Doors Keyboardist Ray Manzarek on New Doc, Old Influences and Oliver Stone's Folly
Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week, we hear from Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek about the band's new documentary When You're Strange, which opens Friday in limited release.
For a rock band whose filmed legacy includes at least a dozen concert and video compilations -- not to mention a full-scale Hollywood biopic -- it's not just a little bizarre that The Doors were never the subject of a feature documentary until now. Enter When You're Strange, director Tom DiCillo's fairly straightforward doc (narrated by Johnny Depp) interweaving archival performance and interview footage with extended, never-before-seen footage of late vocalist Jim Morrison's own experimental film, HWY: An American Pastoral. Some of it looks like it was shot yesterday, reinforcing Morrison's enduring mythology as a half-martyr, half-ghost whose mission is carried forward here by surviving members Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore. In a candid, freewheeling discussion recently with Movieline, Manzarek explained the film's mission, the Doors' cinematic influences, Oliver Stone's blundering and how making a movie is like "World War III."
How did we not have a feature-length documentary about The Doors until today?
Well, The Doors move in their own time frame -- in their own sphere. Better now than 20 years ago, because if he had it 20 years ago, there wouldn't be anything new to put out today. So here we are with a brand-new Doors documentary -- stuff you've never seen before, telling the story of The Doors to all those people in the 21st century who might not be aware of Jim Morrison, The Doors, or "Light My Fire." Though I don't know who they might be.
How and when were you approached for When You're Strange, and what was your first impression of the project?
We were first approached by Dick Wolf Productions, and we said, "Yes, man. Let's do it. Let's put a documentary together." He had done a couple of documentaries -- he won an Academy Award with the one about the firefighters in 9/11, a couple of brothers [Twin Towers] who didn't make it. So he was into documentary films and wanted to make a feature-length. He had been a Doors fan ages ago, since back when we actually booked the Doors in college. We said, "Hey, sounds like a great idea! Let's do it." He had a great director in Tom DiCillo; we talked to Tom, and his ideas were terrific, especially [his] framing it with Jim Morrison being dead and yet driving that car -- that reference to shamanism, or the shaman being able to work beyond space and time. In essence, Jim being alive kind of flip-flops the idea of death and makes it a different experience entirely. So that was about three or four years ago. And we said, "Sounds good, man."
The archival and short-film footage is quite revealing. What was new, and what role did you play in its unearthing?
We've had the footage in storage, in one of those temperature-controlled storage vaults in Hollywood like you should do with all your film and all your tapes. It was there. It had been sitting there waiting to go to work -- in cold storage. The footage said, "Any time you want to use us, we're in shape here. We just need some processing." We had everything archived and just went to work on it.
The long tail of The Doors goes on for decades, as most fans know, but When You're Strange chooses to focus on the specific years the band was active. What's left to tell of the band's legacy, perhaps?
You want me to tell you another story? "What's next, Ray?" That story will be the philosophical antecedents of The Doors.
You don't say.
Yes. What is the philosophy of The Doors? What is cosmic consciousness? What does that mean? What is opening "the doors of perception." What does that mean? How does it manifest itself in Doors music, and where does The Doors' music come from. What are Jim's poetry influences, Ray and Robby's musical influences, and John Densmore's drum influences. Who are those people, how do they influence The Doors, and what is the philosophy? That'll be the next thing. That would be sort of intellectual, though. This is a very exciting documentary for people who both know The Doors and as a great introduction to The Doors.
For people who know The Doors, though, would you address the legacy? The fractiousness in recent years, for example -- would you cooperate with telling that story?
Well, that's a possibility. I hadn't thought about it, but it sounds good to me.
There's some drama there! It's a real story. You guys are like brothers.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, we could be doing a contemporary rock-and-roll version of The Brothers Karamazov. You know? Let's do Dostoevsky, man! What the f*ck?
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Comments
Great interview.
