That said, being moderately blotto on wine may be the perfect condition for the viewing of this movie. This is the first movie The Kilmer Project has yet encountered where a convincing case could be made that Val Kilmer's claims to method acting are legitimate. He looks eerily like Jim Morrison and goes with the weird script and Oliver Stone's trippy directing so naturally. Plus all the druuuuuuuuuuugs:
This movie features Kilmer following a hallucinatory Native American which seems strangely fitting. This can briefly be seen near the end of the clip above where they 'ride the snake,' in hilariously copyright infringement circumventing German. This is a recurring theme at this point in Kilmer's career and could conceivaby be read as an attempt on Kilmer's part to connect to that portion of his genealogy.
I think I should take this time to point out, that as Jim Morrison is (probably erroneously) seen by some as a great American poet, that Val Kilmer himself is a bit of a poet. He wrote and self published a book of poetry in the 80's that is now incredibly rare (going for over $600). It has a poem about a young fling he had with Michelle Pfiefer entitled "The Pfiefer Howls at the Moon," (seriously!) and will be in my amazon.com wish list indefinitely.
But Jim Morrison, in my opinion is first and foremost a rock star, not a poet. Accordingly, "The Doors" follows the typical rock star biopic formula (starting with a purehearted love of music, finding unexpected stardom, success bringing new problems, drugs, cheating on spouses, gradual demise, brief chance of a turnaround, death) with some minor exceptions. For example, Jim Morrison is constantly on drugs and that doesn't seem to be his problem. Also, instead of putting Morrison up on a pedastal the Oliver Stone movie trys repeatedly to suggest that he was kind of scumbag who doubted his own profundity in his rare moments of sobriety. He has a weepy little pity party and exclaims "I'm a fake hero. This is a joke god played on me." I suppose your perspective on The Doors' music will determine whether or not you find Jim Morrison to be an insufferable, nihilistic, drug addled maniac or a reincarnated Dionysis whose music will echo throughout all recorded history. This scene definitely takes the middle ground.
Kilmer's definitely singing all the songs in the movie which is really pretty impressive. The movie is, however, so entirely tripped out that it takes some effort to get through it all. Like a bad trip it goes on too long and you kind of want it to end before it does. Oliver Stone's vision of the movie is pitch perfect with melting images and inexplicable hallucinations. This was a big win for Kilmer, the Lizard King.
On a personal note, and keeping with the themes of Dionysis (the god of wine also known as Bacchus), I just got back from New Orleans where I saw Val Kilmer in person as the King of the Krewe of Bacchus. I couldn't get a good photo in from where I was because it was dark and they were moving on by the time I got my focus about right, but take a look at him:
So regal, so jolly. The question arose at the time, as a method actor does Val Kilmer believe that he is an actual monarch as he sits on the Mardi Gras parade float? Will he only answer to "your highness?" I'm leaning towards the answer to this being yes because Kid Rock was not dressed up like this on his float. Some of you out there may be wondering if I went to Mardi Gras only to see Val Kilmer. The fact is that I had the trip planned months before I knew he would be there. So no, I didn't go just to see Val Kilmer. That would have been weird.
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