"Let's just say I was testing the bounds of reality."

Just to establish: I'm not confident saying Oliver Stone's The Doors is a good film.

Which is not to necessarily say it's a bad film. Really, if pressed, i don't believe in the idea of good or bad film anyway.

There's a lot in it that strikes me as smart, effective, engaging filmmaking, sometimes juxtaposed against embarrassingly lazy moviecraft shortcuts. But really i watch it because i like spending time in the world the film creates. It is a film i enjoy and rewatch. I like it enough that i recently upgraded it (along with From Hell, another maybe-"bad" movie i like) from DVD to Blu-ray.

The quality of my previous DVD version was atrocious. But as David Lynch well knows, lack of clarity can do wonders for your art. I think i have an advanced ability to allow myself into narrative immersion, but i also have a sharp eye for detail whether i actively engage it or not.

So my way of loving this movie is combining with the wonders of modern technology to cause a problem. Basically, the picture quality is so good now, that certain weaknesses of the production design become unignorably apparent. That is a major blow to the impact of The Doors.

Val Kilmer's performance is Heath-Ledger-as-Joker compelling here, but it shares the same potential weak spot -- if at any point the film narrative and context starts to waver for you, then your consciousness shifts from awareness of the story environment to awareness of the production environment, the acting is unveiled by the awareness that you're watching an actor, and all you can see is the caricature. The story is where the character lives, and it doesn't matter how possessed the actor was if the story is not there to provide a home for the character.

Witness, then, as spikes beneath the bubble:
- the mark on Kilmer's face (no, not that one, the one beside his nose) that is so obviously painted on
- the feet of the cameraman in the glossy face of a memorial stone
- the concert crowd extras arranged in clearly visible lines in an attempt to portray a full audience
- the alcohol bottles half-full of obviously fake alcohol
- Kilmer's beard (and Stone's in his cameo)

I know this doesn't matter to very many people. And I know that The Doors is an emotional portrait and a love letter to a flawed hero, and that i do it no service by picking on such things. I think it's a very successful movie on its own terms; if i wanted to attempt an evisceration i'd be cutting at the writing first, and the casting of Meg Ryan second, and there would be more before i got down to the level of surface minutiae.

I was distracted by Kilmer's performance the whole way through, and it's because 75% of the time i was aware that i was watching a movie. I wasn't in the story, because the set was no longer able to convince me. That's never occurred before with this film; maybe i should have used the "this happens to other guys too" line for a title instead...


Next projected installment: "OMGLOL look at those lame fake computers, Blade Runner totally sux"