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The Crow (1994 film)

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The Crow
Movie poster
Directed byAlex Proyas
Written byJames O'Barr (book)
David J. Schow (screenplay)
John Shirley (screenplay)
Produced byJeff Most
Edward R. Pressman
StarringBarry Hermann
Ernie Hudson
Michael Wincott
Rochelle Davis
Bai Ling
CinematographyDariusz Wolski
Edited byDov Hoenig
M. Scott Smith
Music byGraeme Revell
Trent Reznor
Distributed byMiramax/Dimension Films
Release dates
May 11 1994 (United States)
July 21 1994 (Australia)
Running time
102 min
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15,000,000 (estimated)
Box office$50,693,162 (USA sub-total)

The Crow is a 1994 American film adaptation of the comic book of the same name by James O'Barr (who himself makes a cameo in the film). It was directed by Alex Proyas and starred Brandon Lee in what was to be his last film.

The film gained instant notoriety even before its release, when Lee was killed in an accident during filming. Despite this event, the film has gained a cult following over the years. It was also Brandon Lee's first (and ultimately, only) non-martial arts role on film.

Lee originally wanted the film to be shot in black and white in keeping with the comic and only have the flashback sequences in color. However, the producers disagreed.

Plot

A story as told by a young girl named Sarah (Rochelle Davis) about the legend of The Crow. She states that when a person dies, their soul is carried to the afterlife by a crow; however, if that person's soul is at unrest, the crow has the power to bring that person back to life so that they can right the wrongs that were done to them before they can find peace.

The night before Halloween, rock guitarist Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) are brutally murdered. Shelly had filed a petition against eviction from their loft apartment, so the building owner (a crime lord) sends four thugs to their apartment; they attack while Eric is out, brutally beating and gang-raping Shelly. Eric returns and is immediately hit with a throwing knife, collapsing to his knees. He is held while two of the men shoot him, then thrown out the window, falling six stories to his death. Shelly later dies from her injuries.

By the first anniversary of Eric and Shelly's deaths, their murders are still unsolved. On the anniversary, Draven returns from the grave, clawing his way up from the ground. He is met by a crow perched upon his headstone, his guide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Eric staggers away from his grave, followed and at times led by the crow back to his old apartment, where he suffers flashbacks about the murders. Still confused by his situation, but determined to take his revenge, he paints his face white and black (like the crying opera mask which he uses in a flashback). He goes out and searches for the killers: T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly), Skank (Angel David), Tin Tin (Laurence Mason), and Funboy (Michael Massee). Eric kills them one by one until he is led to Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), the crime boss who masterminded Draven and Shelly's murders. Top Dollar and his half-sister and lover Myca (Bai Ling) effectively rule the city, bringing it to its knees every year with an orgy of arson and crime called "Devil's Night".

Eric saves Sarah from being run over by a car while she is skateboarding. Eric and Shelley had taken in Sarah, whose mother Darla (Anna Levine) is a drug-addicted prostitute. She's the first person who recognizes Eric when he comes back from the dead, as he used a lyric from one of his songs: "It can't rain all the time." Later, Eric finds the police officer who investigated his and Shelly's case, Albrecht (Ernie Hudson); he had stayed with Shelly until she died in hospital. When he touches Eric, Eric suffers another flashback, experiencing all of Shelly's pain at once.

Eric finds Darla in bed with Funboy when he goes to kill him; he spares her, though, reminding her that she still has a daughter to take care of. Scared straight, Darla returns to Sarah and tries to be a good mother.

Sarah later goes to Eric and Shelly's abandoned loft apartment in hopes of finding him there. When he does not respond to her pleas to show himself, she thinks he no longer cares about her. However, Eric reveals himself as she tries to leave and tells her he hasn't forgotten about her. Sarah, happy to see her friend again, rushes over to hug him, and he later gives her Shelly's engagement ring to remind her of himself and Shelly.

When Top Dollar is informed of the deaths of his men, he orders Sarah's kidnapping, and she is taken when she walks away from Eric and Shelly's graves. Then Myca captures the crow and begins to sap Draven's supernatural powers. However, the crow is invincible, so when it is shot, it does not die, and in turn plucks out Myca's eyes, leading her to fall to her death.

Eric attempts to rescue Sarah from Top Dollar in a church, and uses the last of his strength to deliver all of Shelley's pain to him as a final revenge, sending Top Dollar off the roof of the church and onto a sharp spike. When his mission is complete, and all those responsible for his and Shelly's murders are dead, he returns to the graveyard and is taken to the afterlife by Shelly's ghost. The crow sits once again on Eric's headstone and gives Sarah Shelly's engagement ring before flying off.


