¶ Discussion on "The Crow" Film
Welcome to the Yo Brother podcast . I'm your host , dan Smith . Long side me is always my brother from the same mother , mike Smith . Wow , we both got gags going on here .
What's going on here with the props ?
What is okay , explain yourself .
I saw you in the eyes wide shut movie . You were dead on in the corner .
What is with ?
the . Why are you wearing ?
it oh .
I'm sorry , this is because I just watched the crow and oh , I don't get it . It's whiplash from the directing , from the directing . I'll get into it .
I should have saved that for deeper into the maybe , but I didn't Thanks for taking us down a wormhole immediately . Good night folks . Listen , we are doing , we are doing . We're in Halloween fest at oh Brother , which of course we've been doing for the last two , three years and we're going to do a film now .
Arguably , you could maybe make an argument this isn't really in the Halloween horror genre , but I would beg to differ . Good , I'm glad you said that . So we're talking about the crow from 1994 starring Brandon Lee , and I don't remember Now .
I think I was living back in Boston at the time so and I don't have a deep enough recall to know I must have seen this in the theater , but I'm not sure . But I did . I did enjoy the film at the time , you know , and it was kind of a sleeper head , it's sort of you know grew , and oh , it's a cult favorite .
Yeah , and of course you know , with the tragic death of Brandon Lee it adds that mystique to it , for good or bad , you know , and we'll of course talk about that . But let me let me just give a few stats on the film for those who may not have seen the crow .
But it was released in May 13 , 1994 , 1994 , rather , of course is rated R and we'll probably talk a little bit about that , with the violence and whatnot . Budget of about 23 million . I guess it's back in 94 . It ended up going on to gross worldwide about a about 100 million give or take .
Runtime about an hour and 40 minutes , which was pretty typical back then . It's directed by Alex Proyas . Did you dive into this at all ? Of course , I did . Okay , so what is he ? I can't see it . The glare , the yes , what is that ? Is that a video game ?
No , it came in green . It's not an Xbox case . It came in green the only Blu-ray ever , and also one of my favorite Alex Proyas movies .
I robot , I robot , yeah right . So I was immediately like , oh , mike is going to love this , because I'm sure you didn't know until now that he was the director of dark city .
No , I didn't . Oh no , I knew he was the director of dark city .
As soon as I saw Alex Proyas you didn't make the connection between the crow and not the crow .
Right . So , and I still can't believe it , damn , I can't believe it .
Well , as we talk about the film , I mean , I think I can see stylistically right , you're talking about two kind of graphic novel looking type movies right Like Sin . City , like in that kind of vein right .
Yeah .
Yeah , Now he also did a film called knowing you remember that ? With Nick .
Cage yes , with Nick Cage , I've seen that 2009 .
Yeah , All right , but let's run down the cast Now . Of course , we mentioned the star Brandon Lee as Eric Draven . I don't know if you can see my Eric Draven , I just got my Crow Funko pop and I had it .
Oh nice , my collection .
Nice . Now Michael Wincott plays top dollar . If you've seen a television show or a movie from the since the 80s , you know who Michael Wincott is . In fact , I was shocked to find out that Michael Wincott was in nope , which was of course directed by Jordan Peele Just recently . You know I mean it's a . You know he's a lot different looking now .
He's aged and I mean looks great . Yeah , really long hair . I think it was a wig and the crow .
Yeah that's what my girlfriend said too , and really it looked pretty real to me . He's got that voice . He's got that voice , he really does . But he has got a resume , like you know as long as anything .
Oh yeah , it's like as soon as you hear the voice , you're like I know who that is .
Absolutely .
But I don't know what from ?
Yeah , and just a classic sort of villain from that period of time , you know .
And yeah , go ahead . No , no , no , no , sorry , go . I was going to say , you know , this is post Batman , post Dick Tracy , post Batman returns .
Yeah .
