‘Feast Of Friends’ is the only film about The Doors…by The Doors! This documentary was never finished and after viewing it you can easily tell. Maybe this is supposed to be the film representation of one having their ‘doors of perception’ opened and experiencing all of experience at once, the experience in this case ironically being The Doors. But most likely this film was purposefully intended to be chaotic, one dead give away is the fact that Jim Morrison says himself, when asked by the interviewer what reaction the viewer should have, that viewer he hopes would be left “Puzzled”. The Doors are clearly still creatively hitting their mark.
The film is a good glimpse into the life of this legendary band, on tour in the summer of 1968, in all their glory they grace stages to complete chaos by the crowd. Some scenes seem right out of a Punk Rock performance with officers throwing rowdy crowd members off stage as they bum rush The Lizard King mid song. Jim Morrison is followed by a camera and we get to see the reaction of onlookers who treat him like a holy man, sometimes the view goes into a sort of first person shot and we get to experience how it is to have this power first hand.
There is some pretty humorous and random behind the scenes backstage footage. Some confusing footage and sporadic behavior as well to go along with this non-linear non-sequitur film. And on queue it ends abruptly, and as organist Ray Manzarek says in response to Jim’s hopes for the film “Puzzled..Yeah that’s a good word.”
Watch the trailer below.