Another often missed component of the storyline is that all of the bad guys die according to the way they killed and hurt others. Myca would cut out the eyes of the people she helped to kill, believing that "eyes see" and that she would possess the some of the special qualities of the owner - Innocence, Beauty. The crow picked her eyes out resulting in her death. Fun-boy - drugs, tin-tin knives, skank - thrown through a window, Grange - fiery explosion, his specialty was arson and ultimately Top Dollar dies at the hands of Shelly Webster, experiencing her pain and death. The end scene of the final confrontation between Top Dollar and Eric Draven was particularly poignant - because Top Dollar explains as he is about to kill Eric Draven that "Every man's got a devil and you can't rest until you find him. What happened to you and your girlfriend back there is because of me. I cleared that building, hell, nothing happens in this town without my say-so, so I'm sorry if I ruined your wedding plans friend". It is as if Top Dollar is giving Eric the final piece - so he can rest. Telling him who his "devil" really is. Of course, Eric is completely unaware of this until the end - when he completes his mission and is led back to his devil for retribution.

Eric Draven did not experience "flash backs" - He absorbed the psychic content of the participants and objects he touched. That is why in the scene after he gets the full experience from the police officer, as he is staggering from the psychic shock, the police officer tries to help him - He yells "don't touch me". This is because what he was experiencing would have been transferred back to the officer. There were many powerful subtleties to the story that are often overlooked.

Cast

In the original screenplay, there was a character called the "Skull Cowboy", meant to be played by Michael Berryman, who acts as Eric's guardian angel, telling him exactly why he has come back, what he must do, and played an integral part in the final story line. According to the original screenplay, the reason Eric lost his powers is because he had finished what he came to do: get revenge on Shelly's and his own death. The Skull Cowboy tells him this when he returns to his grave, and stands on the steps of the church before he enters, warning him he is now vulnerable. However, the character was cut in order to put more emphasis on the bird as a power link. The Skull Cowboy's character was later recycled in The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, acting as a guide in the Land of the Living for souls in limbo. The character Funboy was originally intended to be played by Iggy Pop, on whom O'Barr had based him, but he could not fit the film into his schedule. Pop later appeared in the sequel, The Crow: City of Angels as the character Curve.

Setting

Although the comic clearly states a Detroit setting, it is never explicitly stated in which city the film takes place. Almost all aerial shots are actually miniatures overlaid with CG elements. Several clues and references throughout the film point toward its being set in Detroit: "Devil's Night" is culturally associated with the Detroit area; in an early bar scene T-Bird refers to his gang as "Motor-city motherfuckers" and Detroit is commonly known as "The Motor City" due to its main industry of car manufacturing. T-Bird mentions that "Lake Erie caught on fire once from all the crap floating around in it." Detroit is located at the western end of Lake Erie. Additionally, in the sequel's novelization Sarah makes references several times to having lived in Detroit. This may or may not be considered canon, however. Also at the end where the fight scene takes place at the church some say is a church in Detroit. In a couple of the scenes located in "The Pit", there are signs that say "Stroh's On Tap". Stroh's is a type of beer brewed in Detroit.

