how accurate is book 'break on through'? Options

[astro.buzz]

Opinions?

(Prolly asked before, sorry, but like fresh opinions...also...)

Oh, also the Doors movie? They seem to be playing it a lot on cable these days.

Danke,

Michael

[MeagerFood521]

Break on Thru was accurate but I felt it somewhat boring as it got too technical....
also, it was too long.
The Door's movie was a joke......having Val Kilmer play Jim as a drunken lout and Pamela as a silly flower child. They were any thing but!!!
One good thing about the movie is that it made younger people aware of the Doors and brought the band once again to the forefront with renewed interest in their music along with Jim himself.
We NEED those young fans as alot of Doors fans (including myself) are getting 'up' there in age and Jim's legacy has to be carried on. .... Welcome to our forum....Jacky

[Moses Jones]

Opinions?

(Prolly asked before, sorry, but like fresh opinions...also...)

Oh, also the Doors movie? They seem to be playing it a lot on cable these days.

Danke,

Michael

Break On Through: pretty accurate, very well researched. It remains a favorite.


Doors Movie? A joke, a piece of garbage,not worth the time it takes to watch it. The best part was the five seconds of Dana Plato as an extra in a crowd concert scene or John Densmore's role as Jon Haeney. Kilmer's portrayal of Jim as an unfocusing monotone dolt is going to send him and Oliver Stone straight to The Ninth Circle Of Hell.

[Encuentro]

Break On Through is the definitive Jim Morrison biography. There are some inaccuracies. The book claims that Jim went for his army physical before forming The Doors with Ray and meeting John and Robby when in fact it was John who drove Jim to get his army physical as John recounted in his book. At one point in the book, Robby is given credit for writing You're Lost Little Girl, and at another point in the book, Jim is given credit for writing it. Despite these and possible other inaccuracies, it is a very thorough and well researched book.

The Doors movie is slanderous. I don't have a problem with the inaccuracies as it is a Hollywood movie and Hollywood movies about real people are rarely accurate. It's the nature of some of the inaccuracies that I have a problem with. In the film, he drops out of college when he actually graduated. He speaks in a very spacey way. He is portrayed as being abusive and miserable to be around in virtually every scene.

[mewsical]

I'm working on Break On Through - been too hot here to do anything but stare at mindless television.
Right now, the Vornado is standing on it, so it's serving a useful purpose.

Oliver Stone's film is mostly fan fiction and embarrasingly so.

I had no idea that JD portrayed JH. Not exactly physically similar types - JH being more of the curly-haired, mustachioed variety.

[astro.buzz]

Break on Thru was accurate but I felt it somewhat boring as it got too technical....
also, it was too long.
The Door's movie was a joke......having Val Kilmer play Jim as a drunken lout and Pamela as a silly flower child. They were any thing but!!!
One good thing about the movie is that it made younger people aware of the Doors and brought the band once again to the forefront with renewed interest in their music along with Jim himself.
We NEED those young fans as alot of Doors fans (including myself) are getting 'up' there in age and Jim's legacy has to be carried on. .... Welcome to our forum....Jacky

Interesting... (replying to all the comments here, you go a bit more in-depth, but there seems to be a consensus).

Just started the book... been reading in bits and pieces. I have not liked that it relies so much on second hand information, as interesting as it is to get opinions from people who were there... Morrison is obviously a deep person who people misunderstand, so you see every sort of imagining about what he said or did or why he said or did a thing. Most of which I find rarely rings true. Fascinating, in a sense of seeing how people perceive, though at times it gets extremely derogatory. (It seems when people miss, they always fire too low.)

That seems to be why they miss entirely, actually.

I don't think people can perceive someone better then them.

Doors movie: agree it is junk, just wanted other opinions there and was wondering if anyone saw any good in it at all. I don't expect people who retell "legends" to ever get it right, though. It would be nice if someday someone remade the story, but from what I have seen on video tape of Morrison that would be thoroughly impossible. The guy just glowed at every statement and everytime he was caught on video tape. Walking personification of cool.

Even if someone could be found who was as good looking as him, they couldn't convey the way he talked and moved.

[astro.buzz]

Break on Thru was accurate but I felt it somewhat boring as it got too technical....
also, it was too long.
The Door's movie was a joke......having Val Kilmer play Jim as a drunken lout and Pamela as a silly flower child. They were any thing but!!!
One good thing about the movie is that it made younger people aware of the Doors and brought the band once again to the forefront with renewed interest in their music along with Jim himself.
We NEED those young fans as alot of Doors fans (including myself) are getting 'up' there in age and Jim's legacy has to be carried on. .... Welcome to our forum....Jacky

Curious, what is your impression of Pamela? Like Jim, she seems to be painted with all sorts of cloud covered misinterpretations... from the extremely derogatory to the obviously strange.

