The Crow: Odds and Ends
Has there ever been something that you wanted to know about the Crow and could never figure out? Or if you're searching for collectibles or memoribilia and you can't find them? Well, thats why I created this page. Here you can find answers about certain things, like behind the scenes information, all the latest Crow rumors, collectibles, and the latest updates on whats happening in the Crow world, form James O'Barr to the new TV show.
The Credits:
Directed by
Alex Proyas
Cast in credits order
Brandon Lee ......Eric Draven
Ernie Hudson ......Albrecht
Michael Wincott ......Top Dollar
David Patrick Kelly ......T-Bird
Angel David ......Skank
Rochelle Davis ......Sarah
Bai Ling ......Myca
Laurence Mason ......Tin Tin
Michael Massee ......Funboy
Bill Raymond ......Mickey
Marco Rodriguez ......Torres
Sofia Shinas ......Shelly
Anna Thomson ......Darla
Tony Todd ......Grange
Jon Polito ......Gideon
Kim Sykes ......Annabella
Rock Taulbee ......Lead Cop
Norman Maxwell ......Roscoe
Jeff Cadiente ......Waldo
Henry Kingi ......MJ
Eric Stabenau ......Speeg
Cassandra Lawton ......Newscaster
Lou Criscuolo ......Uniform Cop #1
Todd Brenner ......Paramedic #1
Joe West ......Paramedic #2
Tom Rosales ......Sanchez
Jeff Imada ......Braeden
Tierre Turner ......Jugger
Tim Parati ......Bad Ass Criminal
James Goodall ......Medicine
Brad Laner ......Medicine
James Putnam ......Medicine
Eddie Ruscha ......Medicine
Elizabeth Thompson ......Medicine
Marston Daley ......My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Laura Gomel ......My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Rachel Hollingsworth...My Life With The Thrill....
Charles Levi ......My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Mark McCabe ......My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Frank Nardiello ....My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Cast cut from the film
Michael Berryman ......Skull Cowboy
Cinematography by
Dariusz Wolski
Music by
Graeme Revell
Written by
James O'Barr (graphic novel)
David J. Schow
John Shirley
Production designed by
Alex McDowell
Costume design by
Arianne Phillips
Edited by
Dov Hoenig
Scott Smith
Produced by
Jeff Most
Edward R. Pressman
Bob Rosen
The Crow: Behind The Scenes
After Brandon breaks into Gideon's store, he recites some prose from E.A. Poe's The Raven
The Ghostrider song on The Crow soundtrack parallels the Ghostrider comic book.
A German passage exists in the comic. It goes:
ICH BEDURFNES JESUS CHRISTUS HANGELENK
MEIN GEBEIN WEINEN
ODLAND, KRIEGSBIET, LEBENWEISE GESCHWINDIGKEIT, HALBMESSER, ABSTEIG
GNAPENSTOB
and translates to:
I need the wrist of Jesus Christ, my dead body cries,
wasteland, warland, land of the living, speed,
measurements, going down, release of pain.
There originally was a sorcerer character who was intent on stealing Eric's power and the Crow, but it was felt that it conflicted too much with the Skull Cowboy concept, so it was scrapped. When the Skull Cowboy concept was scrapped, the sorcerer character was brought back in lesser form as Myca.
Myca has that tribal tattoo on her back, but she's not the only one. Top Dollar has some pretty impressive ones too, but they are never shown.
David Patrick Kelly, who played T-Bird, was so into his character and the classical arts that the Paradise Lost book he was holding while reading from was an actual antique copy that he bought specifically for the movie.
Several people have pointed out the similarity between the name Eric Draven and the idea 'Eric the Raven' - perhaps another tie to the E.A. Poe poem. As well, I've heard that O'Barr has a son from a previous marriage named Eric.
