Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DEVIL'S NIGHT REVENGE, 25 April 2007
You see a crow winging over a scene of urban decay, the majority of the buildings are on fire. A young girl's voice says "People once believed 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". Welcome to the world of The Crow, one of the most powerful films ever made.
The Crow, written by David J. Schow and John Shirley and directed by Alex Proyas. Its story is simple, much like the graphic novel by James O'Barr by the same name: a man and his fiancee are killed, she is raped and tortured, and he comes back as an undead to wreak bloody revenge on the gang that did these terrible things. The execution of the plot sets it apart from similar revenge tales. Everything from the scripting, the casting, the direction and the acting set this from a simple popcorn movie into the realm of true art.
First, the scripting. There are so many wonderful quotes in this film that it is impossible to list them all. Each character is given its own unique voice and personality, from the lonely hot dog vendor to and especially the mysterious and creepy Top Dollar, head of Detroit's underworld of drugs and violence, who has a habit for saying things like "Dad gave me this. Fifth birthday. He said "Childhood's over the moment you know your gonna die,"" while gazing at a snow globe containing a miniature cemetery.
As brilliant as the script is, none of these characters would have found their unique voice if not for the casting by Bill Hopkins and Susan Smith. Michael Wincott is absolutely the only person the Top Dollar envisioned in this film. Ernie Hudson was a solid choice for Sgt Albrecht. Introducing Rochelle Davis as the word weary and cynical at thirteen. Sarah was a stroke of genius , and casting Brandon Lee as the title character, Eric Draven a.k.a. The Crow was an inspiration.
The casting is only as good as the actors' performance. In other roles Lee put in less the stellar performances, but as Draven, Lee created an opus. He takes a role that could easily been played by an emotionless machine and brought depth and humanity to it. In one ad-lib scene between Draven and Albrecht, he speaks lines that sum up the whole film, "Little things used to mean so much to Shelly - I thought they were kind of trivial. Believe me nothing is trivial". Then as he gets up to leave, Albrecht asks if he is just going to vanish again. Draven replies with a smile on his face "I thouht I'd just use the front door", making people see and feel the aching for normality in this character through his reflections and body language. Wincott is at his spooky best, but surprisingly enough also brings a dark sensuality to his character. Hudson underplays his role, lending it a certain believable, every man quality, as him and Sarah are the two most normal and sanest people present in this dysfunctional view of Detroit. Particularly note worthy is the performance by David Patrick Kelley as T-Bird, the leader of the gang that murdered Eric and his fiancee Shelly. He became so immersed in his role that he brought a classic first printing of Milton's Paradise Lost - Book IV, costing thousands that he was supposed to read from during the murder scene to use as a prop on the film. Rochelle Davis manages to walk a fine line of fragile, youthful hope, and the expected bitter cynicism that one might find in a thirteen year old who's mother is a drug addled prostitute. She brings pathos to the charcter without making it to syrupy and unpalatable. It is true brilliance considering that this is her first role.
The director of the film also did a superb job. Proyas brought the best out of his actors, but special attention should be given to the rich visual styling to the film. The graphic novel was black and white, an ambiance that Proyas achieves in his film by shooting everything in washed out sepia tones and making it feel like a rich and fantastically old picture book, or like the viewer is seeing things under water at dusk. Proyas did the unthinkable in that he worked lovingly on a low budget action film and elevated it to art.
The film, like any other has its detractors. Some say that it glorifies violence and revenge. That doesn't change the underlying fact that this is a truly beautiful film, and does have another positive message of not taking one moment for granted with a loved one, since one never knows when that loved one won't be there anymore. Some say that this is a simple bug hunt film or a slasher film. Once again, this is true. The difference is that most such films are indifferently put together and aimed at the lowest common denominator, while this film strives for and achieves a higher level than that. Some might say that it was horrible to release a film where the star died while filming it.
It is his masterpiece and should be watched by everyone.
Thank you for reading my review.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Crow: Special Edition, 3 Feb 2003
By now everybody probably knows the story of The Crow, but to recap, its about a rock musician and his girlfriend who are murdered on halloween. One year later, Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) returns from the grave to seek revenge.The film on this special edition looks terrific, with much better picture and sound than on the previous DVD release. It's a 2 disc set with quite an array of extra feature. On the first disc is the film in widescreen (the original DVD was full screen)with exceptional picture clarity and colour, and gorgeous sound (the soundtrack is good too!!) There's a featurette which is longer and more informative than the usual five minute back slap you normally get. A selection of deleted scenes, and some extended scenes, which do add quite a different tone to some of the sequences. A commentary is also on this disc. Disc 2 is split into two section - 'video' and 'art'. Under video, you get the full screen version of the film; a commparison between widescreen and full screen; and, most poignant of all, the last interview with Brandon Lee, who talks about not knowing if your goint to see another full moon, or the sun rise the following day! Spooky! The art section, has a documentary with John O'Barr, the artist and creator of The Crow, boy has he had a hard life! Poster artwork and production design and storyboards. Overall this is a great package at a good price, which I cannot recommend highly enough.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My all-time favourite EVER! Excellent! 10 stars!!!!!, 18 Oct 2002
This goes down as my favourite film of all time, as I think the story is beautiful, touching, romantic, tragic, dark, disturbing and even evil in places.The story centres around Eric Draven (Brandon Lee in his last ever performance and his finest!)and his fiance Shelly Webster. They are both killed on the night before Halloween known as Devils Night. One year later, he is brought back from the dead by a mysterious black Crow, to put "the wrong this right". As he slowly remembers what happened to him and his true love Shelly, Eric starts to go slightly insane and seeks out the thugs who murdered Shelly and him. One by one, powered by anger and revenge he kills all those who have hurt him, working his way up to the "king-pin", in a climatic roof-top stand-off! This film is gothic, tragic and violent and yet filled with great happiness, love and friendship. You watch as Eric slowly decends into insanity, desperate to complete what he has to do in order to be re-united with Shelly in the after-life. This film is well known as this is the film where Brandon Lee was killed on set when a blank bullet got jammed forcing the shell to be fired, killing this great actor so young. This means that a lot of scenes were abandoned and in some cases a stunt double was used for the vital scenes. But don't worry, the film is still great. This is actually quite a real-life story (not the rising from the dead bit of course!) but the whole gang violence, rape, drugs, murder and revenge that is actually present in our society. This adds a whole new dimension to this thoughly amazing film! The production quality is top-notch, the rock music that plays throughout the film is some of the best for a soundtrack I have ever heard. The whole film is dark, damp and forbidding, but this adds to the whole feel of the film. Eric is in a dark and forbidding place both mentally and physically. You have a great deal of sympathy for Eric and although he ends up killing so many people, you do feel that it is justified as those he kills are nasty, evil criminals who have hurt so many people. While revenge isn't a good idea, in this case, it was the only way Eric and Shelly could get justice for what happened to them! This is a must for EVERYONE'S video collection, even if only so you can say you own the last film Brandon Lee ever starred in! The BEST film EVER produced!!!!!
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