When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors - Rock god or drunk?

When You're Strange, Tom DiCillo’s documentary about Jim Morrison and 1960s rock band The Doors, verges close at times to hagiography. In DiCillo’s eyes, Morrison remains the rock god of legend rather than the bloated drunk he became in real life.

But his film, narrated by Johnny Depp, is well worth a view for the copious archive and newsreel footage of Morrison and the band it includes. There are also scenes from HWY: An American Pastoral, the experimental film the singer made in 1969, two years before his death in Paris in 1971 at the age of 27.

When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors is released by Universal on Blu-ray & DVD.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.