I love that he mostly listens to electronic and jazz music now. Damn right!
if you've ever heard Ray Manzarek speak, you can hear his voice throughout this entire interview. Ray is as fascinating a man as Jim Morrison was.
and i know a lot of people didn't like Oliver's movie, but that is how i got introduced to The Doors. when i got hooked on the music, i read books about them and watched interviews they'd done and i got to know the real band. so seeing that film totally changed my taste in music... and definitely for the better! : )
4/9/2010
My comment is about Jim's death...
Ever since Jim's death, I have been haunted by the thought that Jim Morrison was assasinated. Ever since I was a kid, I have always believed that Jim did not die of his own doing. I saw the band play 'Absolutely Live' and I still mourn Jim's death. He died too soon.
To this day, I believe Jim Morrison was assasinated. He was murdered by rogue forces within the US government. I also believe, these rogue forces can be linked to many other assasinations. I believe they were responsible for the assasinations of President J.F.Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, Dr. M.L.K. Jr., Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Marilyn Monroe, Lenny Bruce and countless others. Anyone in those days, who opposed, or presented a (perceived)threat, to the US government, were targets. The reason for these assasinations, in my opinion, was probably due to their fame, notoriety and vocal opposition to the US government's positions on serious issues facing the nation (such as the Vietnam War, Drugs, Civil Rights, Religion, Open-Minded/Free-Thinking, etc).
These rogue forces were probably designed and developed by J. Edgar Hoover, the insane, 'evil-leader' of US-security, at the F.B.I. It is a fact that J.E. Hoover kept secret files on politicians, movie stars, rock stars and comics. He had files on Jim Morrison and he even tried to black-mail the Kennedys and MLK (and others). He had every reason to assasinate the people he feared...and there were many. He had a narrow minded, paranoid-schizophrenic personality and he was in a position of power. He was (obviously) the leader and he had help to cover-up the crimes.
We need investigate these murders to see if they are linked to J. Edgar Hoover. If the link does exist, the American people 'Need to Know'. We must not let his conspiracy-of-crimes escape our thorough investigation. We owe it to the victims, and the American peoople.
Besides, it would also make a 'Very Important' Movie for Hollywood to produce. It would be Epic! Hopefully, this new 'Doors' movie will inspire the interest needed to uncover the facts.
The deaths of so many important personalities, of so many suspicious circumstances, in such a short period of time, is NOT Mere-Coincidence. There is a link and we need to find the answers. We need to know the truth...For the sake of 'All The Innocent Victims' (including Jim).
What do YOU think? Let me know... Ron_Hughes_Jr@yahoo.com
Thank You,
Ron Hughes, Jr.
God Bless Jim Morrison and all the other 'Important Voices of those Turbulent-Times' in US history. They did NOT die in vane!
I think Jim was assasinated along woth Janis, Hendrix and Lennon.
The 4 J's (Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon)
Actually, with "Joplin" that would be 5 J's =P
Regarding the possible assassination of Jim, Jimi, Janis, et al, by Hoover and/or the FBI:
It is without question that all of the above were under some sort of surveillance by the FBI, at one time or another. It would also seem that all of them were, superficially, the type of people that Hoover wouldn't have had much love for.
But I think that for an assassination theory to work it would need for Hoover to have seen the victims as being "dangerous" on some level. That is, we can't put them in jail or discredit them, for whatever reason...as in, they aren't criminals, we don't want to make martyrs of them, etc...so we'll just have to kill them.
Jimi? Not really an activist or a leader. Dangerous? I think that you could point to any number of people in the 60's counter-culture that were more subversive than Jimi. Better to simply bust him for dope.
Morrison? Same thing, in my opinion. They were busting him for obscenity and substances, chasing him out of the country. He made himself an easy target and the FBI would likely have had him in jail in the near future, had he lived. Why bother killing him??
Also, remember that both Jimi and Jim died overseas. Not really the jurisdiction of the FBI. Certainly not impossible for them to hit someone outside of the US...but it seems unlikely. What's more likely is that they both died simply out of misadventure.
Janis, Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, Leary, Zappa, Malcom X, Lenny Bruce, etc, etc...all were probably classified as being much more "dangerous" than Jimi or Morrison. If you want to look for conspiracies, I think that the lives and deaths of those kind of people may prove to be more fruitful hunting grounds...
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