I'm surprised the effects were so bad , Dan Surprised the effects were so down . And he it had to be a tip to Jack Nicholson , Because he kind of has a Jack Nicholson sounding voice sometimes , and like when the crow jumps on the table in the gang room and he looks up nice outfit . You know , all I'm thinking is he's channeling .
Jack Could be , could be . Yeah , yeah , that's fair point , let me , let me . I'll just quickly run down some of the other cast . Rachelle Davis plays Sarah Ernie Hudson . Of course I'm the ghost boss .
He was really good . He was really good , he was good .
And he has a central role in the film , of course , as a Sergeant or Officer Albrecht Probably his biggest role I've seen him in . Perhaps Bai Ling , who plays Michael Wingcott's kind of wing woman , if you will . Named Micah Bai Ling is a very famous , especially on social media . She's very famous . Sophia Sheenus , or Shinus , who plays Shelley Webster .
David Patrick Kelly , who plays T-Bird , michael Massey , who will come back to play Fun Boy . Tony Todd , who played Grange , who also famously portrayed Candy man . We wanna talk about another horror type film .
I think that's Far Enough .
No , no , no , Lawrence Mason played Tintin Far Enough . Okay , so Mike doesn't want me to mention one of the main characters in the film , who also starred in a little film Mike likes called Miller's Crossing that was directed by John , oh John Polito yeah , how would brothers ? You should have mentioned him sooner , john Polito , who we share an ancestry with .
Let's be honest . Correct , he's somewhere in the boot , somewhere in the boot , it's a Sicilian blood , you know . But John Polito , and he was good in this , he was really good in this he didn't give the hi hat . Again , can you stop with the recreation scenes , but that was a good one that was a good one .
It's not . It's not . Give me the hi hat .
Hey , you know I had an opportunity to do my shaggy . It worked today , legitimately , it was interesting . But so this okay , so this takes place Now . I said at the top , you can argue it's a horror film or not , but the film literally takes place on Devil's Night , which is October 30th . So there you go .
Enough said you wanna quickly give us an opposite of the film .
Yeah , like a lot of people think , this is a comic book based on a comic book . It's not . It's a character that was in a comic book .
James O'Barr , who wrote the .
Right , it was like Colossal something .
Oh , I don't know that .
Because there wasn't a comic book at the time called the Crow . The Eric Draven was a character in this . Anyways , it's chilling to give you the plot , because it's basically about a guy who gets killed , comes out of his grave and wants to get retribution for not only his death but the death of his fiance , Shelly Webster . Webster , thank you .
Right , right , and really that's the key . They start on the break into the house , Right , and , like I said , if you ever wanna make your bad guys really bad , have them commit rape . Yeah , exactly that makes them instant evil .
For sure .
yeah Like the accused with Jodie Foster .
Yeah , or any other for that matter , but you're right . And then , of course , brandon Lee's character , eric , he's resurrected and he comes back and basically to avenge the death , like you said , correct ? You know it was interesting . You don't think the opening , you weren't getting Dark City vibes right off the back ?
No , I wasn't , and I was looking for it . Yeah , and because Dark City like one of the things that really and I don't think , I think this is the first time I've watched it all the way through when he first gets shot in the back of the hand and he's holding a stupid prop hand .
That was bad . That effect was really bad . But overall I actually even made the comment while we were watching it that you know not bad for 1994 , but you make a good point about Batman and a few of the other films that had already been out . But then again , look at the budget on Batman versus the budget on the Correct .
that's a good point , so you know what I mean .
Good point , and it wasn't used so much that it negatively affected the film .
But you're right that one always bothers me that one bothered me and it kept with me the whole time .
Yeah , it , literally . It looks like he's holding up another arm , which basically I think it is he was .
It was like his arm all of a sudden was really long , and then you could tell that they were stealing it .
That it became like a ventriloquist
¶ Tragic Deaths in "The Crow"
thing . It was yeah , but you point out again , the biggest you know story associated with the film , of course , is the tragic death of Brandon Lee , which , as you said . Now , how is Eric Draven killed ? Well , at gunpoint , right At gunpoint .