I find the pair of them fascinating, both were very beautiful, oddly so, externally and internally. (Very rare thing.) Though, I have never had much of a clear picture of Pamela.

(Not that there are not plenty of other such people out there who are internally beautiful, but the whole doors romance thing is fascinating.)

[MeagerFood521]

Curious, what is your impression of Pamela? Like Jim, she seems to be painted with all sorts of cloud covered misinterpretations... from the extremely derogatory to the obviously strange.

I find the pair of them fascinating, both were very beautiful, oddly so, externally and internally. (Very rare thing.) Though, I have never had much of a clear picture of Pamela.

(Not that there are not plenty of other such people out there who are internally beautiful, but the whole doors romance thing is fascinating.)

Pamela facinated me in many ways 1st. She walked off with the prize. 2nd. She was so beautiful it hurt to look at her. 3rd. I felt really, really bad about what happened to her after the death of Jim. You would think one of the Door's family would give her a fair shake, but nothing like that ever happened. I remember in Ray's 'Light my Fire' he mentions he ran into her at some seaside restaurant and she was distraught and hardly holding herself together. WHY DID HE NOT REACH OUT HIS HAND TO HELP HER?
Why did no one reach out their hands to help her? No, it was all Jim, Jim, Jim.
Rumor had it she killed him/all she wanted was his money ... once Jim passed away she was forgotton about and it wasn't like she was a casual date or a one night stand although that was how she was treated. She was suffering badly and suffering alone...
I just don't understand out of all the people connected with the band...no one inquired about how she was doing. That's my beef!!!!!! Thanks for asking. Jacky

[GG Morrison]

Pamela facinated me in many ways 1st. She walked off with the prize. 2nd. She was so beautiful it hurt to look at her. 3rd. I felt really, really bad about what happened to her after the death of Jim. You would think one of the Door's family would give her a fair shake, but nothing like that ever happened. I remember in Ray's 'Light my Fire' he mentions he ran into her at some seaside restaurant and she was distraught and hardly holding herself together. WHY DID HE NOT REACH OUT HIS HAND TO HELP HER?
Why did no one reach out their hands to help her? No, it was all Jim, Jim, Jim.
Rumor had it she killed him/all she wanted was his money ... once Jim passed away she was forgotton about and it wasn't like she was a casual date or a one night stand although that was how she was treated. She was suffering badly and suffering alone...
I just don't understand out of all the people connected with the band...no one inquired about how she was doing. That's my beef!!!!!! Thanks for asking. Jacky

I find that odd, too, Jacky. It's as though, after the early years of their fame, Jim and Pam were sort of detached from the rest of the band and their girlfriends/wives. What is so apparent to me in Ray's book is how he seemed to be really tuned in to Jim in those early days, and then he discusses the "later" Jim as a casual observer might. Someone who wasn't involved with Jim at all. Maybe the alcohol helped to distance Ray from Jim--it's hard to be around an alcoholic.

[jym]

Right now I have to say Break On Through is the definitive Morrison bio.

[mewsical]

I find that odd, too, Jacky. It's as though, after the early years of their fame, Jim and Pam were sort of detached from the rest of the band and their girlfriends/wives. What is so apparent to me in Ray's book is how he seemed to be really tuned in to Jim in those early days, and then he discusses the "later" Jim as a casual observer might. Someone who wasn't involved with Jim at all. Maybe the alcohol helped to distance Ray from Jim--it's hard to be around an alcoholic.

Ray liked Jim and he did not like Jimbo, the Mr. Hyde side of Jim. Jimbo took over more and more, which is apparent from John's book too.

I don't know that Pam was popular with the other guys/girls around Jim and the band either. Didn't Tony Funches refer to her as 'fingernails on a blackboard'?

[mutenostrilagony]

I must say that when reading break on through I could not put it down. The great thing is you can find anything you want to read about as it is in sections. It is the only book to mention the closet fire that happened in the movie as well. No one here gets out alive is a good read and given it was one of the first written and by 2 that were associated with jim was at the time factual but break on through I thouroughly enjoyed more because it had more information and very comprehensive.

