Don’t Hate The Crow Reboot Because Of Brandon Lee

I couldn’t stand 1994’s The Crow and, believe me, I was the target audience. I was 19 and as deep into punk rock and “alternative” culture as I could get.

Everything about The Crow seemed not only brazenly pretentious, but as pandering as you could get. By the time the eponymous hero was smashing an electric guitar on a rooftop, it occurred to me if all the dialogue had been changed to nothing but characters saying, “Kurt Cobain, Nine Inch Nails, GOTH! Kurt Cobain, Nine Inch Nails, GOTH!” it really wouldn’t have made the flick feel much different.

The Crow soundtrack, admittedly, was exactly to my taste and remains an absolute banger. But everything else about the film felt like someone my current age trying to convince my 19-year-old self they knew all the “groovy jive” I was into.

When news of The Crow reboot emerged, all of my social media blew up with people enraged that such a remake was even considered. All this upset seemed to revolve around exactly one thing—the tragic death of Brandon Lee, who played Eric Draven in the original film.

Lee died while making The Crow. He was shot by a .44-caliber bullet that should not have been in the prop gun fired by Michael Massee. Massee played Funboy, one of the film’s villains.

There’s no denying Lee’s death was tragic, that it was avoidable, and that it never should have happened. But when it comes to well-known celebrity deaths, his is unique in that the only reason most of the fans impacted by his demise had any idea who he was is because he died.

Yes, I am aware the star of The Crow had other screen roles before he played Eric Draven. I am also aware—as someone who was very much alive and heavily consuming pop culture at the time—that neither 1989’s Laser Mission nor 1992’s Rapid Fire rated as cultural landmarks.

I don’t say this to dismiss Lee, his work, or his legacy—I’m merely pointing out that if you think your high opinion of The Crow doesn’t mostly come from the fact that Brandon Lee died making it, then there are some bridges in downstate NY I’d like you take a look at. I can let them go for a very reasonable price.

So you love The Crow because Brandon Lee died making it—that’s valid. I don’t get to tell you or anyone else why they should or shouldn’t love something. But I’d ask you to consider is if you really think Lee’s death is the only tragedy to unfold on a film set.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died three years ago on the set of the western Rust. The legal fallout from that is ongoing, and producer/Rust lead Alec Baldwin has expressed his desire to eventually release the film.

Should Rust be considered sacrosanct because of Hutchins’ death? She died much like Lee did—from a bullet that shouldn’t have been in a gun.

Can no negative word be said about Rust because of what happened to Hutchins? Should no remake or reboot ever be considered, just like The Crow reboot is somehow a betrayal of some unmentioned trust?

How about Deadpool 2? In 2017, stuntwoman Joi Harris—doubling for Zazie Beetz’s Domino—crashed her motorcycle during filming and died. Two months earlier, stuntman John Bernecker died while filming an episode of The Walking Dead.

Are those projects now untouchable? Would criticizing them, rebooting them, or remaking them somehow rate as sacrilegious—just like The Crow reboot?

How about Vin Diesel’s stunt double Harry L. O’Connor who died during the making of xXx? Or camerman Conway Wickliffe who died filming a scene for The Dark Knight? Michael Davidson, who died fighting a fire on the set of Motherless Brooklyn? Jim Engh, a crew member electrocuted on the set of The X-Files?

Why does Brandon Lee’s death render The Crow reboot somehow a crime, while I think we can all agree all of the deaths I just mentioned, all as tragic as Brandon Lee’s, would not impact your opinion of reboots, remakes, sequels, and/or criticisms of those projects in the slightest?

Hey—love The Crow reboot, hate it, forget it exists, whatever. I’m only asking you to honestly ask yourself the question: if your love for a movie stems mainly from a tragic story about one man who made it—and yet the industry is full of similar stories for other movies and TV shows that don’t touch you the same way—could it be that the people marketing that movie were just way smarter than you were at the time?