The Crow (1994)

The penultimate Gothic fairytale that is "The Crow", starring Brandon Lee (son of Martial arts legend Bruce Lee) and directed by Alex Proyas, is a tale of love, loss and vengeance. Based on a Graphic Novel by James O'barr, who wrote the story while dealing with the tragic death of his girlfriend at the hands of a drunk driver. He introduces emotional depth and complexity where it usually absent in the medium, so you may ask, how could a film (especially a mid-ninties action film) possibly capture the darkest tones of this morbid yarn? We shall see.

Our story starts with Hammy enough dialogue introducing the legend of the crow and how "people once believed..." (actual first line) "that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead..." this goes on to set up what's happening in a nutshell. What follows is a dark and moody tale that at times is a moving and emotive piece (as much as the genre will allow), while at others, cheesy, over the top and outright silly. The story of how one man can come back from the dead in order to avenge his and his fiancée's death is a poignant topic that deals with remorse, regret, loss, revenge and absolution, but it's easy-to-hate, one dimensional villains let the story's credibility down.

Lee infamously died during the production, this gives the film it's second tragedy in it's long and sordid history. While watching Lee on-screen it's hard to separate the story you're seeing to an eerie sense of morbid fascination (more recently felt when watching Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight), it was his highest grossing film and his defining role. Was Lee a great actor? Not from what I've seen. Could anyone have played the role better? I highly doubt it. His passion for the project is clearly seen in the interview included on the DVD, his enthusiasm for this film to succeed is something I rarely see in most star interviews, so maybe it's only right this was the film his name will forever be so closely attached to.

Does the film work? At times, the emotion often hitting it's highs. The humour? Not so much. The action was pretty "so so" for the time period as-well. Where this film wins out is the style, it's the perfect balance of dark and intensive themes seen in Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989) and the stylised and surreal feel of Robert Rodriguez's "Sin City" (2005). The style is what makes this such a resounding and as of yet, unbeatable Gothic masterpiece, not perfect, but full of heart. 7/10