The Crow

Summary

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

Paramount Pictures has recently given Alex Proyas’s film The Crow a beautiful 4K UHD release in either regular or steelbook packaging. I have been impressed by Paramount’s commitment to bringing some of their most sought after films from the past to the 4K format, and I was pleased to see that The Crow would be receiving a much deserved upgrade for its thirtieth anniversary. Paramount is also developing a reboot of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgard which comes out later this year. Director Alex Proyas has been quite vocal about his disapproval of the remake because of his feeling that it disrespects actor Brandon Lee’s final performance. Brandon Lee’s accidental death occurred during the filming of The Crow when a live round was unintentionally fired into Brandon Lee’s abdomen by actor Michael Massee. He died at the hospital afterward.  The performance by Brandon Lee would have been notable, but his death gave the performance additional gravitas. The performance and the tragedy are completely intertwined.

The Crow was a theatrical success that did over $50 million at the box office. The film has also been very successful on every home video format. Based on the comic books, or graphic novels, of James O’Barr, The Crow was a truly mature comic book movie that was rooted in the times in which it was made. The early Nineties was a time where Gothic comic books such as The Crow or The Sandman found a supporting audience. The character of Eric Draven was a perfectly formed grunge hero for Generation X, and audiences immediately connected with the comic books and the film. The soundtrack for the film was similarly well received due to its contributions of songs from Rage Against the Machine, The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, and others. Despite having owned the prior Blu-ray release of the film, it had been years since I had revisited The Crow. I watched the 4K UHD the other night, and I can safely say that the film has never looked better.

The film begins with a voiceover that says: “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.” It is October 30th. It is Devils Night in Detroit. Officer Albrecht (Ernie Hudson) looks out a broken window down to the shattered body on the street far below. Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) were brutally attacked on the night before their wedding. Eric had been thrown out the window to his death. One hundred and forty three fires are burning in the city. A young girl named Sarah (Rochelle Davis) rides her skateboard to the crime scene. She runs up to Shelly just as Shelly is being put into the ambulance. Shelly is unaware that Eric is dead. Shelly tells Sarah to have Eric take care of her before she is put in the ambulance. A year later, Sarah places roses on the graves of Eric and Shelly. The couple had been buried together at the cemetery. A crow lands at the grave of Eric and begins to peck at the headstone as rain falls. Eric rises from the grave as the crow watches on. The crow leads Eric back to the crime scene that was his apartment. The place is still in shambles from the attack the year before. Eric’s cat Gabriel is there. When he reaches down to touch the cat, the entire scene replays for him. Shelly had been accosted by four men who burst into the apartment. TinTin (Laurence Mason,) Skank (Angel David,) Funboy (Michael Massee,) and their leader T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly) had come to the apartment with the goal of scaring the couple out of their apartment on behalf of Top Dollar (Michael Wincott.) Eric and Shelly had been fighting tenant eviction. The four attackers had guns and knives. Shelly was raped and hurt by the men who took turns with her. Eric had entered the apartment during the attack. He had been hit by one of TinTin’s knives before being shot three times and thrown out the window. As Eric relives the ordeal, he grips the glass on the broken window and his hands bleed. He sees that his hands heal themselves. At the nearby bar, Sarah’s mother Darla (Anna Thomson) bartends for the four attackers that had killed Eric while they take shots and swallow bullets. Eric begins to seek vengeance from beyond the grave on those who had condemned himself and his fiancée to such a horrible fate. After killing TinTin with TinTin’s own knives, Eric visits Gideon’s Pawn Shop to retrieve his wedding ring. Gideon fires bullets into Eric and watches in shock as Eric heals. Eric gathers information on the whereabouts of the rest of the attackers and allows Gideon to live to tell the others what he has seen. Gideon (Jon Polito) runs from the pawn shop as Eric causes it to explode. Gideon tells Top Dollar about what he witnessed. Top Dollar runs the criminal entrprises of the city and has a girlfriend as twisted as him named Myca (Bai Ling.) As Eric begins to kill Top Dollar’s men, Top Dollar prepares himself for the confrontation between himself and his supernatural nemesis.

The early Nineties was a formative age for me. I was lucky enough to have a big brother who was nine years older, which exposed me to a lot of amazing things at a young age that I might have missed otherwise. I distinctly remember just how big of a deal the film The Crow was for the teenagers that were a decade ahead of me. They felt connected to Brandon Lee and his performance in the same way that they also connected with fallen rock star Kurt Cobain. I remember that the summer before my brother went to college, he and his friends were always watching The Crow on VHS and Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam were blaring from their cars. I convinced my mother to let me purchase the graphic novel of the first series of The Crow, and I was a fan years before I was finally allowed to see the movie adaptation. I loved the graphic novel at the time, and when I finally did see the film I was happy to see just how well it had adapted the material. It is hard for me to write a review of The Crow removed from the biases of my own nostalgia. Given that the film is certainly a product of its time, it will be interesting to see how the film connects with a younger audience. When I watch the film, I am instantly taken back to that era when so many interesting genre films were being made. I think The Crow remains one of the most interesting action pictures of that time. 

I want to start by saying that I love the way the film was lit by cinematographer Dariusz Wolski. The Crow is somewhat drained of color and the lighting consistently allows for dramatic shadows. The film has rain in many of the shots, which adds a lot visually. The best way to describe the look would be Gothic, and the film’s look brilliantly translates the visual ideas of the graphic novel. James O’Barr’s graphic novel was black and white, and the film captures the look and feel of the work while still being shot in color with some red flourishes. If you have seen Alex Proyas’s next film Dark City, visually there is a good amount in common between the two pictures (which makes sense given that Wolski was cinematographer on that film as well.) The Crow’s production design is beautifully realized. The stylistic flourishes are extremely impressive even thirty years later. 

