Grunge meets gothic
The Crow
Directed by Alex Proyas
Starts on July 21
The Crow
soundtrack by various artists
Reviewed by Nick Fredman
The Crow is a black, humorous and violent grunge/gothic fable of true love and good versus evil, driven by a rockin' sound track.
Australian director Alex Proyas (Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds) has made his American debut in a film that owes much to his background in music video and commercials.
Dark, atmospheric lighting, grimy street sets, non-naturalistic camera work including freeze frames, and heavy religious symbolism show the influence of 1920s German expressionism, film noir, and James O'Barr's comic book of the same name on which the film is based.
Brandon Lee (son of Bruce), playing his last role (he died during production), is Eric Draven, up and coming guitar hero brutally slain along with his fiance Shelley by a gang of thugs.
In a narrative that combines classic horror and Death Wish style vigilante films, Eric is resurrected by a spirit guide in the form of a crow and must avenge the evil deed before he can rest.
Eric is an interesting creation: wry and romantic as well as ruthlessly violent, quoting Edgar Allen Poe and playing mournful solos between zapping the baddies. His look is based on rockers Iggy Pop, Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) and Chris Robinson (Black Crowes), with a bit of Batman and Nosferatu thrown in as well. In Eric, and the film in general, the producers have created a commodity they can sell to a range of markets: fans of martial arts, action, horror, science fiction and alternative music.
Other characters — Ernie Hudson as the honest cop, Michael Wincott as the sadistic crime boss, Bai Ling as the beautiful and sadistic woman of the crime boss, Anna Thompson as the street-wise teenager — are pure cliche.
The sound-track of unreleased music perfectly matches the different moods of the film, including some dark pop from The Cure, angry thrash from Rage Against the Machine, Pantera, Rollins Band and Helmet, industrial grunge from Nine Inch Nails and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and an achingly sweet ballad from Jane Siberry.
In an interesting sub-plot, Eric and Shelley are murdered because they are trying to organise the slum tenants and get in the way of the sadistic crime bosses' plan to drive out the tenants and raise real estate values through violence and mayhem. Despite this inkling of a materialist basis for inner-city decay, the film, in general, points to evil individuals as the problem and romantic love, family values and avenging super-heroes as the solution.
For the music and style, the film is well worth seeing and the sound track well worth picking up.