The Doors are like a religion unto themselves. This may sound utterly pretentious, but 40 years after the fact, they remain the unique kind of band one either chooses to believe in or not. For seculars, The Doors were just a weird rock n’ roll band, good for nothing more than an acid trip in the desert… but for believers such as myself, they are a potent and generous source of dark magic – simultaneously contagious and healing. Tom Dicillo’s epic-yet-intimate documentary “When You’re Strange” manages to contradict itself in a wonderful way: it both deconstructs the lore while also adding new depth to it. Exclusively utilizing vintage footage of the band, including never-before-seen film of a bearded Morrison navigating an existential journey through the desert, “WYS” is a truly transcendental experience. A documentary such as this is proof-positive that The Doors might have opened in 1965 on a sunny day in Venice Beach, CA… but they remain open in 2010 for anyone willing to walk through them.

And on a sunny day at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons in April, I was more than willing to Break on Through. As a recovering entertainment journalist, I was accustomed to doing interviews at this hotel, but it seemed far too posh and clichéd a venue to house The Surviving Doors, even if just for a few hours. But there they were, and there is no decisive way to convey the surreal experience of sitting next to your idols, even if they are barely recognizable and utterly mortal as they sit inches away from you.

Because of a still-unresolved dispute that John Densmore (percussionist) has with Ray Manzerek (organist) and Robby Krieger (guitarist), the trio has yet to coexist in the same room for several years. Such was the case when for their 40th anniversary back in 2006, Ray and Robby played without John at the Whisky A Go Go. This was pretty disappointing, but the fact that I was even standing feet away from half The Doors playing on the same stage they got their start on, was a mini-miracle. My then-literary agent was able to get us close to the front of the epic line wrapping around the block by giving away a bag of weed she got from her apartment across the street. My agent using weed to get us into a Doors concert at the Whisky was one of those classic L.A. moments I will not soon forget.

courtesy Rhino Media

Back at the Four Seasons, Ray and Robby interviewed separately from John and the film’s director Tom DiCillo. For the sake of efficiency, I’ve decided to interweave the questions and answers into one continuous dialogue. Ray and Robby strolled into the Burton Suite and joined us journalists like they were arriving late to a party. Robby was shy and barely made eye contact, while Ray was working on a bottle of red wine that he had been apparently lugging from interview to interview, and by this point, it had thoroughly lubricated his already-philosophical nature.