There's a lot of guns . And apparently you know . We know this recently from Alec Baldwin's film .
You know , everybody by now knows Alec Baldwin .
Yeah , shot the like cinematographer or the assistant director Cinematographer , I believe . Yeah .
And she was killed . That's right .
And all this came out about how dangerous the workplace was . Well , apparently , the crow the same thing it was very dangerous . They were working 18 hour days . I mean , I saw interviews Interesting and I saw the one interview that , michael Massey , I saw that too , the actor that shot him .
I wouldn't say the question was to specifically elicit that response from him , but he was very generous , correct In that moment in talking about the incident .
And he was trying to put it in the context of everyone goes through terrible things and you try to get to the other side . But at the time he was in California . This was shot in California and at the time , right after it happened , there was eight days left in the shoe . He went right back to New York , which is where he was from .
Right .
And he was in seclusion for a good year , like nobody could find him , understandably , and he died . This is the 10th anniversary of his death , the 20th of Brandon Lee's , but 30 , 30 , 30 . But I think in that interview he had stomach cancer . He seems kind of a mace .
Oh , really yeah .
And that's what he died of . And I think he was kind of at peace and he was trying to make his peace with the movie he says right in it I've never talked about it , I never felt a need to , right . I'm sure he talked to plenty of shrinks . I mean that's got to be an awful thing .
Well , and some of that was no , he died . He died in 2016 . He's only been healing . Oh , I thought it was seven years ago .
Then you know what I'm confusing his and Brandon's death . He shares a brand and died 93 .
Correct , correct , yeah , I really fell for yeah . Listening to him in that interview , it was really an unlike .
Alec Baldwin , who the next day was on 60 minutes or something . It was too soon Stay out of the limelight .
Yeah , it was too soon .
And I felt bad for him . I watched that interview , cringing yeah , you know , knowing he was dead .
Yeah , and this was you know . We've told a more lighthearted story on the podcast before it's a special episode .
We put out about some some lovely stories of our dad , and you know this was Basically what happened was you know , we talked about these armorers that are hired to work on these films , when there's all these weapons that are being used , especially firearms , and you know , essentially what happened is a slug got caught and remain in the gun , right , and it wasn't
cleared and checked properly , right . So , when they ultimately went to load the . You know the dummy rounds . It pushed that slug out as if it were a live round , with the same kind of propulsion . And yeah , there's a couple of different .
Yeah , there's a couple of different stories and somebody even I don't know if you saw this when you were doing your research somebody made a cartoon . They had the , they had the text Glad I didn't see that and the report and they literally redid it , which they did with Alec Baldwin too , but but of course it was a lot more advanced .
It was kind of like watching Charlie Brown and you heard Alex Proyas say you know , cut guys were good , and they didn't realize it was the last shot in the night . Brandon never got up . No , he was moaning .
They thought he was acting Well , right and especially like . I think the story was that he fell backwards . He was supposed to fall forward , right , and then he didn't move , and so they thought , yeah , like you said at first , he's acting . And there wasn't any , I don't think noticeable like blood or anything , right , right , you know , and all of that .
So and they're , the scene is not in the movie for for people who like get off of it and it was basically .
You know , this is where whatever digital effects they had at the time yes , it was a combination of that they did some script changes . They had a stunt double which you can tell . You can kind of tell the stunt double .
Yes .
It's not bad . No no , but you can tell I guess I didn't realize this until I was rewatching it . And then you know , researching some of the stuff online and whatnot , where he's , there's a scene where he's falling out of the window .
Yes , and it's a space digitized .
Right , right Right .
So there was another scene that's in the extended cut . I don't know if you watch the theatrical or the extended , but there's a scene where he's walking and the reason I know this is because I remember back when it happened and you know there was inside edition and extra , extra , all those shows .
Well , they showed like exactly right up until he got shot , and they also showed the digitized face .
Yeah , Because that's it it was . It was captured on film , Right Like it was captured on film . I remember where I was when that happened .
