Review of The Crow (1994) by Filipeneto — 06 Nov 2021

Some time ago, I became aware of the existence of this film, but I decided to see it because of its somewhat dark and interesting theme. It turned out to be the movie I saw on my Halloween night, and I'm not exactly sorry. The film is set in a dystopian future, in which the city is dominated by organized crime and the authorities seem incapable of acting and there is a group of thugs that annually set fire to several parts of the city on purpose, in the so-called "Devil's Night", just for the pleasure of destroying.

In the film, a totally innocent couple are attacked and killed by criminals who break into their home. However, a crow magically in charge of taking Eric's soul to heaven decides to keep it on earth in order to give him time to do what needs to be done: find and punish the killers. It's a simple, direct plot, based on a series of graphic novels that I didn't know about, but it works reasonably well. A particular note, which made this film famous, was the sad death of the main actor, Brandon Lee, as a result of an accident with the film's weapons during a scene in which his character is hit by a bullet.

From the cast, it is Brandon Lee who stands out, with a charismatic and committed performance. With this film, the actor achieved the most outstanding role of his career. In addition to him, Michael Wincott also deserves particular commendation due to the dark, grim and cruel portrayal of a crime boss. Sofia Shinas and Jon Polito also show up and do a satisfying job.

Technically, the film has several elements of interest, mainly in terms of visuals and special and sound effects. The cinematography is suitably dense, sober and at times gives the scenes a pleasant charge of pessimism and negativity, as if we were inside a nightmare or hallucination. The props and sets help to create the desired atmosphere, gothic and a little threatening, but it is the visual, special and sound effects that deserve the most praise. The film also has good action scenes. The soundtrack, while not memorable, works reasonably well.