RIP Jerry Hopkins, Before the End

Jerry Hopkins (RIP): "Oliver Stone bought the rights to my book, and he bought the rights to my research material, which were essentially the transcripts to 200 interviews I had done. That was the extent of my involvement in the film. I have mixed feelings about the movie. Mainly that it was so one-sided. I knew Morrison. I knew him to be a man who had a sense of humor about himself. He was a man of staggering intelligence. He read enormously, and he remembered everything he read. The man put things together in an interesting manner, and he was a great conversationalist. Very little of that comes out in the movie. Forty percent of the movie is sheer fiction. Stone merged characters. He ignored chronology. It was Stone writing his version of the sixties. Hollywood never has let the facts get in the way of a good story. People credit Rolling Stone with inventing gonzo journalism but Hollywood was way ahead of them. The way Hollywood portrays the American West wasn't the way it was. Oliver was just being Oliver. He is a terrific filmmaker. What bothers me most about Stone is that most young people today use movies as their major information sources and he knows it. If they get misinformation from the film they won't even bother to crosscheck with a book. Oliver's dishonesty and he is not alone in this, is a disservice to young people whose ideas are formed by what they see in the movies." Source: scottmurray.info

Letter from Jeff Finn for one 'not a fan' of Jim Morrison: At any rate, after 32 years of researching Jim’s life and interviewing his family, friends and lovers, I’ve come away with a vastly different picture of Morrison than the mainstream media have painted. Jim was not the narcissistic, tantrum-throwing, raging drunk/man-child Oliver Stone would have said media and everyone else believe. Keep in mind Stone, after Alain Ronay asked him why he chose not to portray Jim the way he really was [displaying warmth, humor, etc, in addition to his darker moments], was said to have replied with a grin: “Because the truth doesn’t sell.” According to Ronay, Jim was chockfull of the nuances of humanity, as opposed to the one-dimensional, fallen rock god-cum-buffoon to which he’s been reduced by former fans such as yourself. So, imagine if you will: Jim was an actual human being, riddled with complexity. Did he hit bottom? Yes. But he also lived and breathed and flourished in stark contrast to the totally self-absorbed, drunken/stoned-24/7 human cartoon Stone chose to depict, an image that has deeply tainted Jim’s legacy. Hence the making of my documentary in general and my response to your reply in particular.

We ALL have levels of “healthy” narcissism, some healthier than others, but you seem to imply Jim had full-blown Narcissistic Personality Disorder which, to my knowledge, is a rather rare condition (between 0.5-1% of the general population). And I’m not trying to paint Jim as some goddamn saint, but nearly all those I interviewed refuted the notion that he had NPD, or that he was even a “narcissist.” Narcissists, by nature, are uninterested in anyone but themselves. Jim, conversely, is said to have been vastly interested in others. But say for the sake of argument Jim did have NPD. Would that then have entitled the New Haven police to beat the hell out of him on December 9, 1967? That’s apparently the case - as per your cruel logic. Now, the way I see it, Jim’s real “crime" that night was daring to stand up to a New England cop [who'd been hired to protect Jim & The Doors!]. From what I’ve gathered, the cop flaunted his ego, along with his Mace, and that resulted in ABUSE OF POWER and POLICE BRUTALITY.

All this begs the question: Whose side are you on, man? Jim Morrison, who used his MIND to help evolve the Free Speech movement and help Rock & Roll come of age or the New Haven Police Department, a corrupt gang of thugs who apparently chose to overcompensate for their insecurities by using their FISTS to pound on a skinny 145-lb singer already half-blinded by their Mace? I will end by paraphrasing a quote from Henry Rollins: “There is no existential threat to the police that rivals what the police inflict upon themselves.” I find your lack of compassion disturbing and indicative of the mass apathy that’s sweeping the U.S. BEFORE THE END documentary is in the process of being shopped to the major streaming services (Netflix, Amazon). A DVD release is in the works as well. ~ Jeff Finn