The Crow (Review)

They even nailed the poster.

The Crow is much more than simply a soundtrack CD for goth kids to listen to for hours on end as they ponder topping themselves. It is more than the last film Brandon Lee made. It is more than “that arty dark little film Alex Proyas made”.

It is a visionary piece of film-making that takes what is admittedly a solid character to begin with and builds around it to make one of the better comic to film conversions in history – at least until Christopher Nolan got his hands on the Batman franchise.

But it is all those other things too…

–          The soundtrack CD is full of alterna-heavy and goth fave groups. I for one have never worn heavy mascara or big unnecessary boots and I drag it out for a listen every now and then. It is extremely good and apart from a couple duds shoehorned in it is a rare case of a commercial album that adds to the film.

–          Brandon Lee was “son of Bruce” until this film was released, unfortunately during filming he died in a bizarre onset mishap and never got to separate himself as a quality actor in his own right.

–          The Crow is a dark little film with some arty touches, though Proyas went on to make the very good Dark City and the flawed – but at least interesting and ambitious Knowing last year.

The story goes that the night before Halloween is called Devil’s Night in Crow-opolis and is the cause of much celebration in the form of random acts of arson and other serious crimes.

Now throw your hands in the air!

On this night small time musician Erik Draven and brand new bride Shelley have their honeymoon night ruined by a home invasion and subsequent raping and murder. To think that before that their biggest problem was over who to invite!

Cue the reason for the character – It is said that when someone dies a crow takes their soul to its ultimate resting place… but in certain extreme situations the soul is given a mulligan to atone for the wrongdoing associated with its demise.

Guess which category Erik fits into?

Michael Jackson’s return tour was met with cynicism.

It is said that the inspiration for Draven’s appearance was Chris Robinson the lanky, long haired lead singer for the Black Crowes. I think it is more a situation of the S & M inspired Catwoman from the neck down with maybe a long haired Jack Skellington for a head.

In any case 12 months after his death Erik is back on the scene. Weak, confused and disoriented after 12 months as wormfood, he quickly but painfully gathers together the threads of his tragic last memories and sets about righting some wrongs with group of four thugs responsible… 1 by 1. He quickly regains his fitness and in fact seems to have many new physical attributes and abilities, not least of which is spontaneous tissue regeneration meaning a liddle old bullet hole ain’t no thang.

The as yet oblivious quartet of cartoonish thugs have colorful names like Funnyboy, Tin-Tin, T-Bird and (my favourite) Skank. They still operate in the same area, spreading the same chaos and committing the same crimes as they did 12 months prior – though as Eric himself states early on:

“They’re all dead… they just don’t know it yet.”

Meanwhile the only person that even remembered Erik and Shelley from when they were alive is a streetwise little sk8er grrrl named Sarah who relied on the couple as her mother is somewhat of an irresponsible junkie slut. Another who had dealings with the couple – but unfortunately after they were already dead or dying – is the city’s seemingly only honest cop named Albrecht (Ernie Hudson). Both meet periodically to discuss what was and what the future might hold, it is fair to say that both have dealings with the “reborn” Erik and are fairly surprised at his return.

Ignoring the surprise Erik starts revengin’ his way across the back streets and scummy areas of the city, as he meticulously works his way through the death-date’s perpetrators individually, making sure first that they realize why – and often how – they are being offed. His constant companion is indeed a crow, and Erik can at times see things out of reach through the crow’s eyes – sort of like a black feathered sat-nav.

Woo-Hoo!

As Erik cuts through the seedy underbelly of the city he brings the unwanted attention of the crime boss who runs almost everything underhanded illicit operation in the berg, a guy named (though never mentioned in the film as) Top Dollar. Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) openly wonders why some of his best scuzzballs are being removed from society, and as he and his “sister/muse” (Bai Ling) start to plot the events of the year’s Devil’s Night they build in a special plan to find and exit Erik from proceedings, lest he hurt business.

It seems inevitable that all the major players will end up in close proximity – but I can go no further without too many spoilers.

The strengths of The Crow are many: It is in a Sin City like environment, a full decade before that film and without the complex computer generated techniques available to Rodriguez. The setting is drab, macabre and (yes) gothic, a suitably depressing backdrop in which an undead man might choose to exact revenge.

In Brandon Lee and Michael Wincott The Crow has an awesome Ying and Yang set of bookends, Lee obviously inhabits his role and brings many nuances and minor tics to Draven that round out the character, meanwhile Wincott hams his way through his scenes as Top Dollar. He is suitably menacing and evil, and his gravelly voice and dismissive demeanor and proclivity to violence underpins exactly how he came to be the city’s Top $ Dawg in the first place.

A surprise is Bai Ling as Top Dollar’s sister/muse, she is so understated (read so un-Bai Ling) that when I saw on imdb that it was her I didn’t believe it at first. Ernie Hudson is relegated to a lot of expositional scenes where he basically only needs to look surprised and the best thing I can say about the actress who plays Sara is that she wasn’t annoying.

Proyas handles all the seemingly over the top action, explosions, dialogue and profanity and for the most part keeps it somehow grounded. Even when Erik takes a short break to bust out some power chords on his guitar (the film’s one weakness) he manages to get things back on track quickly and makes us want him to succeed, especially once his weakness is ultimately exposed. As well as the tragedy of Lee’s untimely death it is also sad that Proyas hasn’t made more films like this and Dark City.

The Crow has gained an almost mystical reputation over the years as a one hit wonder anomaly, the feeling being that without the shadow of Lee’s death it wouldn’t be remembered so fondly – this has certain similarities to Heath Ledger and his too-late starmaking turn in The Dark Knight.

Symbolic much?

All I can say in both cases is that one viewing of each film should dispel those myths, and rewatching them periodically not only serves as a reminder but as a reward in itself.

The Crow is a fucking good film.

Final Rating – 9 / 10. Almost two decades on and this hasn’t dated one bit. Still one of the Top 5 comic to film adaptations of all time.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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