'When You're Strange' Opens Friday

See the piece at today's LAT, "Doors Reopened in 'When You're Strange'."

And when you watch the trailer below, note that's original documentary footage of Jim Morrison, not an actor's portrayal. As LAT notes:

The images in question, it turns out, were culled from outtakes of Morrison's self-financed 1969 film, "HWY: An American Pastoral." And according to Tom DiCillo, the writer and director of "When You're Strange," potential doubters wouldn't be the first to question the authenticity of the reel.

"We were showing it at Sundance and a distributor disgustedly stormed out of a screening," DiCillo recounted. "I ran down the street to ask why he'd left and the distributor replied, 'I can't believe you'd use an actor in this movie.' I laughed and told him that I'd never do such a thing." The proof, in fact, is in the mere existence of "When You're Strange." To gain use of the music, DiCillo had to appease the three remaining members of the notoriously fractious band, as well as Morrison's estate.

The film's narrated by Johnny Depp. Apparently a lot of legal infighting continues to this day, but get this, from drummer John Densmore:

"Watching the old footage reminds me of this crazy dream I had years ago. There's something magic there," Densmore said. "Maybe it's because it doesn't have any old geezers jabbering about their past. It's Johnny Depp taking you on a road movie with the Doors. You're going to live it, sit on the drum stool, and take the ride. It's got Vietnam, the assassinations, the events that affected us all. Artists don't exist in a vacuum. It's everything that happened before the tragedy. We all know the tragedy."

And from my previous entry on January 1st, on Robbie Kreiger:

RELATED: At USA Today, "The Doors Documentary 'When You're Strange' Opens Friday."