I remember walking into work and hearing on the radio that he was killed , and now we haven't even gotten to the fact that you know the , the sort of you know his father , Bruce Lee , Correct , Another tragedy , Another tragedy . You know another bizarre tragedy , another with a lot of different stories . You know , it's kind of like getting to the truth .
In fact , there's an interview with Brandon on Australian TV .
His last interview .
And he's asked about his father's death . Correct , you know , and what do you believe ? And what's the story ? And this cerebral edema that he had ? And then also the story about , like he had his what is it ?
The armpit , something in the armpit removed his sweat glands and his armpits removed Right and he wouldn't drink water Because he right and so and he's filming these movies , like in July and the heat , whatever . So there was all kinds of theories that with the heat stroke and that combined with the cerebral edema .
And then there's another story . He had a headache , a migraine , Correct , and he had an affair with this actress , Tai Ping or something like that I'm saying her name wrong but she gave him some kind of analgesic .
You know it was nothing serious , but if you're allergic to it it can cause the brain to swell , and that was another claim , as it was an allergic reaction .
I mean , Brandon was only 28 years old . Yeah . And Bruce was 32 , very close in age but the whole story is so creepy .
knowing the truth , you know , knowing , because it really was kind of like about his life .
It really was . It was creepy . It's so strange , and even the fact that he was engaged at the time Right right . For like a couple of years , I think , to Eliza Right and they put her name up at the end . Yeah , Eliza Hutton .
Brandon and Eliza .
Of course , when this all went down , it seems as though this is where Paramount Pictures said we're good and they didn't want anything to do with the film at that point . Yeah , and that's when Miramax steps in and they distribute the film .
Alex Proyas didn't wanna finish the film . And he was dead setting against the sequels . And now , right now , there's a reboot that was greenlit , and do you know who was the actor ?
Bill Skers , skers , but here's a weird thing . I've also seen things like Jason Momoa and some all kinds of crazy things .
It's been a good job .
Markey Mark , but here's what about this that you're talking about . So , but before we get to that , there's already been three sequels . Right , horrible , all terrible .
And Houston Dunce was in one of them . She played the little girl . She was in the second one , I think yeah , and then City of Angels , I think there was a TV series in Canada about it .
Correct , so they've tried to , but there were different characters .
They weren't playing Eric Draven , they were playing somebody else and they were trying to redeem somebody else's death . It wasn't the same characters . Right the silliest one was with Edward Furlong , Edward Furlong yeah , I mean , he looks . It's like what's Edward Furlong , dressed like a clown .
That cast , if you read that cast , is very interesting . It's a lot in the same vein , but what I read about this reboot supposedly that's slated for 2024 , is it wrapped in 2022. ?
Did you read that ?
I think I did and I was like and it's been held up in post-broad for two years , Like what is going on .
I don't know if they're having trouble getting somebody Because again Alex Proyes doesn't want anything to do with it .
So this , okay , but if the story is true , that this has already been filmed and yeah , where is it , I don't know , but Scarce and for people who don't know who we're talking about .
Bill Scars guard is famous for being penny wise .
He was in it course from it , yeah , yeah . So it's right up his alley in terms of the genre .
¶ The Crow and Brandon Lee's Performance
But yeah , now I also saw there was a clip . Of course , we've talked about Rob zombie on the show before In our interview we just had with the filmmaker , bruce Wemble Mm-hmm , we were talking about zombie because he and I both as you are , you know , fans of the zombie version Certainly the first Halloween that's first one .
The second one not so much is grows on you , but but zombie was slated to direct the sequel to the crow . Oh , I didn't know that called the crow 2037 , but yeah , there's a clip of him on . Howard Stern talked with his wife Is it Shelley moons , no uh sherry , sherry , moon , sherry moon .
Yeah , yeah , sorry , sherry , and who she also was in a lot of she's on all of us .
She's one of his cast .
Yeah , but you know , I guess they were trying to turn it into this kind of 90210 version of the crow and he's like I'm good about , but he wrote the script like the whole thing was good to go . Now see , Interested .