Changes from the comic book

  • Eric is given the last name Draven (possibly drawn from a scene in the comic revealing Eric's last initial as either 'C' or 'D', though it is also possible that it is a pun on the words, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, from which he also recites a few lines. In his commentary of the film, James O'Barr said Shirley came up with Draven by combining "Driven" and "Raven"). In the comic, Eric's surname is never stated, although according to a panel in the graphic novel, the last letter of his surname is an "s". The name Eric Draven is an anagram for "Raven Cried", even though "Draven" was a constructed amalgam with "Eric" being the only established name. In the second movie, The Crow: City of Angels, the character's name, Ashe Corven, is an anagram for "Raven Echos".
  • In the movie Eric is portrayed by Lee as a rock guitarist, while Shelly is portrayed as an artist and a lawyer. However, in the graphic novel neither of their prior careers are revealed.
  • The two are murdered in their home during the violence and chaos of Devil's Night, the day before their wedding on Halloween. In the comic, the chain of events leading to Eric's rebirth as The Crow occurs when his car breaks down off of the highway, and the gang attack Eric and rape Shelly.
  • The gang of criminals responsible for Eric and Shelly's death were working for a larger crime syndicate which ordered Shelly's death in retaliation for fighting tenant eviction in a neighborhood it controlled; however, in the comic, Eric and Shelly are attacked on the highway when the stoned gang members come across them broken-down beside the road.
  • In the comic, Sarah (Sherri in the comic) is a street urchin Eric doesn't meet until after his rebirth, and only features twice; once, when Eric found her outside of Funboy's house and gives her Shelly's engagement ring (which he also does in the live-action film), and the second time when he returns to her to say goodbye because of a promise he made to her. For the film the character was recast as his and Shelly's best friend and surrogate daughter, and has a considerably more important role than in the comic. Also of note, Sarah's mother is called Darla in the film, while Funboy addresses her as SANDY in the comic book. By the end of the comic book, Eric leaves Albrecht a personal request that he look after Sherri; in the movie, Albrecht befriends Sarah following Eric and Shelly's death.
  • Top Dollar goes from a low-level drug dealer working for T-Bird to a powerful crime lord who unofficially runs the city, and has T-Bird's gang perform services for him. Also, in the comic, Top Dollar is one of the first to be killed by Eric, and the true leader of the gang is obviously T-Bird. Interestingly enough, many have noticed that Top Dollar's appearance in the film closely resembles T-Bird's in the comic (and vice-versa). The most noticeable change in the appearance of the two characters is that they are both dark-skinned in the comic, yet Caucasian in the film. T-Bird's recurring line "Abashed the Devil stood; and felt how awful Goodness is" is taken from Paradise Lost by John Milton.
  • Officer Albrecht actually appears to be a combination of two characters from the comic. The first, also named "Officer Albrecht," is simply a young beat cop who stumbles upon Eric right after he kills Gideon and is told, "Go away boy. You want none of this." This is the only appearance of the comic "Albrecht." However, Captain Hook (an upper level officer who hates his name) shares a lot more in common with the film version of Albrecht. Hook bears a much stronger resemblance to Ernie Hudson of the film and is also African American. The Hook of the comic is also the officer who's assigned Eric and Shelly's case and waits with them as they die in the hospital (coming in to apologize to a brain-dead Eric before he goes back into surgery). Also as in the film, Hook becomes aware of Eric upon his return and attempts, unsuccessfully, to keep tabs on him. Eric, before heading off to finish his vendetta towards the end of the comic, leaves a note for Hook asking him to take care of his cat Gabriel and informing him that "He [the cat], it seems, is a she. Expect kittens in about six weeks." Hook is last seen walking home with Gabriel and muttering, "I hate cats. Shit." Despite the large amount of similarities between the film Albrecht and the comic Hook, there is the important distinction that Hook never becomes Eric's ally in the comic and, in fact, the two never meet face to face after Eric's death (despite being well aware of each other).
  • Eric and Shelly's murderers went from being just a gang of vicious thugs who committed the murders for fun to members of a crime syndicate that unofficially runs the city.
  • In the comic, Gabriel the cat originally belonged to an old lady whom Tin Tin murders at the beginning of the story, and Eric later adopts as an anniversary gift to Shelly ("You always said you wanted a cat"). In the movie, Gabriel already belongs to Eric and Shelly. Also, in the film, Gabriel continued to live in the (now condemned) home of Eric and Shelly, and is presumably left to Sarah and Albrecht at the end of the film; in the comic, Eric leaves Gabriel to Capt. Hook after he burns down his home, with a note revealing that Gabriel was actually a female, and expecting kittens.
  • Shelby the Giant's character was recreated in the film as a man named Grange, who serves a rather different purpose. In the comic, Eric cuts off three of his fingers to gain information about the gang members, and forces him to swallow them after he refuses to talk; he is subsequently killed with a shotgun by Eric near the end of the comic series. In the film, as Grange, he serves as Top Dollar's second-hand, and is shot down by Albrecht in the church.
  • In the comic, Eric has a very thin scar that runs from the bottom of his left eye to the other side of his nose. It is eventually made clear that this was created when T-Bird shot him in the back of the head. While a small (and occasionally missed) detail, this lets readers of the comic tell when they are looking at the dead Eric when he's not wearing make-up (as the comic uses a lot of flash-backs and non-linear story-telling). There are some photos where if you look at Brandon Lee's face up close, you can see a scar in the same place as the comic, but it's never explained. The same is true for bullet casings Eric ties into his hair- they're in some pictures, but never explained.
  • In the film, Eric apparently feels pain when he's shot and often recoils before composing himself. In the comic book, Eric never seems to notice being shot and, in fact, welcomes it and often mutilates himself in a variety of ways. The Eric of the comic also never becomes mortal again the way his film counterpart does.
  • In the film, along with the subsequent sequels, the Crow that follows Eric never says a word, but acts as Eric's "second eyes," helping him to scope out T-Bird's crew. In all of The Crow comic series, the magical Crow is clearly able to communicate with the protagonists, guiding them along the way as well as serving as a goad to keep them on track.
  • In the film, Eric is shown applying his make-up; this is never shown in the comic series, although the now-dead Eric (with scar) frequently walks around the home he shared with Shelly without make-up. It's not clear in the original comic if he applies it or if it just appears and disappears at will (although in several of the other spin-off series, such as The Crow: Flesh and Blood, the protagonist is shown putting on make-up). Also, in the film, Eric's make-up has a white undercoating. Many of the colorized pictures of Eric in the comics only shows the black markings, while the pale undertone is just Eric's natural complexion.
  • In the film, Eric frequently uses firearms for the majority of his killings, the majority of which is a large cache of weaponry he confiscated from Gideon's pawn shop. Although Eric does use guns throughout the comic several times, he seems more than capable of finishing off T-Bird's lackeys without (some times crushing their chests with his hands or smashing their heads into a brick wall).
  • In the comic, Eric kills Gideon by shooting him several times before burning down the pawn shop. In the film, he allows Gideon to survive the encounter in order to relate a message to T-Bird's crew; in the comic, he has Funboy do this in return for the promise of a painless death.
  • Tom-Tom is omitted, and is replaced by the character Skank. In the comic book, Skank was a cohort of Tom-Tom (One of Shelley's murderers) whose head is severed by Eric with a katana.