Jeff Imada, Brandon Lee's best friend, fight choreographer, and fellow student in the martial arts (how they first met) plays Braeden at the end of the movie. He is the Oriental gangster at the table during Top Dollar's Anarchy speech who asks, "So you're saying we should just quit?" Imada was also on an episode of Hard Copy investigating Lee's death. Jeff Imada is on tape apparently finding one of the blanks in which he clearly examines and shakes near his ear saying, The caps haven't been popped. They look real. They seem real... and then says he'll look into it. Also, in the same episode of Hard Copy, a broken M-16A1 prop was handed to the propsmaster, who, handed it back to the person saying inconspicuously, Put it back with the others.
The origin of the phrase Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children (from the scene where Eric drains morphine from Darla's arm) it's from the book (not the comic).
There were other accidents on the set; so many that people were beginning to think there was a curse. There was a fire, a crewmember got electrocuted, a crewmember slipped and a screwdriver wen through his hand, and someone else flipped out and drove their car through the set, causing injuries.
CAMEO: James O'Barr can be seen stealing a TV set after Gideon's shop was blown up.
CAMEO: During one of the scenes at the club, while a band is playing, a person jumps from the stage and surfs the crowd. That might have been Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
One of the bad guy's at Top Dollar's meeting is one of the screenwriters, David Schow. He is also the guy that gets pulled under the table in the same scene.
If you look close enough in a few scenes, you will see that Eric has a light scar going under his eye and over his nose. Brandon Lee was not scarred. It was a reference to O'Barr's work; Eric died from a gunshot to the head - the blast cracked the bone under his eye creating the wound.
The scene with Albrecht and Eric in his apartment was ad-libbed where Eric shows Albrecht a picture of him and his wife, and the following part about Shelly (believe me nothing is trivial...)
O'Barr based Gideon on a character played by John Polito in "Miller's Crossing." Polito, of course, went on to play Gideon, thus a dream come true for O'Barr.
A music video was produced for "it can't rain all the time". It's known to have appeared on Canada's MuchMusic on various occassions.
Dead Souls is originally a Joy Division song (available on Substance 1977-1980), a British band whose leader, Ian Curtis, hung himself the night before their first US tour. O'Barr was a big fan and even dedicates the first original issue of The Crow -- Pain to Curtis and quotes his song. In various places in the comic, words appear out of nowhere (for an artsy effect) such as Gravity. Some of these are Joy Division songs. Others, like Attrition are gothic bands. BTW, the original remaining members of Joy Division have gone on to become New Order and their side projects Revenge, Electronic, and The Other Two.
The backing and add-libbed vocals at the end of Time Baby III is Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. The live version (seen in the film) is different from the recorded version on the soundtrack.
The Crow was filmed entirely in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The scenes of the crow flying through Detroit were a real Crow matted onto a miniature Detroit set. The Church we see in the final showdown is actually a miniature.
The company Dream Quest was responsible for the computer graphics. The scene where Draven's hand heals used stop animation technology.
Do the Crow's squawks sound strange? They're Ravens, not crows - perhaps a tie to Edgar Allen Poe's poem. In one scene, the top view of the bird's spread tail showed that the end was rounded rather than square. Crow's make no noise.
GYRO's World of Terror, once the largest SINGLE haunted house in the world (100,000 sq. feet & two stories), features a "Museum of Terror" which includes actual props from The Crow. Lance Anderson, one of the F/X artists on the film's production, donated several props including Bai Ling's fake "crow pecked head", Michael Wincott's "gargoyle impaled head", a beautiful, articulated crow eye (for close-up shots), one of Brandon's "blasted hands" (from fight with Funboy), and last, but not least of all, the Skull Cowboy himself.
The Goofs:
When Eric Draven returns home for the first time after his resurrection, we see the crow waiting for him at the top of the stairs. When the camera moves and cuts the crow out of the scene we hear a flutter of wings, but the shadow of the crow remains perfectly still...
After Eric has dealt with Fun Boy and Darla, you should notice electrical tape around Eric's body that was not there beforre. This is because there was a fight scene between Fun Boy and Eric that was left on the cutting room floor. The reason believed for Eric not healing is because he used his "powers" to help Darla and from another cut scene, the Skull Cowboy told him, he couldn't use his "powers" to help mortals. Fun Boy used the razor taken from Darla by Eric, but thrown on the floor to slice at Eric. Later he patched his clothes up with the tape, but they thought the tape gave Eric that extra look, so left it in.