It would have been very interesting yeah again I I wished he would have been able to complete his Halloween trilogy , but right , but he didn't , he didn't want to . They offered him no I know , I know , but I think if they've relationship , they just given him what he wanted , yeah , and given him the , the artistic freedom to do what he wanted .
Yeah , you know he might have done it . You know I like the film . I liked it then , I like it now . It's a . It's a very typical 90s film . It looks like it's from the , except the , the , the soundtrack , clothes and it's kind of like the . It's the grunge area era , right at the time .
You know in 1994 that all the grunge is going on at that point the except for what ?
the only thing I have a problem with is Dick Tracy , which people don't realize this , but he used . At the time of the Dick Tracy comic . There was only five colors used in the comics and Warren Beatty stayed true to those five colors and made for a really unique look .
And then I look at Tim Burton , who gave everybody the matrix for how to make a superhero movie , if Richard Donner hadn't already done it . But I Think what Tim Burton did is giving you the dark way to do it , especially Batman Returns , which I'm one of the few that think it's a better film than the original . But snow and those were there .
And again the budget was 50 million for Batman , I remember that , and 50 million for right , so it's twice the budget twice the budget . I don't know why at that time , but Some of the things that I hated the directing , that's what I really didn't like , that the .
To me , the best parts of the crow are when Brandon is talking and he's taught , he's engaging with Ernie Hudson , and A couple of those times he just kind of they just kind of end the scene and I know it's him Supposedly , you know , flying off , but right it wasn't cut . Well , there was a lot of slashing and moving with the camera . That didn't like .
I was like trying to get my bearings . What was that ? Who was that ? What was that ? Eric was ? No , I didn't , I just had all sorts of trouble with the directing and I'm like this is the guy who did Dark City , which is brilliant . So Well , he'd on me , yeah , but it was also giving you Dark City .
It was also four or five years later , so he's honed his craft more by then too . You know Well . But you like the film overall . Yeah , overall , I would you know what it is , you know .
Right . For what it is it's , you know it's better than it is worse .
I mean I liked it . Like I said , it's very much kind of what you'd expect . It reminds me the films back then that , just like literally , was filmed on a back plot , not a big , huge production . You know Brandon Lee Was , you know he was . The critics were pretty favorable of him before this film came out .
I have to do is look at the cover of the crow Connishing remark oh yeah , but I'm talking about before the crow yeah , he was in nothing big .
No , nothing that ever broke out right , but the critics were very kind to him . Yeah , oh yeah , and , and he did . You could see he did have the , but he studied Lee Strasburg . I mean , he was no chump you know right , right .
It's just a career ahead of him . He's absolutely .
He had the training , you know he had the . You know it doesn't hurt that he had the kind of ancestry and right , yeah , you know .
I mean yeah , it was gonna be a star .
I kind of wish there had been some more of his martial artistry in the film .
I know there wasn't really much at all , and you couldn't tell when it was him and when it was a stunt guy , because some of the stuff was really dangerous , you know , jumping out the windows . Yeah , I think it much of it was him , but yeah , I don't know how much .
You do see more of his , his martial artistry , in some of his other films .
But you know in his own words and you can read about it , I mean he being the son of Bruce Lee and of course he's eight years old when Bruce dies right , that's a tough shadow to walk under if you're gonna study martial arts , which he did from some of Bruce Lee's students at the time .
Yeah , and he did go on to , basically , as he says , I think , in that Australian TV interview talks , but he essentially , you know , attained the title of a black belt . You know , but but I wish I would have seen more of that in the film now . He's a real soft-spoken guy . He really is a soft-spoken guy , very well-spoken guy too .
Yeah , I would expect him not to be , but just yeah , he seemed like even in the movie .
You know , I'm not sure it was acting as much as it was just him being him . Yeah , I agree , you know , and he was really comfortable .
