261 Days of Horror, Day 35: The Crow
Feb. 16th, 2007 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiThe Crow. Directed by Alex Proyas. Written by John Shirley and David Schow (and based on a comic book by James O'Barr). Released by Dimension.
Ah yes. The movie you've all been waiting for: the solo adventures of that little robot from MST3K. Oh, wait. Not quite. Although any of the other films with the name Crow attached to it would make fine MST3K fodder. The original, though, is a classic.
I'll continue the trend of keeping the plot description less than detailed, not least because it's not exactly a complicated plot. A year ago, in a city that's clearly Detroit, even though they never say so in the movie, young indie rocker Eric Draven* and his fiance Shelly were murdered (and Shelly was raped) in what turns out to be the worst case of tenant/landlord disagreement ever.
A year later, only two people even remember Eric and Shelly. One of them is Sarah, a lovable street urchin whose mom spends her time smoking crack instead of parenting. Like other lovable street urchins from Oliver! to Aliens, she's an infinitely better survivor than any adult, even while maintaining her basic compassion and human decency. The other one is beat cop Albrecht. As the Only Honest Cop in (pseudo) Detroit, he's still working the beat, and he did over the last year his best to track down the killers.
On the bad side of things, the city's crime is all channeled through Top Dollar, the sleaziest crime lord in history. Drugs, prostitution, shady real estate, whatever else you have in mind, if it exists and is illegal, he's got a piece of it. He rules the city with his equally corrupt sister, Myca, who also appears to be his lover. Before you get all judgmental, it's worth remembering that Myca is played by a 24-year-old Bai Ling. So let's cut him some slack.
Cutting to the present day, Devil's Night, 1994, we see a crow visit the graveside of Draven and Shelly. For reasons unknown**, this causes Draven to rise up as a unstoppable killing machine. With the help of the bird, he starts to take his revenge on those who wronged him, using exploding cars, drug overdoses, and other ironically fitting forms of revenge on the gang.
Once the gang is dead, Draven goes after Top Dollar and Myca, eventually confronting them in a showdown at the old church, where they've kidnapped Sarah. Top Dollar shoots the bird***, and this weakens Draven's powers. With the help of Albrecht, Draven is able to beat the two bad guys anyway. The bird (which wasn't really pining for the fjords) pecks at Myca and causes her to fall to her death (why the bird didn't intervene directly before is unexplained, so we'll call it corvis ex machina). Draven takes care of Top Dollar by magically transferring his pain to the big bad guy, forcing him to die the ultimate emo death.
Draven's work is now done, so he heads back to the grave, leaving Sarah to live a happy life, and Albrecht to clean up the crime scene.
The Crow is a better movie than it has any right to be. Between the simplistic revenge plotline and the fact that the film's lead, Brandon Lee, was killed on the set (forcing some serious workarounds during the final week of filming), this could have been as mediocre as any straight-to-video crap horror flick****. But director Alex Proyas knew that there was enough iconic imagery, as well as plot driven so strongly by love and revenge, that he could pull audiences into the story. He wisely chose to focus not on the logic of the story (which would be a problem), but on the characters, letting his talented cast bring the heroes and villains to life.
Lee, of course, is the most important member of the cast. Much as one wants to examine a movie in a vacuum, it's hard to ignore his tragic loss during filming. But what's truly tragic is that this really is his breakthrough performance, far surpassing Rapid Fire and even the cute (but slight) Showdown in Little Tokyo. It shows that he could handle depth and emotions, and makes his loss all the more heartbreaking.
The rest of the cast is equally solid. Ernie Hudson, as Albrecht, makes a fine cop, and Rochelle Davis does a convincing job as Sarah. The villains include horror staple Tony Todd, as well as solid character actors like Laurence Mason and David Patrick Kelly. And Bai Ling is both sexy and creepy as Myca. But it's Michael Wincott, as Top Dollar, who steals this movie, tossing out quips, threatening innocents and members of his own organization alike, and being all creepy with his sister. It's every bit the equal of Lee's performance, and it's just as vital to the movie.
The script, by David Schow and John Shirley, wisely weakens Draven slightly from his comic-book incarnation, providing some legitimate dramatic tension near the end of the film. It's also filled with wonderful dialogue, fleshing out characters like Top Dollar and Draven and giving distinct personalities to even the thugs.
The Crow's sequels, as I've mentioned before, all blow. As do all the Crow comics after the first one, as well as the Crow TV series (which I believe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redcrowstudio pegged as "Touched by a Crow"). Other than a few novels and an anthology, the Crow concept pretty much blew its wad after the first movie and comic series. But in its initial incarnation, it's a powerful, brutal movie about love and justice, and a great way to end Valentine's Day Week.
