Post by darkstar2 on Jan 27, 2009 3:33:04 GMT
Filmmaker Created Magic Says Bands Drummer Jan 21 2009
Vancouver Sun
Filmmaker has 'created a new kind of magic,' says the band's drummer
By Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service
January 21, 2009
Even for a member of the Doors, the Sundance Film Festival can be a strange place. Fortunately, for surviving band member John Densmore, the stranger the better.
After all, where else would you see Samantha Power, one-time foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, politely tapping Densmore on the shoulder for an autograph? Densmore had no idea who she was, but that only made for a richer Sundance moment -- especially since Densmore had just finished talking about how he was feeling a little off-centre ever since Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States.
"As a child of the Vietnam War, I grew up believing your leaders lie. I've been cynical my whole life, and this is really forcing me to do some rethinking. I mean, the audacity of hope -- that's something I'm still trying to wrap my head around," Densmore says from a sponsor lounge awash in media chaos.
With When You're Strange, a new documentary from indie circuit regular Tom DiCillo (The Real Blonde, Living in Oblivion) premiering here at the festival, Densmore says he's been thinking a lot about the band and the Vietnam era in recent years -- not just because he's written a second book of his memoirs, but because he wondered if there was any good reason to make a new film about the minstrels of California psychedelia.
"Having seen all the [archival] footage and knowing every frame, I didn't think there was anything left to say. But then I read Tom's narration and he created a new kind of magic -- especially with Jim," says Densmore, referring to the romantically damaged lead singer, Jim Morrison.
"He may have been a kamikaze drunk, but Tom's picture of him has a sweetness to it that I really liked. Jim was actually a very sensitive, almost shy guy . . . and this is the first time you really see that quality in him."
Produced by Peter Jankowski, part of Dick Wolf productions of Law & Order fame, When You're Strange is the first film to feature unseen documentary footage -- as well as a wall of remastered Doors music backing up almost every minute of the movie.
Densmore says Morrison has been mythologized from the moment he died in 1971, and while he's always been happy that his old bandmate won't be forgotten, he felt most portrayals left out big chunks of the real story.
"I mean, Oliver [Stone] did his thing -- and that sat with me fine -- because I'd given him the galleys of my book Riders on the Storm.
"I think Val Kilmer should have actually been nominated for an Oscar for that performance because it gave me the creeps. It actually made me nervous. He really captured Jim. As for the movie, you can love it or hate it," says Densmore of the movie, The Doors.
"If I had my druthers, I wish the movie had been more about the '60s too -- and not just about the self-destructive artist -- but hey, Oliver says if you don't like my foot on your throat, don't see my movies."
For Densmore, and the rest of the surviving band members including Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, the new documentary is so entirely different from any other Doors portrait, it could be seen as an antidote to everything that has come before -- and it's about time.
"There are a lot of misconceptions out there. Jim was a genius, but he was also sick. He was an alcoholic. And to see a friend in the band self-destruct is horrendous. There's nothing romantic in that.
"But I've come to understand that creation and self-destruction go hand in hand. I still don't have any idea what [the whole Doors experience] was all about. I don't know why the music is still relevant -- but it must be the drumming."
A Cheshire grin curls across Densmore's mouth. "No, I don't know what the big to-do was. We were kids in a garage in Venice [California] and it's been chaos ever since. I thought it would be good to last 10 years and pay the rent . . . but it's been a lot more than that."
Even though Morrison died at 27, Densmore says he still misses his friend -- and he really misses his creative spirit.
"Jim would come up to me with lyrics scribbled on a matchbook, 'You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day'. . . and he'd ask 'Hey, John, can you play drums to this?' And just reading the matchbook, there was rhythm in the words," he says.
"That's the part of Jim I still miss. But, as I grow older, I've come to believe that maybe he was meant to go early. It's still sad, but I can look back with a bit more fondness now."
www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/breaks+through+other+side+Doors/1201495/story.html
Vancouver Sun
Filmmaker has 'created a new kind of magic,' says the band's drummer
By Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service
January 21, 2009
Even for a member of the Doors, the Sundance Film Festival can be a strange place. Fortunately, for surviving band member John Densmore, the stranger the better.
After all, where else would you see Samantha Power, one-time foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, politely tapping Densmore on the shoulder for an autograph? Densmore had no idea who she was, but that only made for a richer Sundance moment -- especially since Densmore had just finished talking about how he was feeling a little off-centre ever since Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States.
"As a child of the Vietnam War, I grew up believing your leaders lie. I've been cynical my whole life, and this is really forcing me to do some rethinking. I mean, the audacity of hope -- that's something I'm still trying to wrap my head around," Densmore says from a sponsor lounge awash in media chaos.
With When You're Strange, a new documentary from indie circuit regular Tom DiCillo (The Real Blonde, Living in Oblivion) premiering here at the festival, Densmore says he's been thinking a lot about the band and the Vietnam era in recent years -- not just because he's written a second book of his memoirs, but because he wondered if there was any good reason to make a new film about the minstrels of California psychedelia.
"Having seen all the [archival] footage and knowing every frame, I didn't think there was anything left to say. But then I read Tom's narration and he created a new kind of magic -- especially with Jim," says Densmore, referring to the romantically damaged lead singer, Jim Morrison.
"He may have been a kamikaze drunk, but Tom's picture of him has a sweetness to it that I really liked. Jim was actually a very sensitive, almost shy guy . . . and this is the first time you really see that quality in him."
Produced by Peter Jankowski, part of Dick Wolf productions of Law & Order fame, When You're Strange is the first film to feature unseen documentary footage -- as well as a wall of remastered Doors music backing up almost every minute of the movie.
Densmore says Morrison has been mythologized from the moment he died in 1971, and while he's always been happy that his old bandmate won't be forgotten, he felt most portrayals left out big chunks of the real story.
"I mean, Oliver [Stone] did his thing -- and that sat with me fine -- because I'd given him the galleys of my book Riders on the Storm.
"I think Val Kilmer should have actually been nominated for an Oscar for that performance because it gave me the creeps. It actually made me nervous. He really captured Jim. As for the movie, you can love it or hate it," says Densmore of the movie, The Doors.
"If I had my druthers, I wish the movie had been more about the '60s too -- and not just about the self-destructive artist -- but hey, Oliver says if you don't like my foot on your throat, don't see my movies."
For Densmore, and the rest of the surviving band members including Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, the new documentary is so entirely different from any other Doors portrait, it could be seen as an antidote to everything that has come before -- and it's about time.
"There are a lot of misconceptions out there. Jim was a genius, but he was also sick. He was an alcoholic. And to see a friend in the band self-destruct is horrendous. There's nothing romantic in that.
"But I've come to understand that creation and self-destruction go hand in hand. I still don't have any idea what [the whole Doors experience] was all about. I don't know why the music is still relevant -- but it must be the drumming."
A Cheshire grin curls across Densmore's mouth. "No, I don't know what the big to-do was. We were kids in a garage in Venice [California] and it's been chaos ever since. I thought it would be good to last 10 years and pay the rent . . . but it's been a lot more than that."
Even though Morrison died at 27, Densmore says he still misses his friend -- and he really misses his creative spirit.
"Jim would come up to me with lyrics scribbled on a matchbook, 'You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day'. . . and he'd ask 'Hey, John, can you play drums to this?' And just reading the matchbook, there was rhythm in the words," he says.
"That's the part of Jim I still miss. But, as I grow older, I've come to believe that maybe he was meant to go early. It's still sad, but I can look back with a bit more fondness now."
www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/breaks+through+other+side+Doors/1201495/story.html