I agree with that . It seemed like oh , that's just Brandon Lee , yeah , which sometimes you might be critical of , but it seemed to work for no , I thought it worked . I think it lent the sweetness to his character it did .
those were my feet , like I could have done without the rock and roll stuff With his guitar because they didn't really go into it enough not enough but you know , when he was soft-spoken talking to the girl and talking to Ernie Hudson , those were my favorite parts of the movie . Yeah you know not , not the effects stuff for man .
There was so many guns on that set a . Lot of guns a lot of guns .
Shooting pretty , you know , pretty typical back then and you know and then I think of , like Heath Ledger , because I I couldn't . You mentioned Batman .
Now this I'm glad I just made me think I I was saying to my girlfriend , as we're watching this , because she'd never seen the crow , which is always exciting , right to go in and watch a film that somebody hasn't seen right , and you know and get their reaction To it . She really enjoyed it is .
I Couldn't help but but think that Heath Was inspired a little by Brandon Lee's portrayal of the crow , if you think of his portrayal in the dark night .
Because there's some things , like you said that , michael win-cott , you know some lines and even just the makeup , the way the makeup is done and with the right simplistic and you know it's funny because the mythology lives in wrestling .
There's a couple of wrestlers Sting is one for him yeah the guy who his character was the Raven and it was clearly based on the crow .
Oh , clearly , yeah , you know yeah . But anyways , the crow . If you haven't seen the crow which most people by now would have , I think , seen it , but if you haven't go see it , it's a good film you can actually , like I did , I mean , you can get the physical medium . I don't know if you have any idea , I don't . I don't have the you don't have it .
No , okay , but I would recommend highly dark city . Yeah , dark city , this is my favorite sci-fi movie . Yeah , but you got it .
You got it . You got a further crow in there . I have the crow on digital , so it's in my digital library . Yeah , you can get it on voodoo and the others platforms for very it's very affordable .
So if you're looking for something you know during this time of year , during and you're a Halloween and you're a half-an all-hollows eat it , it's absolutely Well , devils night .
Yeah . Devils night that's the devil's night , same night before . Yeah , same difference .
All right , mike , anything else to say about the the ?
crow , no I , you know , I wish we had more brand-newly movies to talk about yeah , it's , it's a .
You know it's a tragic story , as you said . Way too many parallels with the story , with the movie itself in his real life . Yeah , you know , it's hard to separate the two , but an enjoyable movie nonetheless . I'd recommend you see it and we'll see what happens with this reboot . I mean , you know , now I kind of like to see it off the ground .
I'm not thrilled about the scars guard casting , but and we don't know yet whether it's a reboot or like that story from 93 , or yeah , we don't know that yet or I'd like it to be what we're seeing a lot of now , which is a Continuation after that point . Right , right , we get everything else . It starts here .
Here's where the sequel starts that that I would like to see .
I mean literally one of them , I think it's the fourth . One has a zero .
Oh , on rotten tomatoes , I mean that's hard to do it , whereas the crow's got really good radio . It's got like a 73 meta score . It's like 80 , 90 something , I think , from the audience on rotten tomatoes and yeah , it's higher .
It's high . I mean that's good . You know , it is good You're above 50 . Oh , yeah on the meta score . You're doing good .
Yeah , so well , the rest in peace , brandon Lee and yeah and Michael Massey to I yeah . I know you know it's a shame , but I'm glad to , as you kind of described , that . He seemed to make peace with it as best you can , because If it was me , I don't know how you go on after that . I , you know , it's just yeah , I mean he ?
he talked about calling Eliza , he talked about calling his parent , his mother and toss it with her , but other than that . He didn't share it with anyone , no and he talked about I don't know if you saw this part of the interview where he talked about being in the park and there was Eliza , married with a young girl .
Yes and you know the thoughts of hey , that was probably going to be Brandon and absolutely . You know that's got to be gut wrenching for you to live with .
Yeah , yeah it's . It's hard to even fathom , but Well , all right , that's going to do it for another episode of the Yo Brother podcast . I'm your host , dan Smith , alongside me , as always , my brother from the same mother , mike Smith , and we will see you next time . Bye , everyone .