The Crow (1994): A Review

THE CROW (1994)

Whatever the merits The Crow may have, it will always be haunted by the death of its star Brandon Lee, killed on-set with only days before finishing his scenes. Under these circumstances, the filmmakers cobbled together a film that holds up remarkably well. Separate from that tragedy, The Crow works visually in its story of supernatural revenge.

In voiceover from Sarah (Rochelle Davis), we learn of the murders of Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) and her rock star fiancée Eric Draven (Lee). Draven had come back to their apartment to find four men beating and raping Shelly as warning against her advocacy for the tenants in their apartment. 

A year later, Draven manages to return from the dead. Horrified and angry about Shelly's murder, he now goes after the four men responsible for her death along with their boss Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), who wanted to push the other tenants out to get the building. Guided by the crow that brought him back, Draven tracks down the four killers: Tin Tin (Laurence Mason), Funboy (Michael Massee), T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly) and Skank (Angel David). 

He also shepherds Sarah's drug addicted mother and Funboy's lover Darla (Anna Thomson) to reuniting with her daughter. Police Sergeant Albrecht (Ernie Hudson), who attempted to save Shelly and stayed with her until her death, wonders if the dead Draven may have come back. As Top Dollar and his henchmen see the Crow and Draven targeting them, it becomes a battle royale to see who will find eternal peace.

It is impossible to know if what we ultimately ended up with is how The Crow would have turned out had Lee lived. I imagine that the film had to be reworked to make it cohesive, such as having Sarah's voiceover pop up from time to time and having the film have a lot of shadow (perhaps to hide Lee's absence). Given the difficult circumstances that director Alex Proyas faced, I think The Crow ended up holding up well. 

The film has an especially strong aesthetic in this dark world, dominated by rain and darkness. There was very little light that I remember, if any. The overall look of The Crow is well-crafted. While you do sense that some scenes were reworked to mask Lee's absence, such as Shelly and Eric's killings, they manage to make the flashbacks more cinematic and even gripping. This might also account for how despite being the lead, Brandon Lee does not appear to be a major part of The Crow.

He felt a bit spread out throughout the film, popping up when needed but also requiring scenes which focused on other characters. For example, we see more interactions between Sarah and Albrecht than between Sarah and Eric or Albrecht and Eric. This might have been the plan all along. I do give credit to screenwriters David J. Schow and John Shirley in managing to take James O'Barr's comic book as well as the revamped plans to make things work.

Again, it is impossible to know what turns Brandon Lee's career would have taken had he lived. Would The Crow had been the breakout role to make him a star in his own right? I cannot say for certain. I can say that, based on what I saw, Lee had great potential and promise. He had an intensity and focus as Eric, matching the character's drive and need for justice. His scenes with Thomson's Darla, where he firmly but gently urged her to take care of her daughter reveal that Lee was playing a complex character. He was driven by righteous vengeance, but he also had compassion.

Ernie Hudson is the de facto costar in The Crow. He was effective as this honest cop who cares about the people on his beat and wants justice for Shelly and Eric. Davis was winning as Sarah, the teenager who was Shelly and Eric's unofficial ward. I normally am not a fan of voiceovers. However, Davis made them work as she set up the story and gave us the summation. She and Thomson had a great scene when Sarah and Darla reconcile. It is unfortunate that it felt both brief and slightly distracting from the overall story of Eric's vengeance on those who destroyed his world. However, given what occurred during production, I will give this some slack.

The film is well-acted by everyone involved. Each actor knew his or her character and Proyas kept them to whatever level they needed to be, whether more grounded or more exaggerated. 

The Crow also has an appropriately dark look, visually impactful while still looking as if it were more fantasy. It also has a strong soundtrack that knows how to use its various songs well. There is the dark opening of The Cure's Burn to Nine Inch Nails cover of Joy Division's Deal Souls. The big song is Stone Temple Pilots' Big Empty, which you can hear briefly when the killers are driving. Here, I do not know if Big Empty's sense of loss fits where it was placed in the film, but it is not a distraction.

After seeing The Crow, I can see why it is so beloved by so many. I found it a surprisingly quiet and simple film, but that is not a negative. It actually makes the film more gothic, tragic and effective. All the elements in The Crow work well, more so given the difficult situation the film faced. One hopes that Brandon Lee can rest in peace knowing that The Crow has granted him immortality.

DECISION: B-