The Doors Page #9

JIM:

(calmly smiling)

You have the face of a pig man.

Lost in the melee, RAY and JOHN springing Jim back from likely

death

RAY:

JERRY JERRY... He was talking about

Oedipus! GREEK TRAGEDY!! It's ART!!

JERRY:

F*** ART!! GET THE F*** ART OUT!!!

Pushing, shoving, scrambling. Past a long-haired JOURNALIST

yelling into a payphone.

JOURNALIST:

NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THE DOORS --

NEVER!! GET A PHOTOGRAPHER DOWN HERE.

"ROLLING STONE'S GOTTA SEE THIS!!

As they rumble by him, all yelling at once. Into the street.

EXT. ALLEY & STAIRCASE OUTSIDE WHISKY - THAT NIGHT

The DOORS go sailing out, followed by one of their drums,

JOHN and ROBBIE restraining Jim from going back in.

JIM:

TAKE A LONG LOOK OLD MAN. WE ARE THE

FUTURE. WE ARE THINGS TO COME.

JERRY:

F*** YOU... YOU'RE F***ING DEAD!

Wanting to come after Jim but restrained now by the RECORD

MOGULS, HOLZMAN and ROTHCHILD.

PAUL:

Come on Jerry, cool it, cool it...

he's a kid, it's a song about dying,

changing...

JAC HOLZMAN pushing past to Ray. Pamela separating Jim

visually from Jerry.

JOHN:

(to RAY and ROBBIE)

We'll never work again man. The Mafia

controls all these clubs.

HOLZMAN:

(to Ray and Robbie)

Quite a night! Hi, I'm Jac Holzman.

I own Elektra Records.

RAY:

(knows the name)

Oh sure, hi.

Holzman pauses, a dramatic presence, six foot two, impeccably

dressed, he knows the weight of his words.

HOLZMAN:

Listen... I think if you could just

put what you did in there on record,

we could really have something...

and we could make a lot of money...

It hangs there. Impossible words.

RAY:

Yeah?

John and Robbie sharing looks.

HOLZMAN:

(pointing to ROTHCHILD

coming up)

Yeah... and Rothchild here was born

to be your producer.

ROBBIE:

(recognizing Paul)

Hey, the guy that did Butterfield!

PAUL:

Bertold Brecht, cabaret and rock.

Give me a f***ing break. You guys

are amazing! Let's go make a record.

JIM:

(to Ray, pointing

back at Jerry)

Hey, is that a**hole gonna pay us?

HOLZMAN:

(amused)

Why don't you go inside and ask him

Jim?

Strains of LIGHT MY FIRE cross the cut.

INT. SUNSET SOUND RECORDING STUDIO - DAY (1966)

Four-track TAPE SYSTEM is rolling.

DOORS SONG:

You know that it would be untrue

You know that I would be a liar

If I was to say to you

Girl, we couldn't get much higher

Camera moving fast thru the control room, past the ENGINEER

(BRUCE BOTNICK), taciturn, 20's, the PRODUCER (PAUL ROTHCHILD)

in pig heaven, and the owner JAC HOLZMAN in his blue suit

watching.

PAUL:

Hey Bruce, you feel it?

BRUCE:

I'm having big fun.

PAUL:

(to Jac)

I got goosebumps Jac. This is history

going down here. An album of killer

music in six days... six days...

unreal!

Camera moving fast past a smiling PAM watching, out to the

DOORS on the floor, jamming... on to JIM in the vocal booth,

headphone to his ears.

JIM:

Come on baby, LIGHT MY FIIIRRRREEEE!!!

The song, now fully -- orchestrated, rolling on over the

following MONTAGE:

JIM:

(after song)

Pretty good! Pretty neat!

EXT. GOLDEN GATE PARK - SAN FRANCISCO (DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE) -

DAY (1967)

LIGHT MY FIRE continues.

DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE of the "Human Be-In", the "Summer of

Love" -- swarming FLOWER CHILDREN, WAR PROTESTORS.

