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The Crow (film)

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The Crow
Movie poster
Directed by	Alex Proyas
Produced by	Jeff Most Edward R. Pressman
Written by	James O'Barr (book) David J. Schow (screenplay) John Shirley (screenplay)
Starring	Brandon Lee Michael Wincott
Music by	Graeme Revell Trent Reznor
Cinematography	Dariusz Wolski
Editing by	Dov Hoenig M. Scott Smith
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	May 11, 1994 July 21, 1994
Running time	102 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$50,693,162 (USA sub-total)
Followed by	The Crow: City of Angels
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

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 his last film.

The film gained instant notoriety even before its release, when Lee was killed in an accident during filming. Despite this event (or perhaps due to it), the film has gained a cult following over the years.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Setting
4 Changes from the comic book
5 Brandon Lee's death
6 Soundtracks
7 Trivia
8 Reception
9 See also
10 External links
11 References

The film opens with the voice of a woman explaining 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 peron back to life so that they can right the wrongs that were done to them before they can have eternal peace in the after life.

One night right before Halloween, rock guitarist Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his angelic fiancée Shelley Webster (Sofia Shinas) are brutally murdered. Shelley filed a petition against an evil organization who was into shady dealings, so they sent four assassins to their apartment; they threw Eric out off the window after stabbing him when he interrupted them while they tortured Shelly and tried to stop them, they then raped and tortured Shelley to death.

A year later, right in the first anniversary of his and Shelley's deaths, their murders are still unsolved. 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.

Draven staggers away from his grave, followed and at times led by the crow back to his old appartment, where he suffers flashbacks about his and Shelly's murders. Determined to take his revenge he paints his face in white and black clown paint,which was his stage make-up for when he performed with his band. He goes out and searches for the killers -- T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly), Skank (Angel David), Tin Tin (Laurence Mason), and Funboy (Michael Massee). Draven kills them one by one until he is lead to Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), the crime boss who masterminded Draven and Shelley's murders. Top Dollar and his sister and lover Myca (Bai Ling) seem to have some kind of stranglehold over the city.

Draven saves street waif Sarah (Rochelle Davis)from being run over by a car while she is skatebording, and the police officer who delt with his and Shelly's case, Albrecht (Ernie Hudson). Sarah was the daughter of the prostitute Darla (Anna Levine) and Shelley and Draven's sort-of protegé before they died, and she's the first person who recognizes Eric when he comes back from the dead; recognising the words he says to her as a lyric to one of his songs, 'It can't rain all the time'. Albrecht had stayed with Shelly untill she died in hospital, and when he touches Draven, Draven sufferes another flash back, experiencing all off Shelly's pain at once.

Draven finds Darla (Sarah's mother) with one of the murderers when he goes to kill him; he spares her, though, reminding her that she still has a daughter to take care of and helping mother and daughter to start fixing their relationship.

When Top Dollar is informed of the deaths of his men, kidnaps Sarah while she stands at Shelly's grave. 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.

Draven attempts to rescue Sarah from Top Dollar in the gothic church, he uses the last of his strength to send 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 Shelley's murders are dead, Draven 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.

The film finishes with Sarah explainging the end of the legend.

Brandon Lee as Eric Draven
Rochelle Davis as Sarah
Ernie Hudson as Sergeant Albrecht
Michael Wincott as Top Dollar
Bai Ling as Myca
Sofia Shinas as Shelly Webster
Anna Levine as Darla
David Patrick Kelly as T-Bird
Angel David as Skank
Laurence Mason as Tin Tin
Michael Massee as Funboy
Tony Todd as Grange
Jon Polito as Gideon, Pawn Shop Owner

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.

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, or Eric de Raven) and is portrayed by Lee as a rock guitarist, while Shelly is portrayed as an artist and a lawyer. In the comic, Eric's surname is never stated, nor is his (or Shelly's) career life before his rebirth.

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 (Who were stoned at the time) 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; whereas in the comic, the encounter happened on the highway, and Eric and Shelly are attacked by the gang after they come across them while they're stoned.

In the comic, Sarah (Sherri in the comic), played by Rochelle Davis, is a street urchin Eric doesn't meet until after his rebirth, and only features twice; once, when Eric found her outside of Funboys' 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 Shelley'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; whereas the movie Albrecht befriends SARAH following Eric and Shelly's death.

Top Dollar, played by Michael Wincott, went from a low-level drug dealer to a powerful crime lord who un-officially 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 resemble's 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.

Officer Albrecht, played by Ernie Hudson, actually appears to be a combination of two characters from the comic. The first, also named "Officer Albrecht," is simply a young, Caucasian 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 the 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).

