The Doors The Rewatchables
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The Doors

What’s Aged the Worst?

Runtime; reporter girlfriend subplot; Meg Ryan as Pam; Kevin Dillon as Johnny Drama; Wayne's World 2 parody; wigs; desert special effects; Doors missing Woodstock; easy fact-checking; the film's potential audience today

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:18Read transcript
  • The movie is 25 minutes too long; the reporter girlfriend could be cut to a minute like Mimi Rogers' photographer, and the timeline of Jim's girlfriends and the Wiccan subplot, later negated by "I was stoned," is superfluous.
  • Teased as the all-time aged worst: Meg Ryan as Pam was horribly miscast, like Meg Ryan in a wig in a different movie; Stone later disowned the casting.
  • A reply calls it a thankless part as Stone conceived it, criticized by people around the Doors, though she does seem to be in another movie.
  • A different view: she is not that bad, seems to impersonate Nicole Kidman on the roof (Kidman would have been better), and is funny at Thanksgiving; the role was central partly because her family contributed.
  • There was controversy over nude scenes Stone required of whoever took the part; it ended up halfway.
  • Kevin Dillon reads as Johnny Drama; Entourage should have made the Doors drummer Drama's best role.
  • Wayne's World 2 parodied the Native American material, which a son did not understand.
  • The wigs are terrible on everyone except Morrison, with Ed Sullivan even joking about hair.
  • The desert drug special effects are dated, and the witch reporter girlfriend is noted again.
  • The film is a reminder the Doors were not invited to Woodstock, a giant miss where they might have stolen the show or been the worst band.
  • It would be hard to be the worst band there, but drunk Jim could have; by 1968-69 the Doors were moving into something darker than the hippie movement. — Chuck Klosterman
  • The office scene where everyone tells Jim they were not invited to Woodstock is another expository gem.
  • Allegations about Stone's casting process surfaced during Me Too in 2017, with Malora Hardin (as spoken), Melissa Gilbert and an actress named Caitlin O'Haney (as spoken) (who broke a non-disclosure agreement) speaking out; listeners are pointed to research it themselves.
  • What has not aged well: a biopic today is easily fact-checked, unlike 1991, which would have hurt Stone; critics would dwell on invented scenes rather than, as in Ebert's review, a self-destructive man.
  • Offered hesitantly: the potential audience has aged worse, as a new viewer feels an obligation to have the film declare Morrison a bad person, whereas in 1991 that was not a conversation.
  • Counter: it was assumed then that the character was a sociopath; one view says that is why movies are less interesting now.