The Crow is a dimension that Hollywood keeps trying , and failing , to remake — although it ’s look more likely , after potentialstar Jason Momoaanddirector Corin Hardyboth dropped operose hints on Instagram this week . I have a serious interrogation , though : Why ca n’t we just leave The Crow alone ?
Re - watching Alex Proyas ’ 1994 movie — which is based on James O’Barr ’s popular indie comic series — is like dipping yourself into a vat of 1990s option culture . Though The Crow ’s back - from - the - grave revenge plot of ground is a time - worn story , nearly every other element is specific to the era that produced both the motion picture and the comic . Tragic fighter Eric Draven ( Brandon Lee ) was a Detroit soil rocker before his untimely destruction . We ’re reminded of this not just by Eric ’s leather gasp and shaggy locks , but also by snippets of Eric ’s euphony , divvy up via his record album as well as his own plaintive guitar solo . Plus , this outstandingly naturalistic band promo photo ( entrust me , I work in college radio in the mid-1990s ) is displayed multiple time :
The soundtrack contains popular circle of the era , including Nine Inch Nails , fad Against the simple machine , and Stone Temple Pilots . Also , there are many key scenes set in and around the local John Rock club , whose phase hosts real - life acts like industrial rockers My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult . The pitch blackness - clad crowds mosh , just like they did on MTV ’s 120 Minutes .
On the club ’s upper story — nearly every building in the moving picture is a beat - up multi - unwavering fire trap , cover in windows that ineluctably get smashed out by falling bodies — is where you ’ll find oneself The Crow ’s with child bad , the luxuriantly set Top Dollar ( Michael Wincott ) . That ’s where he plots means to plunge his gloomy , decimated city further into chaos , admires his brand collection , and has three - ways with his sister / buff ( Bai Ling ) , who revel plucking the eyeball out of her conquests . But as cartoonishly silly as the movie ’s scoundrel are — let in the gang of street strong-armer that gives Eric a reason to come back from the grave , one of whom is literally named “ Skank”—they make actual pain that ’s continually emphasized throughout the motion picture . The 1990s spawned several Batman flick , but even the Dark Knight did n’t brood as much as Eric Draven .
Eric and his beloved , Shelly ( Sofia Shinas ) , are horrifically murdered in act one ; thanks to some vaporing - base trick , he ’s revived so that he can get revenge . His most crucial major power is that he ca n’t be killed ( because , duh , he ’s already dead ) , though he ’s not particularly good at fighting . This skill deficiency allows us to see how his various bullet holes and stab wounds miraculously heal themselves . He can also see through the eye of the crow that rise him , which is utile for recon and found surprisal attacks . His objective is marvelously uncomplicated : take down each of the gang members that participated in Shelly ’s rape and execution , as well as his own death . He ’s also able to make meter to help oneself skateboard tomboy Sarah ( Rochelle Davis ) , a tween he was friends with when he was still alive , by scare away her nut female parent unbowed , and develop a rapport with Sgt . Albrecht ( Ernie Hudson ) , a good cop whose bosses have an awfully hard time letting him do his caper .
All of these lineament are very intelligibly draw . This includes Eric , whose only mystery is how his harlequin make - up stays so gross , even in the rain . There ’s never any doubtfulness that Eric is go to make all the bad guys very , very sorry . And yet , The Crow is still highly satisfying . The movie relies more on visuals than dialogue , but amid all the despair , there are little moments of humor — and even if the plot is intimate , it ’s do to elicit maximum expiation . Eric does n’t just blast his opposition ( though there ’s great deal of shootout in the pic ) , he find originative way to make them put up . The dingy , almost bleak - and - white look of the movie is basically a graphic novel do to life story ; after Shelly ’s death , Detroit feel so bleak that it ’s basically a demonstration of Eric ’s grief . But there ’s also a unclouded endpoint to his miserableness . Once he ’s gotten full retribution , Eric returns to his grave and is reunited with Shelly in the afterlife as his payoff .
We empathise with Eric not just because of his suffering , but also because he ’s fundamentally a regular guy whose emotions transform him into a one - humanity army . His pursuance is incredibly focused — most of the movie appear to take place in a single neighborhood — and deeply personal . Hell , he ’s uncoerced to recall to the land of the dead without killing Top Dollar , basically allow Detroit ’s public enemy number one free to keep fucking shit up , until he learns of the man ’s involvement in his and Shelly ’s murders .
It ’s unvoiced to imagine that a modern remake would keep to such a stripped - down and inward - facing story , especially with a big , tatty star like Jason Momoa in the lead role . But there ’s another important constituent of the 1994 film that ’s absolutely the elephant in the room here , and it ’s the matter about The Crow that made it an clamant cult classic . The Crow was hypothesize to be the film that elevated Brandon Lee from “ son of Bruce Lee ” to an action hero in his own right ; instead , he was accidentally shot and killed after a prop gun malfunctioned during his last workweek on the job . The film was only complete after lend a few scenes using Lee ’s stunt treble as a standpoint - in , and some hasty rewrites .
The Crow ’s pre - credits dedication—“For Brandon and Eliza”—adds huge weight to the rue that hangs over the moving-picture show , as well as its general ghostliness . standardised to his lineament , who die the Nox before his wedding , Lee was lay out to marry his sweetheart , Eliza , soon after The Crow wrap .
That fleck of terrible trivia should be enough to further everyone — even those who imply well , like the very enthusiastic Momoa — to endure down . At this power point , we have no mind what the purpose remaking will imply ; it likely wo n’t be adjust in the 1990s , and perhaps it will merely use O’Barr ’s germ material as a jumping - off level for a chronicle that only barely resembles the original film . It may or may not link to the original movie at all — though its makers should consider the 1996 puke of a subsequence , The Crow : City of Angels , which focused on a grown - up Sarah and her encounter with yet another undead vigilante , as a monitory tarradiddle .
Its biggest challenge will be proving why it needs to exist . With the 1994 film granting biography after death ( on the silver gray sieve , that is ) to its star , who plays a graphic symbol whose entire electric arc revolves around his own aliveness after dying , there are too many levels of significance and meta - tragedy to even attempt to double . So if the remaking does find , chances are we ’ll all be better served just re - watching The Crow . We may enjoy its bum nineties legitimacy , but we should also respect its singularly spooky sadness .
FantasyThe Crow
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