REVIEW: The Crow Film

The Crow (Film)

Directed by Alex Proyas

First published in 1994

The Crow (film)

·         The film notably starts with the death of Eric and Shelley and their relations with a girl named Sarah.

·         The film adds the back story of the four murderers being friends of Eric at one point in their life and that Shelley was a political person who they raped and killed as an example.

·         They added the importance of the police officer in the film to be a sidekick of sorts to the Crow.

·         The crow was explained to be the source of Eric’s revival, as opposed to any other supernatural means.

·         The death was at the house they lived in rather than a random highway.

·         They added more human qualities to the Crow like his humane treatment to Sarah’s prostitute mother and the friendships he kept with the officer and Sarah.

·         Gabriel the cat was already their pet in the film as opposed to being taken in midway as with the comic.

·         They added a drug lord and his Asian sister as the final bosses to the film that the four murderers were working under. In fact, the Asian sister was the one who pointed out the Crow’s weakness.

·         The humane killing of Funny Boy was removed in favor for more vengeful killings, as the Crow doesn’t take a macabre mercy for him in accepting that he killed Shelley in cold blood.

·         The costume of the Crow has a origin story too as Eric takes his boots from the dumpster, his clothes being what he used to wear in his band and his mask painting being what he used to have fun with Shelley with.

·         This is notably Brandon Lee’s last major performance before he died.

·         The Crow gains the ability to read people’s experiences and transfers them in the film, whereas he was just immortal in the comic.

·         Characters that were originally just killed by the Crow in the comic, as with the corrupt store owner, were killed by the drug lord in the adaptation.

·         The film ends in a more happy reunion of the spirits of Eric and Shelley, as opposed to the bleak and ambiguous ending of the comic.

·         The poetry of the comic was left out of the film.

·         Eric was notably sane in the film as opposed to the more mentally detached state he was in with the comic.

·         The prostitute mother and her daughter reunite happily in the film as opposed to the comic.

·         Eric notably plays a lot of music in this adaptation, which had him dancing instead with the comic.

Bibliography

The Crow. Dir. Alex Proyas. Perf. Brandon Lee. Dimension Films, 1994. DVD.