The Doors (1991)
Music, Drama, History • 2h 20m
Overview
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Kevin Dillon, Michael Wincott, Michael Madsen, Josh Evans, Dennis Burkley, Billy Idol, Kathleen Quinlan, John Densmore, Gretchen Becker, Jerry Sturm, Sean Stone, Kendall Deichen, John Capodice, Mark Moses, Will Jordan, Robert LuPone, Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman, Kelly Hu, Crispin Glover, Paul Williams, Debi Mazar, Phil Fondacaro, Oliver Stone, Jennifer Tilly, Jennifer Rubin, Mimi Rogers, Charlie Spradling, Julie Strain, Paul A. Rothchild, Laura Esterman, Fiona, Josie Bissett, Jack McGee, Costas Mandylor, Wes Studi, Titus Welliver, Christina Fulton, Cirsten Weldon, Adrian Scott, Stanley White, Brad Weston, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Erik Dellums, Rodney A. Grant, Bill Graham, Michael Braveheart, Sam Whipple, Randall Oliver, Rion Hunter, Steve Reevis, Bernard Telsey, Bruce MacVittie, Andrew Lauer, Harmonica Fats, Eric Burdon, Sergio Premoli, Frank Military, Deborah Falconer, Michele Bronson, Lisa Edelstein, Kristina Hare, Bernt Kuhlmann, Claire Stansfield, Karina Lombard, Christopher Lawford, Dani Klein, Deborah Lupard, Richard Rifkin, Chris Boyle, Eagle-Eye Cherry, David Allen Brooks, Danny Sullivan, Frank Girardeau, Bonnie Bramlett, Hawthorne James, Csynbidium, Patricia Kennealy, Davidson Thomson, Leonard Crow Dog, Keith Reddin, Billy Vera, Allan Graf, Alan Manson, William Kunstler, Peter Crombie, Robert Marshall, Annie McEnroe, Tudor Sherrard, Jad Mager, Richard Rutowski, Debra Kay Anderson, Theresa Bell, Cindi Braun, Mariana Tosca
Director: Oliver Stone
A improved Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray teased by Oliver Stone
MGM Blu-ray, better than 2022 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray due to poor encode and heavy DNR (review)
Director: Oliver Stone
A improved Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray teased by Oliver Stone
MGM Blu-ray, better than 2022 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray due to poor encode and heavy DNR (review)
Director: Oliver Stone
2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Atmos remix: 2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1 surround mix: 2007 Paramount Blu-ray (lossy AC-3 640k)
The original mix has better dynamics range. The 5.1 tracks on the SF release are downmixes.
Target exclusive 3 disc DVD have extras omitted from the Shout! Factory release
Director: Oliver Stone
2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Atmos remix: 2025 Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1 surround mix: 2007 Paramount Blu-ray (lossy AC-3 640k)
The original mix has better dynamics range. The 5.1 tracks on the SF release are downmixes.
Target exclusive 3 disc DVD have extras omitted from the Shout! Factory release
Director: Oliver Stone
Twilight Time Blu-ray or MGM NTSC DVD for the original mono mix
Shout! Factory 4K only has a stereo downmix (which sounds muffled, as do the surround tracks)
Twilight Time Blu-ray has the mono track with seemingly the best fidelity, but its dynamic range has been heavily compressed
MoC UK Blu-ray has a proper dynamics and good fidelity, but bizzarely, everything is repeated after a few miliseconds, rendering echoey and metallic
MGM NTSC DVD has been denoised and has had a strong EQ applied and sounds muffled as a result, but it retains proper dynamics
Koch Media DE BD had poor dynamics and wrong pitch
Perhaps the digital JP LD would be better.
Director: Oliver Stone
Twilight Time Blu-ray or MGM NTSC DVD for the original mono mix
Shout! Factory 4K only has a stereo downmix (which sounds muffled, as do the surround tracks)
Twilight Time Blu-ray has the mono track with seemingly the best fidelity, but its dynamic range has been heavily compressed
MoC UK Blu-ray has a proper dynamics and good fidelity, but bizzarely, everything is repeated after a few miliseconds, rendering echoey and metallic
MGM NTSC DVD has been denoised and has had a strong EQ applied and sounds muffled as a result, but it retains proper dynamics
Koch Media DE BD had poor dynamics and wrong pitch
Perhaps the digital JP LD would be better.
Director: Oliver Stone
Theatrical Cut 4K Blu-ray in August
Director's Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (included with collector's edition)
Director: Oliver Stone
Theatrical Cut 4K Blu-ray in August
Director's Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (included with collector's edition)
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Director's Cut: WB Director's Cut DVD
Final Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director's Cut: WB Director's Cut DVD
Final Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Oliver Stone
Director's Cut: WB Director's Cut DVD
Final Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director's Cut: WB Director's Cut DVD
Final Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
Director: Mario Caiano
Director: Mario Caiano
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts
Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps
The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.
Nic's review:
Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.
Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.
I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.
Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.
251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)
Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.
251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts
Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps
The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.
Nic's review:
Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.
Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.
I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.
Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.
251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)
Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is SDR
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray is HDR
The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.
SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2001 R1 Paramount US NTSC DVD/2008 R2 Optimum UK PAL or 1999 Pioneer JP LaserDisc
Restored stereo mix: Criterion / StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.
