RELEASED IN 2009 and written & directed by Tom DiCillo, "The Doors: When You're Strange" documents the rise and fall of The Doors from 1966-1971, narrated by Johnny Depp. From beginning to end, archival footage and photos of the band are featured focusing on the members: Ray Manzarek (keyboardist), Robby Krieger (guitarist), John Densmore (percussionist) and, especially (of course), Jim Morrison (singer/lyricist). I've only seen two documentaries on The Doors, the one featured on Oliver Stone's "The Doors" (1991) DVD, which features modern interviews with the band members & linking people (like Morrison's former babe, who loathed the movie), and this one. Both documentaries are great, but "The Doors: When You're Strange" doesn't focus on modern interviews, although some of the luminaries are asked questions in the archival footage.The documentary is just transfixing from beginning to end and features 37 songs by the iconic band. Depp is, surprisingly, an excellent narrator and not goofy at all. Even if you're familiar with the band you'll probably gain some new tidbits. For instance, the band curiously never had a bass player, although Elvis' bass player performed on their last album; as such, keyboardist Manzarek made up for it by essentially playing bass on one hand. Manzarek, by the way, passed away in May, 2013, at the age of 74. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 25 minutes. GRADE: A

This movie documentary I found incredibly informative. You will hear from the band members themselves: Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger & John Densmore. They tell all about the band in this one. They give us a deeper look at Jim Morrison, the rise and the (brief) fall of the band after Jim's death on Jul 03, 1971. I say brief fall because the band is still selling millions of dollar worth of merchandise and just as popular today as they were in the 1960s... maybe more so these days(?).The film is narrated by none other than Johnny Depp who is also a fan of the band. Wonderful narration.This is concert footage, original behind the scenes footage, new footage and interviews that will tell all that you wanted to know about the mysterious band.Excellent film for fans of The Doors.10/10

When You're Strange (2009) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Johnny Depp narrates this impressive documentary that covers the rise and eventual fall of The Doors. The documentary mainly takes a look at lead singer Jim Morrison as he formed a band not knowing how to sing and would rise to the top only to die at the age of 27. This documentary originally debuted at Sundance and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't go for your typical talking heads. We don't get a single interview with anyone who was there during the time all of this stuff was happening. There aren't any current interviews with the surviving band members and we don't get to hear from any rock experts on why The Doors were so great. Instead, all we get is archive footage ranging from home movies to concerts to even a movie Morrison made himself. I'm not a die-hard fan of the group but even I've seen quite a bit of the footage here but I think director DiCillo does a terrific job at keeping everything fresh, exciting and fast moving. I thought he did a wise job not having the talking heads and instead letting the actual footage do all the talking. If you know anything about The Doors then I'm sure you know about the infamous Miami concert where it was said Morrison exposed himself. I'm sure you also know about the Ed Sullivan appearance where the band went against the hosts wishes and sang Light My Fire with all the original lyrics. I think this stuff is always interesting no matter how many times you watch it. What was more interesting was the footage that was shot by Morrison for his movie and we even gets clips of a film he made at film school. Another major plus is that Depp does a terrific job with the narration. Many times people do great jobs with their narrating jobs but at the same time you feel as if they're just reading a script and probably don't know anything about what they're saying. You feel the exact opposite here with Depp who, as a musician, tells us this stuff as if he knows what it means. The one downside is some stuff we've seen way too many times about this era and that includes all the political stuff that was going on at the time.

Lately I've begun to forget how crucial The Doors were for me once. Well didn't Jim Morrison himself preach: "learn to forget"? But When You're Strange is a perfect reminder. There is the news on the radio that Jim Morrison is dead but somewhere in the American desert his revenant gets out from the crashed car – Mr. Mojo Is Rising – time is reeled a way back and the story begins. There is a lot of rare original footage I haven't seen before and the tale is painstakingly told in all details – from the uprising: "into this world we're born, into this house we're thrown" to the downfall: "this is the end, my beautiful friend, the end". So when the music's over turn off the lights.