*Okay, look: I like this movie a lot, but as names go, this one's about as subtle as a hand grenade. I wanted the main character the sequel to be named "Alex Djackdaw," but they went with the slightly more subtle "Corvis" instead.
**Okay, that's not quite true. Quoth the Sarah: "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right." Of course, with all the shit that goes down on Devil's Night (or any other time), why would the crow just bring back Draven? Why not an entire fucking army of the living dead? Maybe Dawn of the Dead is really about a crow getting wholesale revenge.
***Top Dollar then utters the best line in the entire film: "Quick impression for you: Caw! Caw! Bang! Fuck, I'm Dead!"
****The third Crow movie, surprisingly, is the only one of the three awful sequels to not get a theatrical release.
Ah yes. The movie you've all been waiting for: the solo adventures of that little robot from MST3K. Oh, wait. Not quite. Although any of the other films with the name Crow attached to it would make fine MST3K fodder. The original, though, is a classic.
I'll continue the trend of keeping the plot description less than detailed, not least because it's not exactly a complicated plot. A year ago, in a city that's clearly Detroit, even though they never say so in the movie, young indie rocker Eric Draven* and his fiance Shelly were murdered (and Shelly was raped) in what turns out to be the worst case of tenant/landlord disagreement ever.
A year later, only two people even remember Eric and Shelly. One of them is Sarah, a lovable street urchin whose mom spends her time smoking crack instead of parenting. Like other lovable street urchins from Oliver! to Aliens, she's an infinitely better survivor than any adult, even while maintaining her basic compassion and human decency. The other one is beat cop Albrecht. As the Only Honest Cop in (pseudo) Detroit, he's still working the beat, and he did over the last year his best to track down the killers.
On the bad side of things, the city's crime is all channeled through Top Dollar, the sleaziest crime lord in history. Drugs, prostitution, shady real estate, whatever else you have in mind, if it exists and is illegal, he's got a piece of it. He rules the city with his equally corrupt sister, Myca, who also appears to be his lover. Before you get all judgmental, it's worth remembering that Myca is played by a 24-year-old Bai Ling. So let's cut him some slack.
Cutting to the present day, Devil's Night, 1994, we see a crow visit the graveside of Draven and Shelly. For reasons unknown**, this causes Draven to rise up as a unstoppable killing machine. With the help of the bird, he starts to take his revenge on those who wronged him, using exploding cars, drug overdoses, and other ironically fitting forms of revenge on the gang.
Once the gang is dead, Draven goes after Top Dollar and Myca, eventually confronting them in a showdown at the old church, where they've kidnapped Sarah. Top Dollar shoots the bird***, and this weakens Draven's powers. With the help of Albrecht, Draven is able to beat the two bad guys anyway. The bird (which wasn't really pining for the fjords) pecks at Myca and causes her to fall to her death (why the bird didn't intervene directly before is unexplained, so we'll call it corvis ex machina). Draven takes care of Top Dollar by magically transferring his pain to the big bad guy, forcing him to die the ultimate emo death.
Draven's work is now done, so he heads back to the grave, leaving Sarah to live a happy life, and Albrecht to clean up the crime scene.
The Crow is a better movie than it has any right to be. Between the simplistic revenge plotline and the fact that the film's lead, Brandon Lee, was killed on the set (forcing some serious workarounds during the final week of filming), this could have been as mediocre as any straight-to-video crap horror flick****. But director Alex Proyas knew that there was enough iconic imagery, as well as plot driven so strongly by love and revenge, that he could pull audiences into the story. He wisely chose to focus not on the logic of the story (which would be a problem), but on the characters, letting his talented cast bring the heroes and villains to life.
Lee, of course, is the most important member of the cast. Much as one wants to examine a movie in a vacuum, it's hard to ignore his tragic loss during filming. But what's truly tragic is that this really is his breakthrough performance, far surpassing Rapid Fire and even the cute (but slight) Showdown in Little Tokyo. It shows that he could handle depth and emotions, and makes his loss all the more heartbreaking.
The rest of the cast is equally solid. Ernie Hudson, as Albrecht, makes a fine cop, and Rochelle Davis does a convincing job as Sarah. The villains include horror staple Tony Todd, as well as solid character actors like Laurence Mason and David Patrick Kelly. And Bai Ling is both sexy and creepy as Myca. But it's Michael Wincott, as Top Dollar, who steals this movie, tossing out quips, threatening innocents and members of his own organization alike, and being all creepy with his sister. It's every bit the equal of Lee's performance, and it's just as vital to the movie.
The script, by David Schow and John Shirley, wisely weakens Draven slightly from his comic-book incarnation, providing some legitimate dramatic tension near the end of the film. It's also filled with wonderful dialogue, fleshing out characters like Top Dollar and Draven and giving distinct personalities to even the thugs.
