"The Crow": Caws for Remembrance

What the Kids Were Watching

The 1994 comic book film "The Crow" has a famous and heartbreaking history. Its star Brandon Lee — son of Bruce Lee — was tragically killed in an on-set accident. Because of this, the film was edited down with much of its expository material removed, and the result was a tight and haunting story with an iconic lead performance. Sarah and Raf note that it's hard to watch Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight" and not think of Lee's Eric Draven.

That doesn't mean "The Crow" is a perfect film. As much as Raf loved it, he admits that it's "the most 1994 movie ever made," but celebrates what a landmark it was for the comic book movie industry. The gore and violence made Sarah hesitate to embrace the film, as did the cheesiness. The villains' names "sound like something from a PBS children's television show," she says, adding that their "Fire It Up" dance "feels like they're just really excited about going to regionals."

Yet "The Crow," for all its flaws, remains important to both hosts. It's an extraordinarily well-edited film, it helped popularize "Hot Topic" (For real! Kind of!), and its soundtrack was essential for goths and non-goths alike. Plus, the film's message about how "real love never dies" hits them right in their still-teenage hearts. In Sarah's words, "It's so important that it doesn't need to justify its existence. To ask if it holds up is sort of belittling how important it is."

(Bonus content: Sarah's beloved dog Verona, who passed away in May 2019, spends a lot of time walking around, flapping her ears, and licking Raf's face in this episode. At the time of recording, the hosts thought she felt unsettled by the film's sad background and was driven to move around a lot. Now, her noise is a sweet reminder that — as the film's characters keep saying — real love never dies.)