For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.
The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.
The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.
The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.
Director: David Lynch
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is SDR
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray is HDR
The DV/HDR grade is tasteful and not overdone. SC has better compression, though not flawless; encoded by FiM, but Criterion also holds up quite well. Both releases claim to be approved by Lynch.
SC has a missing fade that Criterion reinstated.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix: 2001 R1 Paramount US NTSC DVD/2008 R2 Optimum UK PAL or 1999 Pioneer JP LaserDisc
Restored stereo mix: Criterion / StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
The film was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo (matrixed LCRS). For the 4K restoration, this mix has been transferred from the original magnetic elements and remastered with Lynch's supervision. Unfortunately, the fidelity suffered in the process, with many sections ending up significantly less detailed due to a noise reduction pass. This track has been altered compared to the original, with reverb added to some dialogue, different ambient sound effects, changed panning, and extended bass.
For the unrestored mix, there are two major options, each with its own merits and flaws. The 2001 Paramount DVD, which I would say is the best well-rounded mastering, and the 1999 Japanese LaserDisc, which has noticeably better clarity and high-end detail, as well as better dynamics, but suffers from occasional distortion and has less bass than the DVD.
The LD also has some ambiance buried too low in the mix, and some dialogue panned more to the centre than the DVD. There are no content changes I was able to find. Unfortunately, I don't know what accounts for those differences.
The other available tracks all have more significant flaws. The Italian and Japanese BDs use the same base mastering as the DVD, but with some patching in a few shots. HD-DVD is sourced from an inferior transfer, the same as the Momentum DVD.
The 5.1 remix, originally introduced on the 2002 DVD, and carried over without changes to the 2009 BD is a light and mostly faithful remix, with fairly minimal LFE and surround use, but still potentially worthwhile as the only discrete track.
Director: Neil Marshall
UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray share the same disc (caps)
The StudioCanal UHD has a much better encode than the Lionsgate UHD with the same grade. The Vuelta UHD has a decent encode but it is in an incorrect color space and has German overlays.
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray
UK disc includes only 5.1.
The 7.1 mix included on the Lionsgate UHD appears to be identical to the 2006 USA BD's LPCM 7.1 track and to be a straight transfer of the theatrical Dolby Digital Surround EX mix (originally matrixed 6.1, with the rear surrounds in the discrete 7.1 presentation being dual mono). The old GER BD has a 6.1 mix but it is a poor remix and the GER UHD has an Auro-3D remix of the 7.1 mix (mostly adjusted surround levels). All other discs offer a 5.1 mix, including the Studio Canal UHD
Director: Neil Marshall
UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray share the same disc (caps)
The StudioCanal UHD has a much better encode than the Lionsgate UHD with the same grade. The Vuelta UHD has a decent encode but it is in an incorrect color space and has German overlays.
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray
UK disc includes only 5.1.
The 7.1 mix included on the Lionsgate UHD appears to be identical to the 2006 USA BD's LPCM 7.1 track and to be a straight transfer of the theatrical Dolby Digital Surround EX mix (originally matrixed 6.1, with the rear surrounds in the discrete 7.1 presentation being dual mono). The old GER BD has a 6.1 mix but it is a poor remix and the GER UHD has an Auro-3D remix of the 7.1 mix (mostly adjusted surround levels). All other discs offer a 5.1 mix, including the Studio Canal UHD
Director: John Irvin
(not the 4K Blu-ray, previous LaserDisc could be better)
Director: John Irvin
(not the 4K Blu-ray, previous LaserDisc could be better)
BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps
For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps
BFI 4K Blu-ray
All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.
BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps
For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps
BFI 4K Blu-ray
All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.
More Music on Blu-ray
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Richard Bartlett
Director: Richard Bartlett
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Director: Bert Stern
Director: Bert Stern
Director: Craig Brewer
Old Paramount Blu-ray better than new 4K Blu-ray: smeary grain/detail, poor contrast
4K Blu-ray and New Blu-ray has lossless TrueHD, Old Blu-ray just has lossy Dolby Digital
Director: Craig Brewer
Old Paramount Blu-ray better than new 4K Blu-ray: smeary grain/detail, poor contrast
4K Blu-ray and New Blu-ray has lossless TrueHD, Old Blu-ray just has lossy Dolby Digital
Director: Ken Russell
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Includes original quintaphonic (5.0) mix as well as a modernized 5.1 remix.
Director: Ken Russell
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Includes original quintaphonic (5.0) mix as well as a modernized 5.1 remix.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Tamasa Diffusion FR 4K Blu-ray
Criterion Blu-ray
Includes the original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix and an alternate 5.1 mix. The original mix is a lot more balanced overall, but the 5.1 greatly expands the soundstage and makes the live music much more immersive. Review
French 4K only inclues the original stereo.
French 4K doesn't include English subtitles for the French lines spoken in the film.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Tamasa Diffusion FR 4K Blu-ray
Criterion Blu-ray
Includes the original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix and an alternate 5.1 mix. The original mix is a lot more balanced overall, but the 5.1 greatly expands the soundstage and makes the live music much more immersive. Review
French 4K only inclues the original stereo.
French 4K doesn't include English subtitles for the French lines spoken in the film.
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