The Existential Analysis of Jim Morrison’s Life in Oliver Stone’s, The Doors

Abstract

The Doors is a movie directed by Oliver Stone. This movie tells about The Doors, a 60's legendary psychedelic band. This movie also emphasizes to the Jim Morrison's life as The Doors' front man. This movie represents Jim as an existentialist, who believes that freedom is the most important thing in our life. There are three problems to discuss in this thesis. The first is did the past life has influence to Jim Morrison? What is his biggest influence? The second one is what is the relation of Indian culture to Jim Morrison? The last is what the relation between existentialism and freedom to Jim's life. Furthermore, this thesis uses sociological approach to framing this thesis because the writer sees that Jim's environment and his social life is the biggest influence in his life. The writer will use Pierre Bourdieu‘s theory of practice; habitus, capital, and field. Moreover, the writer adds existentialism as the addition point of view to see what lies beneath Jim's mind and idea. There will be three existentialists that will be discussed to reveal the idea about freedom, angst, and also death. To analyze the Indian culture, there will be some description about Indian culture, such as ghost dance, totem, peyote, and also shaman. It continues to Jim's life after he moves to California and enters the UCLA. The writer hopes that the result of this thesis will help the readers to understand at least the basic concept of existentialism, especially in Jim Morrison‘s life.