Brandon Lee's death

See also: Brandon Lee

On March 31, 1993 at EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, there were eight days left before shooting of the film was to be completed. The scene being filmed involved Lee's character walking into his apartment and witnessing the brutal rape of his fiancée by thugs. Lee's character would then have been shot and killed along with his fiancée by the thugs. As the scene was being filmed, Brandon Lee was killed after Michael Massee (who played the villain Funboy) fired the gun at Lee as intended. Earlier in the shooting of the scene the bullet from a dummy round became unseated and was lodged in the barrel of the handgun without being noticed. The gun was then loaded with a blank cartridge containing a propellant charge, but no bullet so as to render a gunshot effect. When the blank was fired, the propellant drove the bullet from the weapon and hit Lee in the abdomen.[1] After Lee's death, a stunt double, Chad Stahelski, replaced Lee in some scenes to complete the film. Another stunt double named Jeff Cadiente was also used to complete the movie. Special effects were used for digitally compositing Lee's face onto the double.

These scenes were filmed after Lee's death:

  • Eric Draven's death in flashbacks (this was the scene Lee was filming at the time he had died)
  • A scene with Eric walking into his apartment after returning from the dead was digitally composited from a scene of Lee walking into an alleyway with raindrops added (the rest of the scenes in the apartment were all done with the double);
  • Lee's face was digitally imposed onto the stunt double when Eric puts on make-up in front of a mirror and walks towards the broken window of his apartment;
  • When Sarah visits Eric, his face is not seen, as it is actually the stunt double.
  • When Eric plays his guitar on the rooftop, it is one of Lee's body doubles.
  • In the scene in which Eric Draven kills T-Bird, he does not speak, nor is his face shown; the close-up of his face was from a deleted shot.
  • A scene in which Draven is running on the rooftops from the police after a shootout was filmed with a double, as was his escape in a police car.

The original footage featuring Lee's actual shooting is the source of some controversy. Some accounts claim it was destroyed immediately without even being developed, while others suggest it was turned over to law enforcement officials as evidence and later given to Lee's family. Others say that it was a curse that has haunted the Lee family. Brandon's father, Bruce Lee also died at the peak of his film career after finishing Enter the Dragon. The movie became a cult classic after Lee's death.

The line Draven tells Albrecht about how "nothing is trivial" was not in the script, being ad-libbed by Brandon Lee. The line was kept intact by producers after his death.

Soundtracks

Main article: The Crow (album)

The original soundtrack album for The Crow featured songs from the movie, and was a chart-topping album. It included work by The Cure, Joy Division, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pantera. The Crow Score consisted of original, mostly orchestral music, with some electronic/guitar elements written for the motion picture by Graeme Revell.

The bands Medicine and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult also make cameo appearances in the film, on stage in the nightclub below Top Dollar's headquarters.