A staged 16mm. grainy shot of JIM and PAMELA, RAY and DOROTHY,

JOHN, ROBBIE and their TWO NEW GIRLFRIENDS wandering thru

the CROWD sharing the spirit. Pam and Jim fool around --

laughing -- tickling each other for the home movie camera

shot by Ray... Pam is goofy, makes funny faces, teases him

running a flower under his nose, thru his hair, then trips

him. He chases her across the lawn.

INT. FILLMORE WEST STAGE - SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (1967)

The CROWD is "beautiful" -- candles, incense sticks, flowers,

vibes of peace and love. The instrumental of "Light My Fire"

is playing, but only three DOORS are on stage till Jim comes

swinging across on a rope like tarzan all the way across the

stage -- then drops down, rebounds lithely and hits the mike.

JIM:

(singing)

The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire.

JIM swandives into the stoned crowd with the mike at the

instrumental section, a colored spotlight flecking him, GIRLS

kiss him. The guys want to be him, the girls want him -- and

he knows it, teasing and tantalizing them...

JIM:

Try now we can only lose

And our love become a funeral pyre

Come on baby, light my fire

Try to set the night on

FIIIIIIIIIRE!!!!!

BODYGUARDS running in to pull him out as he's tossed, like a

limp god, over the heads of the crowd, rolling like a buoy

on a rocking sea, from hand to hand, Dionysus, devoured limb

from limb by the "little girls".

PAMELA watching from the side curtain.

ALABAMA SONG (WHISKY BAR) now kicks in with its comic,

Brechtian strain as we:

OMIT:

Sequence omitted from original script.

EXT. AIRPORT TARMAC - DAY

Screaming FANS chase the DOORS to a commercial airplane,

scribbling autographs. One of the GIRLS smacking JIM on the

lips as he laughs, her cameras clicking. PAMELA shooting a

home movie of it, pushed aside by the crowd, rescued by ROBBIE

and the new young manager, BILL SIDDONS...

DOORS SONG:

Oh show me the way to the next whisky bar

Oh don't ask why

Oh don't ask why

EXT. NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE (SEEN FROM PLANE) - DAY

The City as seen by:

INT. AIRPLANE - DAY

JIM'S face pressed to the window, PAMELA next to him hugging

each other.

JIM:

(real close, hugging

her)

I don't mind dying in a plane crash,

a smile on my face.

PAMELA:

(cutting his food)

As compared to what?

JIM:

I just don't want to go out slow --

brain tumor, botulism. I want to

feel what it's like, cause death is

only going to happen to you once.

PAMELA:

I don't want to die ever, what a

weird thing to say.

DOORS SONG:

For if we don't find the next whisky bar

I tell you we must die

I tell you

I tell you

I tell you we must die

EXT. CBS - NEW YORK - NIGHT (SUMMER, 1967)

A LIMOUSINE pulling up in front of the Ed Sullivan Marquee.

The sidewalk is mobbed with FANS, mostly YOUNG GIRLS.

DOORS SONG:

Oh moon of Alabama

We now must say goodbye

We've lost our good ol mama

We must have whiskey oh you know why

INT. LIMO - NIGHT

JIM looking out at the MOB with the other DOORS and PAMELA.

The look on his face is ironic.

His POV -- the YOUNG GIRLS' FACES, arms grasping at the

windows like tentacles of a poisonous hydra, their faces

deformed by SILENT SCREAMS (we hear faint strangled shrieks

below the song)... POLICE and SECURITY pressing them back,

linking arms to clear a path for the Doors.

DOORS SONG:

Show me the way to the next little girl

Oh don't ask why

Oh don't ask why

The GIRLS crying hysterically as Jim lazily, leopardly, moves

across the CROWD, almost like Oswald waiting for the Ruby

bullet but with that sweet, pleasant smile on his face, dark

glasses concealing...

GIRLS:

(faint)

Oh Jimmmmm, pleeeaaase look, I looove

youuuuu, Jimmmmmm, pleeeeeaase,

Jimmmmm, here, sign miiiine... take

a picture Jim?... Jim, Jim, oh please

look at me Jim!!

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