The Crow is a 1994 action film about a man brutally murdered who comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée’s murder.
With the rain constantly falling and a criminal element obsessed with setting the city ablaze on the night before Halloween as part of their Devil’s Night celebrations, the city is not without hope, for even as they might try and crush it, it will only come back stronger and more vengeful than before.
Adapted from the legendary cult graphic novel by James O’Barr, The Crow was written as a way of dealing with the grief of losing his fiancée after she was killed by a drunk driver. This tale of sorrow metamorphosizes the story of Eric (played by Brandon Lee), who after being killed by a group of thugs, is brought back from the grave through the power of The Crow to extract revenge on the men who killed him and his fiancée Shelly (Sofia Shinas.) Much like the source material, the filming is equally well renowned for its own tragedy when leading man Lee was killed in an on set accident, cutting short a career much like his father Bruce was when he was on the edge of breaking out as a world wide star.
Directed by former music video / commercial director Alex Proyas, this film always felt like part of a trilogy of films set in ominous and gothic cityscapes especially when placed alongside Dark City. We are still waiting for that though it could be argued it was completed with I Robot, though that certainly didn’t go as dark as these other two. Either way, it’s the cityscapes in these films that really hold our attention, so with that in mind, let us focus on the decaying vision of Detroit presented to us in The Crow.
The Proyas version of Detroit is as a rain soaked collection of dark buildings left to decay like a festering wound as gangs have by all appearances taken over the city. They are seemingly under the command of the charismatic Top Dollar (Michael Wincott), who get an upgrade from the source novel, now the main villain, which really is nothing to quibble over when given such a memorable performance. In this version, Top Dollar is also responsible for despatching the thugs who killed Eric and Shelly after she attempted to unite the tenants in her building when they were facing eviction. Top Dollar in many ways though represents all that is evil and corrupt in the city that he can be linked to in one way or another. Even the random acts of arson throughout the city that account for Devil’s Night, he takes credit for, being the one who lit the first fires, a fact that many fans have attributed as a homage to his father who served during the Vietnam war, here transposing the village burning onto the city.
Of course if we look at the actual Devil’s Night also known as Mischief Night the practice of committing random acts of arson and destruction, it can be traced back to Detroit in the early 1970’s with the trend hitting its peak in 1984. Over 800 fires were set that year, creating the sort of chaos that Top Dollar craves to see when he sees how commercialised his beloved Devil’s Night has become. Just look at this exchange:
Top Dollar: Wrong. That’s the perfect reason to quit. The only reason to quit. A man has an idea. The idea attracts others, like-minded. The idea expands. The idea becomes an institution. What was the idea? That’s what’s been bothering me, boys. I tell ya: when I used to think of the idea itself, it put a big ol’ smile on my face. Greed is for amateurs. Disorder. Chaos. Anarchy. Now that’s fun!
Gangster 2: What about Devil’s Night?
Top Dollar: What about it? I started the first fires in this goddamn city. Before I knew it, every charlatan and shitheel was imitating me. You know what they got now? Devil’s Night greeting cards. Isn’t that precious? The idea has become the institution, boys. Time to move on.
With Top Dollar being so fixated on disorder, chaos and anarchy, Eric meanwhile provides an interesting counter with his role in both life and – when resurrected a year after his death – as The Crow. He represents one of the few glimmers of good still in the city, even being noted as the “Nice rockstar boyfriend.” It’s as if to separate himself from the rock scene that dominates the soundtrack, criminal hangouts and general design aesthetic for the city and the characters who inhabit it. Top Dollar operates out of a rock club that also features appearances by Medicine and My Life With the Kill Thrill Cult. The rock / goth aesthetic for the film unquestionably has an effect on the fashion choices of many angsty teens in the 90’s with even the wrestler Sting trading out his peroxide blonde and colourful spandex to mimic Eric’s harlequin face paint and style in what would be a non to subtle homage / rip off. Having a film that seemed to represent the alternative rock scene with its acclaimed soundtrack perfectly matching the silhouetted cityscape and dark tone of the film, many record stores stocked the film as well, only adding to its cult status.
While it might be easy to get lost in his quest for revenge as the supernatural agent of vengeance as he hunts down the thugs responsible for killing him and his fiancée throughout this journey, The Crow can also be seen as a cleansing presence for the city as he only kills criminals and thugs, for example, blowing up Gideon’s Pawn Shop when he discovers the blood trade in stolen items that he is running. Outside of this though he uses his powers to remove the memories of Shelly in the hospital from Police Sergeant Albrecht’s head as well as magically curing Sarah’s mother of her Morphine addiction. There are even more subtle hints of change such as a group of kids trick or treating on the streets all showing positive changes in the city with the memories of Shelly’s pain proving the decisive blow for Eric when he finally confronts Top Dollar.
It should also be noted that the day to night cycle in the city really has an effect on the seemingly nocturnal residents as the night is used by Eric for revenge and in turn general disruption to Top Dollars operation. He himself, with his interest in the dark arts via his half sister / lover Myca (Bai Ling), makes sense that his power comes with the night. The day meanwhile is shown as a time for reflection as Sarah and her now magically drug free mother reconnect over eggs while the self loathing, mutilations and well interpretive dance sequences performed by Eric in the source material are replaced in the film with him playing guitar riffs on the roof on his apartment roof as he mulls over the loss of Shelly and who he has left to find.
Meanwhile, in the real world, it wouldn’t be a supernatural avenger who crushed Devil’s Night but rather the residents of Detroit. In 1995, the then newly-elected mayor Dennis Archer set out on a mission to crush the arson that had plagued the city as he brought together residents and officials to create Angels’ Night were over 40,000 volunteers patrolled the street in a citywide neighbourhood watch scheme to protect the city. It has been so successful that as of 2018, there was only four fires reported, reminding us again that “It can’t rain all the time.”