When You're Strange (2009)

Genre: Documentary

Directed by: Tom DiCillo

Starring: Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, John Densmore, Johnny Depp

Running time: 86 minutes

Through the use of loads and loads of archived footage, When You’re Strange tells the story of the rock band The Doors and of its enigmatic lead singer, Jim Morrison. The film, which is narrated by actor Johnny Depp, also uses footage from HWY: An American Pastoral, a film made by Morrison.

This documentary was meant to serve as an answer to the 1991 movie made by Oliver Stone about Morrison and The Doors. In that sense, it offers a much more accurate portrayal of their story. Unlike most documentaries, there are no interviews with the people still alive today; it is just the archived footage, narrated by Depp. The advantage of this way of doing things is that the focus remains on the facts and not on the revisionist history that often comes from rock n’ roll interviews.

All things considered, this is an excellent documentary that is well worth seeing.

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