“Someday all things will be fair and there will be wonderful surprises.”
If my house was burning around me and I had to pick one movie from my collection to keep, I’d pick “The Crow.” Even over “12 Angry Men.” Yes, I think about these sort of things, because in the last month I’ve done a lot that has revolved around “The Crow” and Brandon Lee. I am finishing up a large fan fiction about “The Crow,” I saw “Rapid Fire” for the first time in a year on HBO, and one day out of the blue I had the strange urge to watch “The Crow” again, and for some reason it was kind of emotional for me. I can’t explain it, really. Movies make me emotional but that’s during the dramas and whatnot. Normally movies based on comic books only manage to elicit excitement from me and that’s about as far as it goes, but with “The Crow” it’s a movie I’ve seen a thousand times and for some reason this viewing on the morning of a Sunday, I found myself quite engrossed in it.
I got chills, goose bumps, and in the final scene where Shelly kisses Eric on her grave I almost started bawling. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting soft in my age but for the first time since I saw the film in 1994, I found myself on the verge of tears. I know, “It’s just a stupid movie!” But what can I say? “The Crow” is one of the few movies ever made that has touched me and stayed with me since I saw it. I remember watching the trailer on television and falling in love with it. I was desperate to see it and spent all night drawing pictures I saw from the trailer and even drew Brandon Lee’s face over and over again.
“The Crow” is a movie that has somehow managed to grab me at points in my life and I just can’t stop thinking about it, no matter how hard I try to move on. I don’t know what it is about that movie that just keeps me hanging on. The themes of eternal love, the themes of vengeance, tragedy, bloodshed, or perhaps the notion that true evil eventually perishes under the weight of its own power. There’s a magic to this movie that very few films possess. It’s almost metaphysical at times. Every single minute of Alex Proyas’ masterpiece is spiritual and it’s taken on a life of its own.
On March 31st of this year, it was officially the seventeen year anniversary of Brandon Lee’s death, a somber event that brought down one of most enthusiastic action stars of the nineties, a young man who had every bit of potential to break out and prove to the world that he was more than just Bruce Lee’s son. Like Michael Douglas he was living under a big shadow and was just about to come out from under it and make his mark. And in an instant, a brief horrific instant, he was dead, snuffing out a life that had promise and passion and meaning. So in celebration of Lee’s life, I wanted to revisit “The Crow.” And it was an interesting experience.
Much like the original graphic novel from James O’Barr, “The Crow” was born out of the seeds of death and tragedy. And in some odd way the movie became its own entity, a capsule and capture of Brandon Lee’s spirit that caused this movie to serve as a form of living tribute that bred new life in to this creation. O’Barr as many people know, created “The Crow” as a form of coping with the loss of his girlfriend who died tragically from a car crash. Grief does amazing things to people and it was through this loss, that O’Barr was able to create a marvelous story about revenge and bloodshed and mourning.
This of course transferred on to the film which was about loss and death created in the aftermath of loss and death. Once Brandon Lee died the movie became more than just a comic book movie and served a higher purpose bringing forth a legion of fans to take notice of Lee and realize the person they’d lost who had so much to offer us and the world. Around the mid nineties action films were humongous and around the end of the decade there was a sudden turn of the tide where the action hero was becoming an antiquated concept. With “The Crow,” Lee seemed to want to be more than a guy spouting one-liners and kicking people in the face.
Sure, he was great at it. If you’ve seen “Rapid Fire,” you’ll notice he has a spark to him that just brings an electricity to the screen. Say what you will about the movie, but you can not deny that the man had an energy we only saw in his father. With “The Crow” it seemed to be the spiritual side of Lee reaching out and looking for something else. “The Crow” has action in it, but deep down it’s more about spirituality, the afterlife, and mysticism.
Draven only really knows how to battle his foes when he’s given the power by the Crow. Before that he’s humble and passionate and doesn’t know how to fight when he’s victimized with his girlfriend Shelly. This innocent bystander who is the victim of a vicious crime suddenly becomes a voice and declares that enough is enough and cuts down evil at its root once and for all. It’s an undertone that speaks to the thousands of people who have lost someone in their life who wish they could have justice and resolution. And Lee doesn’t deify himself in this film. His character is flawed, average, simple. He wants to play rock and roll and live with his girlfriend. He’d basically be just another nobody.
But from his death, he finds a power to end his suffering once and for all and he makes every single person who hurt him suffer slowly. He renders no mercy. Lee’s voice can be heard in this film. It’s the voice of a man who wanted more from his career, thus the movie was an indication that Lee was utterly ambitious and set on defining himself as an actual actor who could carry a movie with raw intensity and skill. And he does. He appears for eighty percent of the movie and in that eighty percent he displays a brutal sense of struggle and confliction that reaches out to the audience. From his cries as he emerges from his grave, to the trickle of drool that drips down from his lips as he grins at Gideon after being shot, Lee is making it perfectly clear that he’s here for the duration and he puts his soul in to this performance. Many critics wondered if had Lee not been accidentally killed on the set during the filming if the movie would have had such an impact and become such a hit in theaters. I say yes.
Now I’ll admit I’m not the most objective party to say that being a Lee fan and fan of the film, but I think the entire production has an energy that’s hard to resist. From Proyas’ fantastic direction, to the strong performances, right down to the complex characterization and shades of grey, this movie had the chops to be a hit from the get go. It’s just that Lee’s death empowered it somewhat and acted as a farewell to a generally fascinating individual.