As for the movie john densmore says its "a thirdsinaccurate" so are we talking 70 percent? Meg ryan did a good jogb of potraying pamella, their voices are similiar and you can hear that in one of jim's last interviews. where she talks as well) It may not be the full story of their relationship, only snippets and some depressing too, I hate the fact that there is a lot of abuse in that movie but stone wanted to make what he thought was an interesting jim morrison which turned out to be a tortured artist. Some great scenes but not the complete story of the doors but maybe what no one here gets out alive left out. The members of the doors thought kilmer did a great job to some justification.

The oither doors claim they did not know pamella that well but danny sugarman gives a good insight about her in his book wonderland avenue.

[MeagerFood521]

Break On Through is the definitive Jim Morrison biography. There are some inaccuracies. The book claims that Jim went for his army physical before forming The Doors with Ray and meeting John and Robby when in fact it was John who drove Jim to get his army physical as John recounted in his book. At one point in the book, Robby is given credit for writing You're Lost Little Girl, and at another point in the book, Jim is given credit for writing it. Despite these and possible other inaccuracies, it is a very thorough and well researched book.

The Doors movie is slanderous. I don't have a problem with the inaccuracies as it is a Hollywood movie and Hollywood movies about real people are rarely accurate. It's the nature of some of the inaccuracies that I have a problem with. In the film, he drops out of college when he actually graduated. He speaks in a very spacey way. He is portrayed as being abusive and miserable to be around in virtually every scene.

Very well said......great post. Jacky

[Onne]

Ray liked Jim and he did not like Jimbo, the Mr. Hyde side of Jim. Jimbo took over more and more, which is apparent from John's book too.

I don't know that Pam was popular with the other guys/girls around Jim and the band either. Didn't Tony Funches refer to her as 'fingernails on a blackboard'?

I think they all had their own lives and when it comes to Ray, when he got to know Jim, he was already settled down and obviously ready to start a family. I think when you're in this time in your life then you're not into being closely involved with people that are self-destructive. When it comes to Pam, she was self-destructive too and instable. I do not find
it strange at all that the other Doors members were not into taking care of someone when they had family of their own and wives. I think when it comes to Pam, she was not really all alone because she had family too with mom, dad, sister but she maybe did not use what she had left. All she saw and thought about was Jim and then she died because she could not see a life without him. There's something about Pam that always reminded me of someone that when she met Jim, she was a little girl but in the relationship she did not grew at all, she stayed that little girl. She was left without him and then she was already lost. Females can lose themselves in relationships, especially when they're still young and I always found the outcome of Pam as a warning of what can be if you become your relationship.

I can understand that impression because imagine a female that's dependent, can not be without, expectations rise that he should be there to make her feel better when she's not and if you're Jim then you're an independent person. It does turn into "fingernails on a blackboard".

[mewsical]

I think they all had their own lives and when it comes to Ray, when he got to know Jim, he was already settled down and obviously ready to start a family. I think when you're in this time in your life then you're not into being closely involved with people that are self-destructive. When it comes to Pam, she was self-destructive too and instable. I do not find
it strange at all that the other Doors members were not into taking care of someone when they had family of their own and wives. I think when it comes to Pam, she was not really all alone because she had family too with mom, dad, sister but she maybe did not use what she had left. All she saw and thought about was Jim and then she died because she could not see a life without him. There's something about Pam that always reminded me of someone that when she met Jim, she was a little girl but in the relationship she did not grew at all, she stayed that little girl. She was left without him and then she was already lost. Females can lose themselves in relationships, especially when they're still young and I always found the outcome of Pam as a warning of what can be if you become your relationship.

I can understand that impression because imagine a female that's dependent, can not be without, expectations rise that he should be there to make her feel better when she's not and if you're Jim then you're an independent person. It does turn into "fingernails on a blackboard".

Pam wasn't exactly a dying fly of a personality. She was quite tough, owned guns, ran her own business, and gave Jim back as good as he gave. In Break on Through, Mirandi Babitz, who lived with Jim and Pam on and off, says they had fights that were monumental and loud. Remember Pam wrote "Faggot" on Jim's favorite jacket and so on. I'd really suggest reading Break on Through if possible. Jim adored her. And vice versa. They were the perfect pair. When she was around, Jim hopped to it.

[Onne]

I do have the book, for some years but have not read it from page one to the last. I have read some parts and from what I've seen of it, I get the impression that it's a well written book and professional.