The Crow's sequels, as I've mentioned before, all blow. As do all the Crow comics after the first one, as well as the Crow TV series (which I believe
redcrowstudio pegged as "Touched by a Crow"). Other than a few novels and an anthology, the Crow concept pretty much blew its wad after the first movie and comic series. But in its initial incarnation, it's a powerful, brutal movie about love and justice, and a great way to end Valentine's Day Week.*Okay, look: I like this movie a lot, but as names go, this one's about as subtle as a hand grenade. I wanted the main character the sequel to be named "Alex Djackdaw," but they went with the slightly more subtle "Corvis" instead.
**Okay, that's not quite true. Quoth the Sarah: "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right." Of course, with all the shit that goes down on Devil's Night (or any other time), why would the crow just bring back Draven? Why not an entire fucking army of the living dead? Maybe Dawn of the Dead is really about a crow getting wholesale revenge.
***Top Dollar then utters the best line in the entire film: "Quick impression for you: Caw! Caw! Bang! Fuck, I'm Dead!"
****The third Crow movie, surprisingly, is the only one of the three awful sequels to not get a theatrical release.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 03:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 03:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 04:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 04:49 pm (UTC)Definitely my favorite Michael Wincott performance, and thanks for highlighting one of the best lines! I also like, "So I'm sorry if I spoiled your wedding plans, son, but if it's any consolation, you have put a smile on my face."
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 04:58 pm (UTC)I also really liked the music they used for the film.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 05:40 pm (UTC)And don't forget the awesome party jam/killing spree set to Thrill Kill Kult!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 05:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 06:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 07:50 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure the 4th didn't get a theatrical release. The fourth was also, after the first, the best scripted. There was some hope for it to at least be a solid B movie, but I think the director didn't push his actors enough. Which is sad b/c I like David Boreanez and Ed Furlong.
The third I actually enjoyed some, though what makes me irked there are places where the sequels try to deal with the first like there was a formula, and there simply wasn't. As Brandon Lee put it in an interview about Draven, how do you know how a guy back from the dead is going to act?
The second, according to IMDB, has a cut that might actually be worth seeing. It makes more of an effort to humanize the villans and in the end, the Crow Zombie doesn't win.
The Crow was and is to this day one of my desert island movies. It's precisely the passion in the performances, both in the angst and anger in Lee's performance (spot the place where in character, he's drooling) and the playful immorality that Wilcot brings to Top Dollar (making him even more e-motherfuckin-vile), that carries this movie and did make it something more than an action flick based on a comic.
Of course, with all the shit that goes down on Devil's Night (or any other time), why would the crow just bring back Draven?
I'd always editorialized that it was Eric's grief and the depth of his sorrow that made coming back required. It's not a mandate from on high, but a result of a soul who's just two pissed to stay buried.
Thanks for the review... even if in my head it's not a horror movie.
Peace.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 08:26 pm (UTC)Heh... true enough considering how ephemeral and surreal the original comic concentrated on being.
I like the movie well enough, but, though I'm not normally a loyalist to source material, the entire "catch the bird/kill the bird/Top Dollar boss fight" concept added to the flick always felt 'off' to me. It's fun enough, and provides necessary closure needed for the lead villian since the film built him up a lot more than any of the villans in the comic, but I always though it felt like a departure from the film's mood.
That, and the loss of the more surreal "midway twixt here and the after" (skeletal ticket-taker, etc.) sequences knocked the film down a couple notches for me.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-16 11:42 pm (UTC)Also, I think that it's Brandon Lee's performance that moves this above its simple "supernatural avenger" plotline.
I love this movie and the soundtrack is incredible!
Ya know, we've agreed on more films in this list . . . watch out for skeletal horsemen!
Jack Handey: "The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
Date: 2007-02-17 02:45 am (UTC)Truer than you think:
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=crow
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-17 02:48 am (UTC)The original comic surpasses the movie a thousand thousand times over (and I really like the movie), and the anthology is a generally nice collection, with only a couple of missteps.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-17 02:54 am (UTC)WHAT?! You're joking, right? The thing was a nigh unwatchable incoherent mess. On top of that, Tara Reid put in the only believable performance. Furlong, Boreanez and Hopper didn't even bother to phone their performances in. They sent them in via Morse fucking code.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-17 09:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-18 04:19 pm (UTC)As far as the whole Crow phenomenon, I've always wondered how O'Barr handles the fact that he has become rich and (reasonably) famous for a work based on a horrible tragedy in his life?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-18 09:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-02-19 01:42 am (UTC)Then again, since everything he's written since the original has sucked, I wonder if he's even got anything else to say.