The Crow (1994)

A man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée's murder.

Director:

Alex Proyas

Writers:

James O'Barr (comic book series and comic strip), David J. Schow (screenplay)

Stars:

Brandon Lee, Michael Wincott, Rochelle Davis

3 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brandon Lee	...	Eric
Rochelle Davis	...	Sarah
Ernie Hudson	...	Albrecht
Michael Wincott	...	Top Dollar
Bai Ling	...	Myca
Sofia Shinas	...	Shelly
Anna Levine	...	Darla (as Anna Thomson)
David Patrick Kelly	...	T-Bird
Angel David	...	Skank
Laurence Mason	...	Tin Tin
Michael Massee	...	Funboy
Tony Todd	...	Grange
Jon Polito	...	Gideon
Bill Raymond	...	Mickey
Marco Rodríguez	...	Torres

Storyline

A poetic guitarist Eric Draven is brought back to life by a crow a year after he and his fiancée are murdered. The crow guides him through the land of the living, and leads him to his killers: knife thrower Tin-tin, drugetic Funboy, car buff T-Bird, and the unsophisticated Skank. One by one, Eric gives these thugs a taste of their own medicine. However their leader Top-Dollar, a world-class crime lord who will dispatch his enemies with a Japanese sword and joke about it later, will soon learn the legend of the crow and the secret to the vigilante's invincibility.

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Plot Keywords:

back from the dead | vigilante | crime boss | gothic | star died during filming | 

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Taglines:

It Can't Rain All The Time.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for a great amount of strong violence and language, and for drug use and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 May 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Crow

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$23,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$50,693,162

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$94,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Crowvision Inc., Edward R. Pressman Film, Entertainment Media Investment Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min 98 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby DTS Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Eric Mabius, who played in the lead for The Crow: Salvation (2000) auditioned for the role of Funboy.

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Goofs

(at around 51 mins) When Gideon is stabbed and shot you can see him take a breath before it changes to the next scene.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sarah: [voiceover] 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.

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Crazy Credits

For Brandon and Eliza

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Alternate Versions

In the original cut of the film, there was a scene in which Eric Draven has a fight with Funboy in Funboy's apartment before killing him. It goes like this: Eric knocks the straight razor from Darla's hand. Eric makes Darla sober by magically siphoning morhpine from her blood. Darla leaves. Funboy wakes up in the bathtub and grabs the razor. He attacks Eric and cuts his hands and torso. Because Eric has weakened himself by getting the morphine out of Darla, he cannot heal properly. (This would have been explained by the Skull Cowboy, but those scenes were also cut.) To cover the wounds, he wraps them in black electrical tape. This explains why his hands and stomach are wrapped up later in the movie.

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Connections

Featured in Best of the Worst: Hologram Man, Faust, and Blood Street (2018)

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Soundtracks

Slip Slide Melting
Performed by For Love Not Lisa
Courtesy of EastWest Records America
Written by For Love Not Lisa
Produced by Matt Hyde and Doug Carrion
©1993 For Love Not Lisa Music/Vis a Vis Entertainment/W.B. Music Corp./Pressmancherrymusic (ASCAP)

User Reviews

The best comic book to film translation.

The Crow is an excellent tragic film made even more tragic by the real life tragedies surrounding the film (Brandon Lee's death during filming, and the fact that the story is a result of James O'Barr's personal loss of his fiancée). Based on a very dark comic book, the film has the same dark feel. The movie does deviate from the comic book in some points, but in general is fairly faithful. If you can get it, I would recommend the DVD Collector's set with the 2 DVD version of The Crow (just to see the interview with James O'Barr is worth the price).

The story is a basically about revenge from beyond the grave, and how true love is forever. The movie has a good (but fairly basic) plot, excellent action sequences, and very good casting. Brandon Lee gives a good performance (not excellent, but good), as does Ernie Hudson. The supporting villains are excellent in their villainy, and you do feel better when they get it in the end. But the real star of this film is the mood and the feel. It feels gritty, bleak, and depressing, but surprisingly uplifting at the end. Alex Proyas did an excellent job of transferring this feeling from the book onto celluloid. All in all, one of the best comic book to film translations I have ever seen.

You do not have to be familiar with the comic book to thoroughly enjoy this film (like you do with some other comic book adaptations).

Rating : 4.5 out of 5