Alex Proyas is an Australian director who filmed a number of music videos for bands such as INXS, Crowded House, and Sting. In 1987 he directed the film Spirits of the Air: Gremlins of the Clouds. The Crow was only his second film, but he had a firm grasp on what he wanted to do with the material. He showed a natural skill towards working with accomplished actors. Proyas did a remarkable job of drawing a mesmerizing performance from Brandon Lee. Watching Brandon Lee in the film, it is impossible to separate the incredible performance from the incredible tragedy of his death. Watching the picture I was consistently struck by how Brandon Lee had that certain indefinable quality that only true movie stars have. Heath Ledger had it in The Dark Knight, River Phoenix had it in Stand by Me, and Brandon Lee had it in The Crow. Given that Brandon Lee passed away before the filming had completely wrapped, it is amazing how cohesive the picture turned out to be. There are some great articles on the internet regarding how they completed the film, and I highly encourage reading those if you are curious. I think the filmmaker and his editing team should be commended for how well they pieced the picture together. While Brandon Lee’s performance is the most mesmerizing in the film, he was surrounded by extremely talented character actors. Ernie Hudson is perfectly cast as Officer Albrecht. Michael Wincott is wonderful as the purely evil Top Dollar. He is completely believable in the role.  David Patrick Kelly is always a welcome addition to any project. He had proven his bonafide villianous credentials years earlier in The Warriors, and he is wonderful as T-Bird. Laurence Mason is great as the knife wielding TinTin. Michael Massee is perfectly scummy as Funboy. Jon Polito is great in the small role of Gideon, and Tony Todd has a nice role as one of Top Dollar’s henchmen. Rochelle Davis is probably the weakest link in the chain as the young Sarah, but that may simply be an unfair comparison. I mean, can you imagine acting alongside that lineup of character actors at that young age?

The script by David J. Schow and John Shirley is for better or worse just how the graphic novel reads. It is a very well manicured adaptation. That means the film requires the same suspension of disbelief as in the comic book, and for the most part it translates wonderfully, but some portions may have read better in the comic. That said, The Crow has some depth to it that one might never suspect from a comic book adaptation. James O’Barr wrote The Crow after the love of his life was tragically killed by a drunk driver. He channeled his grief and anger into the graphic novel and it comes across in the material. There is a real sense of melancholia that hangs over the entire project. 

Overall, The Crow is one of the better comic book adaptations. In many ways, the film exceeds the boundaries that define that genre. The soundtrack is a well manicured grunge compilation that still sounds great and really captures that brief era. Any issues with the film come down to very minor gripes at the end of the day and I would rather celebrate the film here than discuss those minor issues. I personally have loved the film since I was a teenager, and I am extremely pleased to have it on 4K UHD.

Video

Presented in Native 4K in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, The Crow looks phenomenal in Paramount’s new UHD presentation. Fans of the film are going to have their eyes opened wide by just how drastic of an upgrade this is. The grain is well resolved and the cinematography by Dariusz Wolski looks unbelievable on the new format. This is a very dramatically lit film, and very darkly colored film. The UHD brings so much out of the shadows. This is a reference quality transfer and the film looks better than it ever has before. This is essentially a flawless presentation and Paramount, with the assistance of Dariusz Wolski who supervised the transfer, should be commended.

Audio

Paramount has unfortunately not upgraded The Crow from it’s prior DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that was featured on the Lionsgate Blu-ray from 2011. A full blown Atmos track would have been amazing, because this film has great grunge songs and excellent action sequences that could have benefitted from the additional range. That said, this DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is no slouch. The action sequences have good LFE support and pretty solid directionality. The soundtrack hits pretty well as well. Fans will be happy with the track, but we will always wonder what it could have sounded like in Atmos.

Supplements:

• Audio Commentary: Director Alex Proyas
• Audio Commentary: Producer Jeff Most and Screenwriter John Shirley.
• Shadows & Pain: Designing The Crow – this is a new three part feature specifically for this release in which production designer Alex McDowell takes an in depth look at numerous aspects of the production. These three short pieces are very well done.
  • Angels All Fire: Birth of the Legend 
  • On Hallowed Ground: The Outer Realm 
  • Twisted Wreckage: The Inside Spaces
• Sideshow Collectibles: An Interview with Edward R. Pressman – this piece is also new to this edition.
• Behind the Scenes Featurette 
• A Profile on James O’Barr – this piece in which the graphic novelist discusses how The Crow was written out of the tragedy he had experienced was really interesting to me. 
• Extended Scenes 
• Deleted Footage Montage 
• Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 5/5 

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4.5/5

The Crow is one of the best graphic novel adaptations and it stands on its own as a truly unique film experience. It is also one of the most melancholy action films that I can recall. It is visually stunning thanks to the work of director Alex Proyas and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski. Stylistically the film still holds up thirty years later. The central performance by Brandon Lee remains completely enigmatic. There is no doubt his performance would have catapulted Brandon Lee further into stardom if he had lived, but the film serves as a fitting tribute to his talent. The audience will always wonder what his life’s work would have been if he had not tragically passed. Brandon Lee’s performance is not the only great performance in the film, because he was surrounded by extremely capable character actors. Every actor in the film brings something to the project. The soundtrack is awesome and captures the end of the grunge era perfectly. Alex Proyas should be commended for just how well the film turned out given the extremely unfortunate circumstances. Paramount’s new UHD release has a truly amazing reference quality 4K transfer. The film has never looked better and it absolutely shines on the 4K format. Paramount has ported over the prior DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that was on the Blu-ray. The track still sounds great, but one can only imagine how good this film would sound in Atmos. The supplements include the legacy material from the prior releases alongside a few newly produced supplements. Fans of the film will be very happy with the work that Paramount has put into the release. Highly recommended.