Post by tzinana on Jul 28, 2005 6:29:25 GMT
'The Doors' Captures Hysteria of an Era
BY LEONARD ABRAMS (To the Editor)
The New York Times
March 29, 1991, Friday
I was dismayed by " 'The Doors' Distorts the 60's"
(Editorial Notebook, March 11), which lamented the
film's treatment of that magic moment in history.
Brent Staples writes, "we who lived the stuff wince at
. . . the absence of hope and light," and "this film
pains my generation."
"The Doors" is full of mistakes and omissions, but who
ever looked to Jim Morrison for hope and light?
Morrison stood for sex, drugs, social revolution and
freedom from hope and light. If anyone presaged the
1980's it was Jim, who let us (who lived it) know
early on that the dirty truth is the only relief from
the oppression of misplaced optimism.
Jim Morrison's appeal was deliciously,
unapologetically deadly. He strove to "break on
through," and he did. More than any other artist of
his time, he unearthed the terrible tools of primal
rage and lust, after post-World War II era morality
did everything in its power to bury them once and for
all. Yes, the force of his personality outshone others
around him (especially the other Doors), and
certainly, any women who stuck by him must have done
so for his psychosexual power and not for a good
relationship.
But "The Doors" doesn't miss the point, not at all. It
captures the hysteria, the paganistic sexuality, the
drunkenness and even some of the existential yearning
of that era in ways that perhaps no other Hollywood
film has.
BY LEONARD ABRAMS (To the Editor)
The New York Times
March 29, 1991, Friday
I was dismayed by " 'The Doors' Distorts the 60's"
(Editorial Notebook, March 11), which lamented the
film's treatment of that magic moment in history.
Brent Staples writes, "we who lived the stuff wince at
. . . the absence of hope and light," and "this film
pains my generation."
"The Doors" is full of mistakes and omissions, but who
ever looked to Jim Morrison for hope and light?
Morrison stood for sex, drugs, social revolution and
freedom from hope and light. If anyone presaged the
1980's it was Jim, who let us (who lived it) know
early on that the dirty truth is the only relief from
the oppression of misplaced optimism.
Jim Morrison's appeal was deliciously,
unapologetically deadly. He strove to "break on
through," and he did. More than any other artist of
his time, he unearthed the terrible tools of primal
rage and lust, after post-World War II era morality
did everything in its power to bury them once and for
all. Yes, the force of his personality outshone others
around him (especially the other Doors), and
certainly, any women who stuck by him must have done
so for his psychosexual power and not for a good
relationship.
But "The Doors" doesn't miss the point, not at all. It
captures the hysteria, the paganistic sexuality, the
drunkenness and even some of the existential yearning
of that era in ways that perhaps no other Hollywood
film has.