Essay/Term paper: The crow review

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Movie Reviews

Scott Speakman

English Project

April 18, 2000



The Crow Reviewed

Throughout the history of movies, movie companies have tried to do it bigger better and more exciting. They bring in bigger stars, better special effects and more convincing stories, which causes the masses to flock to the theatres in eager anticipation of each movie. The audience usually gets what the audience wants—more violence and more action the world over. "The Crow" has elements of different types of movie genres the horror, adventure, film noir and the western. In this movie there is no difference as is about to be shown in the following paper. They mix the genres together quite well in this movie to make it a true hybrid genre. From the mean streets, the use of shadows and surprise like the horror movie, to the adventure of the over all story. They also mix in a bit of western with the black cowboy that is in the comic, but doesn"t even appear in the movie itself. Now this paper shows how the movie appeals to the different genres using characters, settings, lighting and other effects to make the movie more interesting.

In "The Crow," it starts out with a legend of the crow showing the horror aspect of the movie. It says that "when a person dies, a crow carries there soul to the land of the dead and sometimes a soul dies with such anguish that the soul cant rest, and sometimes, just sometimes the crow can bring that spirit back to put the wrong things right." Which was in the case of Eric Draven, is what happened. Him and his fiancé (Shelly) both are killed while fighting tenant eviction eviction in there building. Eric Draven being the way that he was before he was killed, a rock singer and guitarist, truly makes him the unlikely hero of this story. The way that he paints his face in a mimes face with a smile is quite different then was in the comic, he was suppose to paint his face like the face of tragedy. Instead they do it like a mime, and this is quite ironic as to what he is supposed to stand for. This creates a sense of dramatic horror to an effect throughout the movie. The street gang that killed him for the tenant eviction made him quite the man made demon, having only one thing that was on his mind, the revenge of his and Shelly"s death to put his soul to rest. Eric and Shelly were murdered the day before they were to be married on Devils Night (the night before Halloween). Which in the story holds significance as the night that the city has hundreds of fires set throughout it. In taking his revenge he shows many traits that come to build on his character. He shows a certain sarcastic wit that makes him all the more interesting to watch. Like when Eric is about to kill Tintin, Tintin says "hey man, come on give me a break man" and Eric reply"s "victims, aren"t we all" and then it cuts out with the knife in Eric"s hand. There is also a certain amount of mystery that surrounds him, when he disappears into the shadows many times during the movie.

The aesthetic value of "The Crow" is shown in all of the locations that the scenes take place in. In some of the scenes in shows film noir with the dilapidated streets and buildings. It also shows the lawlessness of the city streets by all of the by all the thieves, and how they have taken over them. It also shows the menacing people gathering around the abandoned streets, which seems like the other types are afraid to show there faces outside of there homes, thinking that they may be robbed or worse; killed. The alleys littered with barrels aflame, and homeless people scatted around them warming up. The inside of the buildings looking just the same as the outside, worm out and dilapidated. They"re torn up from the water leading from the room and the broken windows. Worm out form just neglect and not being taken care of. The lighting in the movie is low to let people seem to come from no where when they walk from the shadows and make them look more ominous and hard to follow there movements.

The thematic concerns of the movie surround many different things. It is around just how violent their world is and how their good deeds got them killed. The investigation that follows with a cop named Albreck, and how he got busted down for not letting the case go when it was closed. It tries to get across that one person can make a difference, like when Eric got revenge for his death. This was because he was devoted enough to get it done. It lets across the despair that Eric feels about his and Shelly"s murder and how he turns anti-social as to not get to attached to the people while he was there and how his version of justice is the only one that can serve him.

In the previous paragraphs I showed how the movie uses aesthetic style to get across both the horror factor and film noir factors. Both in the streets and the character factors that go along the streets. It shows the horror aspects of the darkness, the shadows and the dilapidated state of the buildings surrounding the streets. It also has a tad bit of western in the comic book with the black cowboy in the comic book with the black cowboy that shows Eric how to use his powers that don"t show up in the movie. It also shows why the movies use them to get the desired effects.