Film Reviews

When You're Strange

• Rating:
• Director: Tom DiCillo
• Starring:
• Details: US / 86mins (15A).

Music documentaries can fall victim to one but major snare: in the rush to heap praise up its subject, a fair and balanced review of the work is discarded. Tom DiCillo's documentary on The Doors, who were at the spearhead of the '60s counterculture, is guilty of making them come across nothing more than an above average rock band. The Doors were anything but.
DiCillo's documentary opens with excerpts from Morrison's 1969 film HWY: An American Pastoral; Morrison is driving through the desert as news of his own death blares out from the radio. That's taken over by Johnny Depp's narration, which paints a picture of the '60s prior to the advent of Morrison and The Doors - the Kennedy assassination, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, the rise of the youth counterculture, the decade was primed for a band such as this. Then it's on to Morrison's background, his childhood, his obsession with Elvis, his attendance at UCLA, and his first meeting with Ray Manzarek. The narration is constant as it whizzes through the band's early history (opening gigs for The Turtles, Buffalo Springfield and Van Morrison), the cultivation of the Morrison image and the rise and rise of The Doors from cult college band to international stardom.
When You're Strange gets as much right as it does wrong. First and foremost it's an information kiosk - it was surprising to hear that Robby Krueger wrote so many songs, that he just picked up an electric guitar six months before joining the band and that Light My Fire was the first song he ever penned. The documentary is a perpetual stream of unseen archive footage of early gigs, TV spots and behind-the-scenes making of The Soft Parade album, which documents the beginning of Morrison's slide into alcohol and drug dependency. There are no talking heads to break up the momentum, no contemporary revisionist interviews - DiCillo is determined to make When You're Strange a time capsule: The Doors existed in the '60s and early '70s and that's where this documentary will stay. We have only Depp's after-the-fact narration to guide us through and it's here that When You're Strange falls down.
Depp's narration is constant throughout but as with his commentary on Gonzo: The Life And Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson the actor comes across as bored - unable or unwilling to give the tired script life. He isn't helped with embarrassing lines like "You can't burn out if you're not on fire," and "His soul was trapped between heaven and hell." Riddled with cliches, the narration can be laughable at times. But DiCillo's biggest crime is turning Morrison and co. into nothing more than another '60s rock band that had a few hits before their frontman died. There are tons of concert footage where enraptured crowds breathe in every word but the why, however, is missing here. As Morrison said himself, "I have nothing to say." Neither does When You're Strange.

Review by Gavin Burke