Alex Proyas
Il corvo

2024 will mark the thirtieth year since its release in theaters, and this year is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of its late protagonist, Brandon Bruce Lee.

"The Crow" is a film that became a cult even before it saw the light of day. Whether it's because of the tragic fate that befell its leads or the interweaving of mystery and death that blended reality and fiction. As if the events were the responsibility of something supernatural, to such an extent that some coincidences seemed not to be coincidences at all.

Based on James O'Barr's comic series, the film was inspired by real events (the premature and tragic death of O'Barr's fiancée and the murder of two young people in Detroit for a twenty-dollar ring), thus enhancing the aura of mystery surrounding everything that happened during filming.

The premature demise of Brandon Lee immediately recalls that of his father; Bruce was thirty-three, his son even younger, only twenty-eight. Both too young and too unlucky. If it was just bad luck, indeed. An absurd death of young Lee, which occurred on the set that would have finally consecrated him to the great public and ultimately handed him over to legend. A bullet deprived of primer and gunpowder, stuck in the barrel of a weapon that was supposed to be harmless. Then a blank bullet that pushes the forgotten projectile in the same gun, the explosion, and finally the mortal wound. A sly and brisk demon riding the wave of fate, one might think. The same fate that befell Eric Draven, a rebellious and romantic rocker, and his beloved fiancée Shelly Webster, with whom he was supposed to marry the day after the tragedy, precisely on Halloween.

Brandon Lee and Eliza Hutton, his girlfriend and future wife, were supposed to marry exactly eighteen days after that cursed last day of filming. That March 31, thirty years ago, remains the date chosen by fate to indissolubly link myth, mystery, and disbelief. Only the use of CGI and even more active collaboration with stunt doubles allowed the filming to be completed and the movie delivered to history.

Directed by Alex Proyas (Dark City), "The Crow" is a dark, violent, gloomy, and incredibly magnetic feature film. A gothic noir, which through the fascinating aesthetic impact of its protagonist, paved the way for the emo movement, which would emerge a few years later. The rain, the darkness of the night, the aura of malice and hatred perpetrated by the antagonists of the victims, charge and motivate the viewer, who viscerally sides with Eric and gradually assimilates his thirst for vengeance.

Eric Draven and the psychopomp crow that brings him back to the world of the living are figures that render the Devil's Night grimly poetic. Among blazing flames, rampant madness, drugs, and no respect for other people's lives, intentions of redemption emerge, intense flashbacks, and flashes of an impossible future, colored only in gray. There is little Sarah (the story's narrator), who can no longer stand the rain (Eric will remind her with sincere optimism that "it can't rain all the time") and is forced to act as a guardian to a toxic and insolent mother while trying to process the death of Eric and Shelly, who were the closest thing to parents for her. Then there's Sergeant Darryl Albrecht, the only decent law representative among lazy and incompetent policemen who can't even drive a patrol car without bringing it back in pieces to the station. These are the reference figures for the crow and his ward during what was initially supposed to be a path of revenge, which will then turn mostly into a struggle for survival. As if it were a sinister oxymoron, the survival of a non-living being that we hope with all our might will not die. Not yet, at least.

Eric leaves the grave, returns to his apartment amid devastation, rain, and memories, paints his face white, and faces reality or what is left of it. His body is wrapped in fabric and black leather, his eyes, made even more funereal by the pitch-colored makeup, penetrate and reach straight to the soul. Under the incessant rain, he plays the glossy black guitar with silver strings, trying to process the grief, until he gets lost in a lightning-fast riff, abruptly ended by frustration. We see the cover of the Hangman's Joke album (the metal band led by Draven) and the needle that Sarah nostalgically places on the vinyl before playing the first track, to give concrete music to the memories. There are many moving details in this film, which also has minor flaws, especially when examined thirty years later. There is the raw work of a skilled debut director, an iconic soundtrack (Cure, Joy Division, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, Pantera), the intertwining with literature and poetry (Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe), the latter being an implicit passion of the protagonist, akin to the more evident passion for music.

James O'Barr was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poetry for the comic's writing, and in the film adaptation, more dulled and less violent than the comic, as Hollywood demanded, there is a citation from "The Raven" ("Suddenly there came a tapping"). Iconic, too, is the quote from "Paradise Lost" by John Milton: "The Devil stood amazed at how obscene good could be", stated by the villain T. Bird during his misdeeds.

Eric quickly separates from the damp earth and focuses on the reason for his return to the world of the living. Before beginning to accept the grief, he pursues his vengeance. He eliminates Tin-Tin, stabbing him in all vital organs (in alphabetical order) and, after extracting the confession he needed, reaches Gideon and retrieves Shelly’s engagement ring, stolen by the ruthless killers after they raped and killed her. Then he continues his work, following a precise and meticulous order. He eliminates Funboy, freeing and redeeming Darla, Sarah's mother, who fell into the drug addict's web. Then he moves on to T-Bird and Skank, climbing the criminal pyramid to the most rotten and wicked of the gang's murderers, Top-Dollar.

The Shakespearean finale is the most fitting closure to the story, and it is a sort of alternative "happily ever after" that does not shy away from emotion during the last words of the voice-over:

"People die, houses burn, but true love is forever"

2024 will be the year the reboot is released in theaters, much to the displeasure of the original film’s fans. Lionsgate will handle distribution, and Bill Skarsgård (IT, John Wick 4) will star, contrary to the rumors that until the last moment had Jason Momoa in the role that belonged to Brandon Lee.

Regardless of considerations about the usefulness or not of a reboot (and the quality of sequels made after 1994), it is undeniable that an iconic film like The Crow (which aged very well and is still sufficient for us today) will remain in the history of cinema forever. As if it were the dark earthly testimony of an eternity unknown to us.