When it comes to Jim and Pam they sure knew how to provoke each other. I can understand that, I think anyone would have reacted strongly with someone like Jim because I think there was a lot of hurt and pain in their relationship together with very strong emotions. The 60's or not, I think Jim sleeping around and being away for long periods could have not been easy or always okay for her, maybe something she emotionally did not always understand. I honestly think Pam was hurt a lot in this relationship and in the lifestyle, it must have also changed something about her so I would like to know Pam as her family knew her before Jim. That would be nice to know.

[mutenostrilagony]

I do have the book, for some years but have not read it from page one to the last. I have read some parts and from what I've seen of it, I get the impression that it's a well written book and professional.

When it comes to Jim and Pam they sure knew how to provoke each other. I can understand that, I think anyone would have reacted strongly with someone like Jim because I think there was a lot of hurt and pain in their relationship together with very strong emotions. The 60's or not, I think Jim sleeping around and being away for long periods could have not been easy or always okay for her, maybe something she emotionally did not always understand. I honestly think Pam was hurt a lot in this relationship and in the lifestyle, it must have also changed something about her so I would like to know Pam as her family knew her before Jim. That would be nice to know.

I agree with that. Jim had his problems and unfortunatlely maybe, Pam went along with the ride good and bad but according to some reports she was strong and independant and determined. I remember reading in NOGOA that Pam watned an ordinary life but jim said that even with or without the doors he could not give that. Maybe it was his destiny to die young, he knew he would nefer have a family and his lifestyle would not warrant that. I do not know if he had lived if he and Pam would have survived together. I do not think pam knew about drugs before she met jim, she was a college dropout but got into clothes designing and Morrison funded her boutique, so there is a little inde and dependence there.

[mewsical]

I agree with that. Jim had his problems and unfortunatlely maybe, Pam went along with the ride good and bad but according to some reports she was strong and independant and determined. I remember reading in NOGOA that Pam watned an ordinary life but jim said that even with or without the doors he could not give that. Maybe it was his destiny to die young, he knew he would nefer have a family and his lifestyle would not warrant that. I do not know if he had lived if he and Pam would have survived together. I do not think pam knew about drugs before she met jim, she was a college dropout but got into clothes designing and Morrison funded her boutique, so there is a little inde and dependence there.

- of course she did! Also, she wasn't a college drop-out, she went to design school here in LA. Jim backed her financially because he believed she could make money with Themis - she might have done if she could stop giving clothes away! In fact, Pam could easily have opened a boutique in Paris or in London. She knew plenty of people in Europe. That may very well have been the ultimate plan, but she was also running with "Eurotrash" (a press expression, not mine) like the Count (seems so pretentious to refer to an 18 year old heroin dealer as a Count, but he was), and Jim was not as socially connected as Pam in Europe.

Pam didn't necessarily 'go along with the ride,' half the time she was behind the wheel, figuratively speaking!

I agree, though, that they most likely would have parted ways sooner or later.

[mutenostrilagony]

- of course she did! Also, she wasn't a college drop-out, she went to design school here in LA. Jim backed her financially because he believed she could make money with Themis - she might have done if she could stop giving clothes away! In fact, Pam could easily have opened a boutique in Paris or in London. She knew plenty of people in Europe. That may very well have been the ultimate plan, but she was also running with "Eurotrash" (a press expression, not mine) like the Count (seems so pretentious to refer to an 18 year old heroin dealer as a Count, but he was), and Jim was not as socially connected as Pam in Europe.

Pam didn't necessarily 'go along with the ride,' half the time she was behind the wheel, figuratively speaking!

I agree, though, that they most likely would have parted ways sooner or later.

what I meant was Pam did not experiment with drugs before she met jim, although this is not known before. Yes, sometimes they did take turns on that wheel their share of being behind it. Pam and jim were young sweet romantics trying to realise their dreams but when they did things went out of control, jim was like that before pam anyway, we never will know they may have parted. Patricia Kenneally believed that jim would go and be with her when jim came back from Paris. Open to debate, I guess.

[mewsical]

what I meant was Pam did not experiment with drugs before she met jim, although this is not known before. Yes, sometimes they did take turns on that wheel their share of being behind it. Pam and jim were young sweet romantics trying to realise their dreams but when they did things went out of control, jim was like that before pam anyway, we never will know they may have parted. Patricia Kenneally believed that jim would go and be with her when jim came back from Paris. Open to debate, I guess.

I doubt that's true. She was up on the Strip hanging out on the weekends. Pam and Jim, sweet young romantics?! Hardly! Very much a product of their environment.

Jim go back to PK? Just as likely to stick hot needles in his eye than do that. The woman relentlessly stalked him to LA and then to Miami, with her whining little problems, when he's on trial. So thoughtful of her.