Few interesting points by someone on the IMDb movie database When You're Strange section.
I never thought of it like that but it is indeed a fair point about HWY being used completely out of context.
Obviously DiCillo was limited in the footage that was available but using HWY (whether or not he only used out take footage) to emphasise various points in his film perhaps did not work as well as he expected.
I never thought HWY much of anything really, essential for a Doors fan but not very interesting, but as the lady says it WAS a personal tale Jim was trying to convey.
Perhaps in the rush to profit from Jim Morrison for the new decade The Doors have lost sight of what all four tried to achieve back in 1965.
Just in the way DiCillo trivialises Jim's poetry by using short snippets read by Depp on the sountrack maybe he has done the same with Morrison's one and only contribution to the cinematic form.
Would DiCillo like someone to cut up one of his works and use it for a backdrop to informing the world he was a piss head drunk?
Maybe a more sensible idea would have to have released HWY in it's entirety along with any out takes and let it be judged as a finished film.....as indeed it was a finished film as we have read from Jim's friends that HWY was completed and not a work in progress.


I OBJECT
by irishgirl68-2 6 hours ago (Thu Apr 15 2010 19:31:54)

UPDATED Thu Apr 15 2010 20:49:42

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"First off, loved seeing the film. I agree with what's been said, in that it's almost like Jim's alive, and we're watching something that's currently being played out. I loved seeing clips in colour that I'd only seen in black and white. There was a bit of Jim singing live which was great (a bit more would have been better than the soundtrack overlaying live performances).
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What I object to is the editing, specifically, the use of HWY. HWY had a self-exploratory nature that was pure in it's simplicity. It's Jim's journey - across the country, the desert, and into the city of angels. HWY was used to fulfill narrative objectives in a way that bypasses WHY Jim made the movie. It's a personal tale, to be sure, but not a tale of folly and degeneration, but one that shows his connectivity to nature and the way his new lifestyle is in direct contrast with his spiritual identity.
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My other objection is to Ray calling Jim's "alter ego" Jimbo. I resented this. I thought, "How would I feel if my life had been reduced to an analogy of a circus performer?" I agree that there were parallels there, but there was no mention of how EVERYONE was complicit in making Jim who he was. It wasn't just Jim who developed this personae of Jim Morrison - they all were - Jim, Ray, Robby, John, the execs, the fans, the media - not just Jimbo. Everyone was attempting to achieve their own ends at Jim's expense (and still are as it seems). I am in no way trying to "get Jim off lightly." He was responsible for creating his image to, but when a person degenerates as quickly as Jim did in a few years, you don't say, "Give it six more months," when he wants to leave the band.
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Not a lot was said that I hadn't heard before. I've seen most of the clips, also. I do wish more had been said about Miami, The tapes are out there... should they be released? I don't know... I don't want to see my rock and roll "hero" reduced to a buffoon or some celebrity waste case (Lord knows we have enough of those in music right now), so I'm up in the air that respect.
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When diluted, the film was good, but it was just a... film - nothing more. It's people who knew him once replaying the old Morrison folktales. There was little humanizing of a man who was obviously complex. Jim had to be more than a petulant drunken lout; he was shy, sensitive, fascinated with dark thoughts, mysticism - why wasn't this man represented? In order for the mythology to survive the symbols have to be reinforced. It's been 20 years since The Doors, so what better way to keep the money machine going than to reinforce the symbols and mythology to a new generation. Perhaps they'll sell more than one million albums this year....
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No-one knows what went on in Paris July 3, 1971; yet, I do hope that Jim had some happiness in his life at the end"

I have had a copy of HWY for about 7 or 8 years now and have watched it in it's entirety twice with a look at sections maybe a half dozen times or more. I was never that taken with the film which seemed to me to be some kind of backwards redemption tale. The hitch hiker moves from the fresh air of the hills to find redemption in the sleaze of the city instead of the other way round. I make no great claims to know what Morrison was trying to convey here.
I found the film pretty boring on one level but fascinating to see Jim away from his superstar lifestyle having fun with his mates making a movie on another.
We see a different Jim in this film. We get a sense of his mischievous side with his phone call to McClure which had the poor guy running around panicking that Jim had murdered someone and we see him enjoying life doing something he loved free from his self imposed Lizard King prison.
Whether or not that should be chopped up and used out of context as a way to make a buck for his three mates is an interesting debate and one that seems to have been missed in our headlong rush to see, absorb, analyse and either like or dislike DiCillos film.
On one hand I enjoyed seeing the footage on the big screen in superb condition but now having seen this point raised by irishgirl68 on IMDB I feel a tad guilty.
We fans have been crying out for HWY and FOF for so long I can't remember the first time I thought of such things but for our first view of the pristine HWY film footage it seems to have been twisted out of proportion to make points that it was never envisiged to make.