Before Fun Boy exclaims, "Oh god! Look what you've done to my sheets!", his right leg lifts from the bed and we see the pyrotechnics wire for a blood pack exiting his pants.
Gideon's glass seems to contain an inconsistant amount of liquid during one scene.
When Eric uses Albrecht's memory of what Shelly went through tokill Top Dollar, he first reaches out with his right hand. When the view changes to the side, he's using his left hand and his right then follows.
In the same Eric/Albrecht scene when Eric shouts Freeze! and Albrecht jumps, there's a delayed reaction of him dropping his can of beer.
During Eric's flashback, we see a pumpkin in the apartment smash to the floor. Yet, when the police are searching the bedroom in the beginning of the movie (after the murders), the pumpkin remains in perfect shape. Perhaps the crow brought its soul back too?
During the shootout scene in the nightclub, Eric Draven shoots two of Top Dollar's henchmen, both smashing through glass windows and falling to the nightclub floor below. The second henchman is visibly suspended by a cable.
When Eric is shooting all the henchmen, he kills the guy wearing Carhardts TWICE. Definetely not a good day to be a bad guy!
Tin Tin says "I'd like you to meet TWO buddies of mine. We never miss..." and throws THREE knives! And when Eric pins Tin Tin to the wall and says "Victims.. aren't we all..." he sticks FOUR knives in his abdomen.
In this same scene, when Eric throws TinTin he lands on his right side. But when the camera shows Eric pick him back up, Tin Tin is on his left side.
When Sarah enters Eric's apartment, she says, "Hell with you, I thought you cared." Eric appears and says. "Sarah, I do care." If you watch Eric's shadow, it doesn't match with his shadow in the adjacent scenes.
When Eric is in the back seat of T-bird's car, the first scene shows Eric with Funboy's 44 to T-bird's head, in the next scene he has T-bird's Berreta to his head.
In the fight scene between Eric and Top Dollar when lightning strikes, you can see the blade go between the gap in Eric's arm and chest.
When Sarah pulls up to Maxi Dogs she pulls her hood down right before she sits down. Then the camera shoots her from a side view and her hood is up. This is right before the arcade explosion.
The same Sarah/Maxi Dog scene where Sarah gets a soda. When she drinks, it makes the sound normally associated with an empty glass.
The second time Sarah is at Maxi Dog with Gabriel the cat, you can see that the cat tries to get up and is being restrained.
When Sarah leaves Eric to return to the land of the dead and is captured by Top Dollar and his goons, right before she is grabbed at a hand is put over her face, she takes in a breath and holds it in givin away what is about to happen.
At the very end of the movie when Sarah is at the cemetary and the crow gives her the ring, it makes a clanging sound - metal hand?
Gabriel, Eric and Shelly's cat, that Eric comes across in Shelly's apartment is perfectly clean and healthy, even though as far as we know, nobody's been taking care of it for a year.
Brandon, Behind The Scenes:
Here's a few bits and pieces of info about Brandon, behind the scenes. I'll be putting together a Brandon Lee page soon, which will be filled with much more info.
In Brandon's (so called) final interview, when he says, Because we do not know when we will die we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well and yet everything happens only a certain number of times and a very small number really.
That is from Paul Bowles, Sheltering Sky.
Brandon and his movie father, Bruce Lee, are buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle, Washington.
At the end of the movie, there is a dedication to Brandon and Eliza. Eliza was Brandon's fiance. Its quite ironic how it sems to coinside with the movie.
From People Magazine...April 19th, 1993
At 1:04 p.m. Thursday, a little more than 12 hours after Lee had been shot, and nearly 5 hours before Linda, who was flying from Boise, Idaho, where she lives with her husband, businessman Bruce Caldwell, could reach her son's bedside in intensive care, Brandon was declared dead.
For more information on Crow Collectibles, and Rumors, go to my Odds and Ends page 2. Odds&Ends 2
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