The Stone Temple Pilots song "Big Empty" won an MTV Movie Award in 1995. It was not their original choice for the soundtrack. They recorded a version of "Only Dying", a demo they had recorded earlier as Mighty Joe Young, which was replaced following Lee's death.[2]

Reception

Critics

The Crow was well received by critics, with review website Rotten Tomatoes giving it a "fresh" rating of 86 percent based on 35 reviews. Reviewers praised the action and visual style.[3][4] Rolling Stone called it a "dazzling fever dream of a movie", Caryn James writing for the New York Times called it "a genre film of a high order, stylish and smooth", and Roger Ebert called it "a stunning work of visual style".[5][6][4]

The melancholy effect of Lee's death on viewers was noted; Desson Howe of the Washington Post wrote that Lee "haunts every scene" and James Berardinelli called his death a "specter that will always hang over the film".[4][3][7] Berardinelli called it a fitting epitaph to Lee, Ebert saying that not only is this his best film, but that it is better than any of his father (Bruce Lee).[4] Howe called it an appropriate send off, and Rolling Stone called it a legacy to his talent.[3][5] Critics generally thought that this would have been a breakthrough film for Lee, although James disagreed.[4][8][6] The changes made to the film after Lee's death were noted by reviewers, most of whom saw them as an improvement. Howe said that it had been transformed into something deeply compelling.[3] Berardinelli, although calling it a genre film, said that it had become more mainstream because of the changes.[6]

The film was widely compared to other films, particularly the Batman films and Blade Runner.[7][8] Critics described The Crow as a darker film than the others,[6] Ebert calling it a grungier and more forbidding world than those of Batman and Blade Runner and Todd McCarthy for Variety said that the generic inner city portrayed in The Crow makes Gotham City look like the Emerald City.[8]

The standout features of the film for most critics were the fast-paced action and visual style. The cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and the production design by Alex McDowell were praised. While the plot and characterization were found to be lacking,[3][8][6] these faults were considered to be overcome by the action and visual style.[7][4] The cityscape designed by McDowell and the production team were described by McCarthy as dazzling, stunning, imaginatively rendered.[8] The film's comic book origins were noted and Ebert called it the best version of a comic book universe he had seen.[4] McCarthy agreed, calling it "one of the most effective live-actioners ever derived from a comic strip".[8] Critics felt that the soundtrack complemented this visual style, calling it blistering, edgy and boisterous.[5][8][3] Graeme Revell was praised for his "moody" score;[8] Howe said that it "drapes the story in a postmodern pall.[3]

Negative reviews of the film were generally similar in theme to the positive ones, but said that the interesting and "OK" special effects did not make up for the superficial plot, badly written screenplay and one-dimensional characters.[9][10]

Box office

The film grossed US$50,693,129 in the United States, $94,000,000 Worldwide including $11,774,332 in its opening weekend.[11] According to Box Office Mojo, it ranked at 24 for all films released in the US in 1994 and 10 for R-rated films released that year.[11]

Awards

In 1995, Graeme Revell won a BMI film music award for his score and the Stone Temple Pilots won the MTV Movie Award for Best Song for "Big Empty".[12] Also at the MTV Movie Awards, the film was nominated for Best Film and Brandon Lee was nominated for Best Male Performance.[12] The film received four Saturn Award nominations from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, for Best Costumes, Best Director, Best Horror film and Best Special Effects.

See also

References

  1. ^ Movie armorer safety page detailing Lee's death
  2. ^ "Below Empty - Frequently Asked Questions". StoneTemplePilots.net. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Howe, Desson (1994-05-13), "'The Crow' (R)", Washington Post, retrieved 2007-12-17
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Ebert, Roger (1994-05-13), "The Crow", Chicago Sun-Times, retrieved 2008-01-05
  5. ^ a b c "The Crow: Review", Rolling Stone, 1994-05-19, retrieved 2008-01-05
  6. ^ a b c d e James, Caryn (1994-05-11), "Eerie Links Between Living and Dead", New York Times, retrieved 2007-12-17
  7. ^ a b c Berardinelli, James (1994). "Review: The Crow". ReelViews.net. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h McCarthy, Todd (1994-04-29), "The Crow Review", Variety, retrieved 2008-01-05
  9. ^ Hicks, Chris (2001-09-20), "Movie Review: The Crow", Deseret News, retrieved 2008-01-06
  10. ^ "The Crow", Montreal Film Journal, retrieved 2008-01-06
  11. ^ a b "The Crow (1994)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  12. ^ a b "Content International's Film Library". Content International. 2003. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
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