Jac Holzman solely responsible for signing them and introducing them to the world who was also at the screening wrote a positive review of the documentary in a personal letter to Tom DiCillo.
Tom - I saw the screening over the weekend and was just knocked out. There have been many attempts at a Doors film AND so many abject failures that I had despaired of anyone getting it “right.” And by “right” I meant just letting the band and their music hit a contemporary audience full blast. I have lived with The Doors for 43 years and understand that the sheer power and danger of the group had to come out through their music even more than in live performance footage. You got that just right. In the context of all the music that flowed into the mighty rock ‘n’ roll tributary, The Doors still excite, chill, inform and challenge the listener.
The canny addition of the HWY material as context-within-context, the intense editing without showiness, sound mixing , Johnny Depp’s subtle phrasing and solid narration all fuse into one of the great films about music and the crazy, driven people who have no choice but to create it. Pondering the movie later I realized what guts it took for Ray, Robbie and John even to get on a stage with Jim. Only the best and most committed musicians could have made that work. When You’re Strange viscerally plugs into that tremulous period when The Doors represented the furthest edge to which one might aspire without actually getting arrested. I’ve alerted my associates at Warner Music Group about the June 30th screening in New York. I’ve told them this is a “must see” music movie. Jac