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 counter-part does.

The film, especially with Brandon's Lee's charming performance, tends to make Eric seem more likable and less frightening.

In the comic Eric constantly repeats that the Crow told him not to look while the gang raped and murdered Shelly. It is implied that if he hadn't watched, he may not have been so traumatized and needed to return for vengeance. Before the last showdown in the comic, T-Bird asks Eric if he has any last words before being gunned down to which Eric replies, "the crow said don't look!"

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 protagonist, 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 Crow face make-up; this is never shown in the comic series though the now-dead Eric (with scar) frequently walking around the home he shared with Shelly without make-up (it is not made 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 Crow face 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 ("legitimate of course") 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 general, Eric's methods of execution are a lot more graphic in the comic.

In the comic, Eric kills Gideon by shooting him several times ("So much for the single bullet theory") 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.

A character specific to the film is Top-Dollar's psychotic "sister"/lover, who is murdered by the actual Crow when it plucks out her eyes, causing her to fall down from the top of the church.

Eric's main outlet in the film is a song he wrote for Shelly that he plays on an electric guitar he takes from Gideon's pawn shop. In the comic, Eric performs acts of self-mutilation as an outlet for his frustration.

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) who got his head severed by Eric with a katana ("Have you ever seen Seven Samurai?").

The film climaxes when Eric and Top Dollar have a sword fight on the roof of an old church. Top Dollar throws Sarah (Sherri in the comics) off the roof to distract Eric (who lunges to save her) and then stabs Eric in the back. Just before Top Dollar finishes off the now-mortal Eric, Eric gives him the 30-hours of pain Shelly suffered while dying in the hospital. All this pain all at once hits Top Dollar hard and causes him to fall to his death. The climax of the comic is rather different. Never having lost his immortality, Eric dispatches all of T-Bird's lackeys easily with his bare hands. T-Bird attempts to flee via car but spins out of control and crashes right where the gang murdered Eric and Shelly a year ago. Eric slowly walks up to him holding a hammer. Eric asks T-Bird "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" and, when T-bird says he doesn't know, squeezes the hammer and replies, "It depends on the tune." The reader doesn't get to see how Eric presumably mangles T-Bird with the hammer. Both the comic and film then conclude with Eric returning to his grave and apparently reuniting with Shelly.

Brandon Lee as Eric Draven

See also: Brandon Lee

On March 31, 1993 at the North Carolina Film Studios in Wilmington NC, there were eight days left before shooting of the film was to be completed. The scene being filmed involved Lee's character Eric Draven 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. The bullet unseated from a dummy round was lodged in the barrel of the handgun. The bullet was not noticed and the gun was loaded with a blank cartridge. When the blank was fired, the bullet shot out 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. Special effects were used for digitally compositing Lee's face onto the double.

The original footage featuring Lee's actual death 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.

The bullet was lodged in the dummy gun due to a mistake made by the Special Effects department. A display was shown to prove that dummy guns were intentionally built to be unable to fire actual bullets. The bullet was still lodged in the dummy gun when the scene was filmed.

The original soundtrack album for The Crow featured songs from the movie, and was a chart-topping album. It included work by The Cure, 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 small appearances in the film, on stage in the nightclub below Top Dollar's 'headquarters'.

Nine Inch Nails perform a cover of the Joy Division song "Dead Souls". Rollins Band performs a cover of the Suicide song "Ghost Rider".

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The name Eric Draven is an anagram for "Raven Cried". In the second movie, The Crow: City of Angels, the character's name, Ashe Corven, is an anagram for "Raven Echos".
The physical appearance of the character Gideon was based on Jon Polito, who subsequently played the character in the film adaptation. In the movie he even wears the same ballcap as in the comics, a black baseball-cap with the word "GIDS" spelled on it.
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 on The Crow: Stairway to Heaven acting as a guide in the Land of the Living for souls in limbo.
Professional wrestler Sting admits to his face paint being inspired by The Crow. It was actually Scott Hall's idea.
Brandon 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.
The line between Draven & Albrecht about how, "Nothing Is Trivial," was add-libbed by Brandon Lee, and not in the script. The line was kept intact by producers after Brandon's Death.

The film became a box office success^[2] and was generally well received by critics.^[3] It won the 1995 BMI Film Music Award, from the BMI Film & TV Awards. It also won the 1995 MTV Movie Award for Best Movie Song ("Big Empty" by Stone Temple Pilots). It was nominated for the 1995 MTV Movie Awards for Best Movie and posthumously to Brandon Lee for Best Male Performance.