In 1993, the world was introduced to a dark comicbook character based on the writings of James O'Barr, a young artist who lost his beloved fiance to a drunk driver. He brought a lot of pain with him when he produced "The Crow" as a graphic novel and the book began to gain speed in distribution, being loved by fans and everyone accepting it's dark message of revenge from beyond the grave.
During this time, O'Barr truly had no intentions of taking the graphic novel, selling the rights to a film studio and making a full feature movie. He use his book to heal all of the inner demons that he carried with him, trying to move on from the event that surely would have killed any chance of a real, happy life.
In 1994, things would quickly fall out of control for the emotional, recovering artist. He was able to work with two writers and create a screenplay for a film of his work. This was all by accident and a true testimonial to a good story that was developed well beyond it's time. There were only a few successful superhero films that sold out theaters in the 90s. Batman was one from 1989 and then Batman Returns from 1992 are the most memorable, but surely, O'Barr's Crow movie wouldn't be going up against them, would it?
During this time, Brandon Lee had only been in a small handful of action films. When the news broke that Lee would head the cast of the new CROW film, people thought that this production was just going to be another "chop-sockey" film and have Lee tossing around people using Kung-Fu. But to everyone's surprise, Lee backed out of using any Kung-Fu or karate in the production. He made fast friends with O'Barr and the production was gain top speed to produce something very dark, something paranormal with a touch of true grit.
But the production to the film would crash to a stop, when Lee was fatally injured on the set, being shot in a scene that demanded three re-shoots and close up. Lee too had a fiance at the time and she would witness his death, sharing something with O'Barr, and then the real catastrophe was ignited. After Lee's passing, the executives decided to go ahead and finish the film, since so much of the film had already been completed. "It's what Brandon would have wanted us to do," said so many people from the production.
Watching the film back then in the theater, seeing a man come back to life, literally, and then seeing him die again was a little disturbing. A fact that I carry with me is, that this was some of Lee's best work ever on film. He broke away from the Kung-Fu stereotype and did something totally original, something way ahead of it's time, brokering a production that would set a standard for all action films based on graphic comicbook characters.
I saw The CROW again recently and I was truly impressed by all of the performances by the A-list actors in the film. The action scenes were definitely well choreographed and there was a lot of heart that was put into this film. Could this film have changed the career path for Lee, I'm pretty sure. But it's a shame that The CROW was the highest part of Lee's career and was completely torn away by a simple "one set" production mistake. He is now a legend, who falls under the list of actors like James Dean, River Phoenix, and Heath Ledger, who all died shortly after their biggest performances on screen.
1994's The CROW holds up strongly against most actions being produced today. It's unfortunate that the first film spawned some sequels and even a short series on television, each of which sunk fast in ticket sales and most are all but forgotten. The original movie is a film I can watch over and over, feeling quite content with the storyline and the exceptional work that was done to complete the film with look-alikes and a few CGI tricks. And yeah, I think Brandon Lee would be very proud of the film if he was still alive today. The first film is a classic and there will never be another hit Crow film in today's Hollywood world of bad writing. Long live THE CROW with Lee as the lead actor!
