In Alex Proyas's 1994 cult classic The Crow, we saw a love so pure as to shatter the laws of mortality and morality. As we watched Brandon Lee's Eric Draven claw his way out of his sodden grave through mud and grime a year after his death to avenge his and his fiancée Shelly Webster's (Sofia Shinas) murders, we felt the heft of his all-consuming sadness and came to believe in angels.
The powerful and mystical crow guided Eric in his second life as he hunted down those responsible for robbing him of paradise: he and Shelly were to be married on Halloween, the day after the night of their brutal murders at the hands of Detroit's most vile. One by one, Eric picked away at the gang until he felt he had finally wrestled justice from his cruel world.
When Lee tragically died while filming due to negligence on set, we lost a budding talent, and the heartbroken film gained even more heartache — an addled meaning, as Lee was meant to be married to the love of his life mere weeks from the time of his passing. Proyas's The Crow became a sombre celebration of love itself.
Thirty years later, we are offered the rare opportunity to witness the resurrection of The Crow's powerful love with director Rupert Sanders's take on the dark classic. With the tagline "True love never dies," the film, starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs, hopes to reinvigorate the tale with ideas of self-sacrifice and justice for modern audiences.
But before we have our hearts broken by Skarsgård and twigs, let's take a moment to celebrate the 1994 film with some facts you might not know.
The Crow was inspired by a real-life tragedy in author James O'Barr's life
The original 1994 film is based on an underground graphic novel of the same name by James O'Barr. Published in 1989, it was O'Barr's debut and became a huge success. The book took O'Barr almost a decade to write and illustrate, and was a difficult project for the writer as he used the project to work through his grief over the death of his fiancée, Beverly.
After spending a few years self-destructively giving himself over to his sadness, O'Barr committed himself to working on the book, which he found to be therapeutic. For O'Barr, the comic is heavy with all his grief and ache, but it's also a celebration of the love he and Beverly shared.
O'Barr's grief was later compounded following the tragic death of Brandon Lee due to on-set negligence. In the introduction to the 2010 special edition of the graphic novel, the author writes about feeling a regret similar to the guilt he felt after Beverly passed away and an unfounded responsibility for Lee's passing. Lee's fiancée, Eliza Hutton, reached out to O'Barr, providing comfort and assurance, and the two became good friends. O'Barr thanks her twice in the 2010 edition of his book, which is dedicated to Brandon Lee.
James O'Barr paid tribute to his late-fiancée Beverly through Shelly Webster
The character of Shelly is based almost entirely on Beverly, who was struck and killed by a drunk driver as she was on her way to pick O'Barr up one night. According to O'Barr, in the graphic novel, Shelly retains all of Beverly's characteristics — optimism, a sweet disposition and even Beverly's blonde '80s shag.
Additionally, O'Barr and Beverly shared the all-consuming and perfect, truly salutary love that Eric and Shelly develop in both comic and film. Shelly and Eric's love leaves each of them out of step with the world, and that's enough for them. O'Barr and Beverly spent all their waking moments together, with nothing else holding much value for O'Barr other than the life he shared with Beverly.
James O'Barr initially wanted the Cure's "The Hanging Garden" included in the 1994 film
The Crow has an absolutely stellar, stacked and quintessentially '90s soundtrack, with everyone from Nine Inch Nails covering Joy Division's "Dead Souls" to Pantera to Stone Temple Pilots to Rage Against the Machine contributing a track or cover. But it's the Cure's contribution that is especially poignant, as O'Barr listened to them and Joy Division on rotation, not only as he crafted the graphic novel, but also as he grieved.
O'Barr included the lyrics of the Cure's "The Hanging Garden" into his book, and this was the song that was slated to appear in the film. But because lead vocalist and songwriter Robert Smith liked O'Barr's book so much, he wanted to contribute an original song. Smith wrote and recorded "Burn" with drummer Boris Williams in two days, and the song went on to become the film's theme.
Eric Draven was modelled after Iggy Pop and Peter Murphy
Though Eric is a conduit for O'Barr's survivor's guilt and anger at having his love snatched from him, O'Barr did not model the character's physical image after himself. Because he felt uncomfortable drawing himself, the artist chose English goth rocker Peter Murphy of Bauhaus as physical inspiration for Eric, particularly Murphy's high cheekbones and angular jaw, while the fluid way that he moves through his world is inspired by Iggy Pop's radical dance moves.
Eric's iconic makeup is inspired by a mural O'Barr saw on the side of a building in England, which depicted the faces of "pain," "irony" and "despair," with Eric specifically choosing to wear the laughing face of "irony" as he tearfully takes revenge on his murderers.
There are connections between The Crow and the John Wick franchise
Stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski practised at the same martial arts studio as Brandon Lee and was his stunt double on the film, as the two shared a similar stature. After Lee's death, Stahelski served as a stand-in to Lee in order to complete outstanding scenes. The film used digital face replacement and computer graphics — all in their infancy at that point — to graft Lee's face onto Stahelski's form.
Stahelski would go on to be Keanu Reeves's stunt double for The Matrix and then direct Reeves in every film of the John Wick franchise. Stahelski's sets are noteworthy for their stringent gun safety measures and general safety protocols. And in a tender, blink-or-you'll-miss-it-moment, David Patrick Kelly — who plays T-Bird in 1994's The Crow — makes a brief appearance in the first John Wick film as Charlie the "cleaner."