Would be interesting to hear the thoughts of our host on that one but I doubt he would condescend to share a view on such a controversial subject.

I'm a picture
Of ugly stories
I'm a killer
And I'm a clown

Thank you for posting this Alex. Good subject.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't "HWY" based on Jim's screenplay, "The Hitchhiker"? I always assumed that the 50 min film that does exist was made to attract investors to ultimately make an entire full length feature.

I do believe that was the case Sara. It's in The American Night if anyone wants to read it.
I do recall that a couple of Jim's friends said that the HWY film was complete. I won't name names as I don't remember who it was. This may well have been a film exercise by the boys to drum up interest in investors for a more ambitous project.
A bit too arty for my liking both screenplay and HWY.
Boring is the word I would use. But it was great to see Jim enjoy himself during a period that was not in the least enjoyable Doors wise.

Still dunno where I stand with regard the use of HWY in DiCillos film......at the moment I straddle the fence and have a pain in the nut region.

Some people really get into Jim's poetry and film stuff.......me I like it for what it is but am a bit ambivalent about his poetry in general and his film making skills in particular.
He was better than Ray in the film making skill department but then most bivalve mollusc have more idea how to make a movie than Ray.
I like some of his poetry especially when he reads it and would indeed love to see both Morrison poetry and films to make an appearance but fear we have a lot of clothing items to get through honouring Jim with before we ever see anything worthwhile like that.
I would be annoyed if this glimpse of HWY out of context is all we are gonna get as a DVD of both HWY and FOF on one disc with every out take thatw as available and a damn good commentary from maybe the band themselves and people like Lisciandro would possible be a viable DVD. It would not make a fortune but would be worth the effort.

We will see what the DVD of WYS is gonna be like in a few weeks hopefully it will contain some extras unlike the lazy assed reissue of the NOHGOA 1981 documentary that John, Ray and Robby could not be bothered to even stick on a few comments about 20 odd years after the event.
Considering these guys have sat on thier asses for 30 years counting their royalties it would be nice if they took an interest in Doors related DVDs now and then and made some attempt to enhance the DVD experience a bit....
I know we dumbassses will buy anything with The Doors logo on it but it would not hurt the three of you to look a bit interested once in a while

There is a scene in "HWY" where we see Jim driving into LA and the camera pans out the window and you see the low income houses and then a little further you see middle class and then the higher income housing.

I remember a story that Frank Liscinadro had in his book when he and Jim traveled by car across country from Atlanta to Los Angeles and when they hit certain areas in the getto souths' part of the country Jim commented that some day someone or somebody will have to pay for all of this.

It was also interesting to see which people on the Venice/Santa Monica area were chosen to be in the film. Children, old retired people, etc.

Alex,
A pretty interesting thread. Within the last year have I seen HWY & FOF in their entirety, I was disappointed that I'd already seen most of FOF in chopped up segments used for Ray's videos, I was hoping for more. The narrative of HWY is interrupted by shots of Jim Morrison being well Jim Morrison & don't move the story along at all. I'm thinking especially of the dying coyote footage, most of it is Morrison & crew & other passersby stop and gawk, it totally interupts the suspension of disbelief of the story until someone edited the crying of the coyote with Morrison driving away screaming.

I rather doubt HWY was considered a finished work by Morrison, it's just not taught enough in carrying the story. I think he might have had in mind using to find backing for a feature length of the work or if it was going to be used as an audition reel for acting he wanted to get into.

In my review I said that WYS might be a solution Morrison himself might have come to regarding the films. If he had survived who knows if he would have come back to them at all. But in the abstract I think the review statement is a good a theory as anything else.

As for Irishgirl's post, it is an interesting quandry. We live in a world of mash-up's & intercutting of all sorts of popular culture artifacts into other medium. Woody Allen's first movie What's Up Tiger Lily? Allen took 2 Japanese gangster movies reedited them, stripped off the original dialog, added his own & filmed new scenes & it's a Woody Allen movie. Morrison would have been familiar with the cut and paste experiments of William Burroughs & Brion Gysin who literally tore out pages of books and magazines and pasted them into books they were writting. & of course sampling in music. So it is interesting quandry. Doors fans have long been asking for HWY & FOF to be released. Does WYS satisfy that? SHould the 2 be bonus features on DVD/Blu-Ray? Or will perspective through time show that maybe WYS was a dilution or even bastardization of HWY & FOF?

& the sudden mention of Jimbo in the narration is jarring. There's no explanation of the sudden usage of it and I think was a mistake in it's inclusion in the final narration.