the late ‘60s milieu with vibrant versimilitude.”
Screened in tribute to Val Kilmer (1959 - 2025)
When tripping LA film student Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) meets stoned keyboard player Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan) on Venice Beach, their drug addled conversation quickly develops into a plan to “get a rock n roll band together and make a million bucks” (natch). What follows is both a ridiculously entertaining biopic charting the rise and fall of a rock star-cum-erotic-politician-cum-Lizard-King (Morrison was to die in Paris bathtub aged just 27) and a typically grandiose love letter to the 60s from Oliver Stone. Val Kilmer’s performance was so uncanny that the surviving members of the Doors had trouble distinguishing Kilmer's vocals from Morrison's originals - and there’s great support from Meg Ryan as Jim’s long-suffering girlfriend, Pamela, and a memorable cameo from a spaced out Crispin Glover as a spaced out Andy Warhol.
