Musician and countercultural icon Jim Morrirson has fascinated filmmakers for decades. In 1991, Val Kilmer swaggered as the rock legend for director Oliver Stone’s biopic The Doors. Though Kilmer received praise for his performance, the overall film was met with mostly unenthusiastic reviews that called it pretentious, boring, and self-indulgent, among other things. Documentaries, like the recent American Masters selection When You’re Strange, approached their subject more successfully, in this case with the help of narrator Johnny Depp. Now Morrison’s life will go under the microscope once again in Before the End: Jim Morrison Comes of Age.
Z-Machine announced today, according to Deadline, that production has begun on Before the End, an independent documentary feature that follows the “trajectory of Jim Morrison’s development, prior to his rock superstardom.” As opposed to encouraging the myth of the Lizard King, the film seeks to humanize him through interviews with family and friends, never-before-seen home movies, and photographs from his formative years. Among the interviewees – many of whom are speaking about Morrison for the first time – are the rocker’s siblings, Andy Morrison and Anne Morrison-Chewninng, his former college roommate, and his first serious girlfriends.
Morrison, who, in 1971, was found dead in France at the age of 27, recorded nine albums with The Doors, but his drug use and run-ins with the law soon overshadowed his music career. Along with bringing him down to earth, Z-Machine also hopes to dispel the “controversial legacy riddled with unanswered questions and misinterpretations” that has plagued Morrison’s image since his untimely demise. Considering the success of recent rock docs such as Searching For Sugar Man and Dave Grohl’s Sound City, Before the End should fit right in.
Are you a fan of Morrison’s work? Would you be interested in seeing a feature documentary about his life?