 October 15, 2000
- One of the most visually stunning, romantic yet disturbing films ever made was "The Crow." Written and originally drawn by James O'Barr, "The Crow" is the tale of Eric Draven, an aspiring musician who is getting ready to marry the love of his world, Shelley. Plans are shattered when a gang of hoods enters their domicile and kills them, raping Shelley as she slowly passed on. Eric, after being shot and stabbed, falls through the window down to the street below. One year later, he returns, dazed and not understanding his execution of wrath before him as he marches on to execute the soulless hoods who had violated his life one year previously - all in the name of eternal love.
-
- "The Crow" was finally brought to screen in the mid-1990s and beautifully executed on film with a monochromatic moodiness. The actor playing Eric Draven was Brandon Lee, son of the famed martial arts actor and teacher, Bruce Lee. After being chosen for the role, Brandon could not have been more excited. He took this role seriously and brought real life - ironically - to the newly ressurrected character. Then, tragedy struck as Brandon, filming one of his final scenes, was shot to death accidentally - or was it. This has been the tragic question on everyone's mind since. Was Brandon really shot by accident or was there more meaning or negligence behind the shooting.
-
 A recent book came out entitled "The Crow: The Story Behind The Film" by Bridget Baiss that fully covers all the events that lead up to and just past that fateful day. Included in the book are some shocking admissions of negligence and flat-out lying to the police, courts and insurance companies by cast and crew that really make one wonder how a second trail could be marked as "double jeopardy". There were a few "memory losses" by some of the crew closest to the accident. A recent interview that I myself had done with author James O'Barr opened some more questions as he explained other pieces of information never made public before. With all of this, it comes time to wonder aloud what was the reason, if any, for Brandon's death - and could it have been avoided at all.
-
- Some of the rumors, outside of the book, have suggested that some non-union workers had found the prop guns and removed them, without permission, from their casings the night before the accident. They thought the guns were "cool" and went out to the lot to go shooting. After their play time was over, they replaced the guns, but carelessly, as they did not bother to check if all the chambers were empty.
-
- The next day, the techs and crew had come onto the set and were to load the guns with dummy bullets. Upon inspection of the particular guilty gun, it must have appeared that the dummy slugs were in tact and the gun was put back. This, along with the previous night's activities, already add up to two counts of extreme negligence. Then guns were misused and then were not properly checked and rechecked by the very crew who's responsibility it was to do so. When the accident happened, Brandon hit the ground and laid there while the cast and crew thought he was overacting and making another prank. Shortly thereafter did they realize what had occured. At this point, the Prop Master, Daniel Kuttner, had shot off some rounds in a test fire, thus blocking out any possible chance of police being able to do a proper ballistics check on the gun to see if indeed, as claimed, a "lodged" dummy head could have been in the chamber.
-
- It turned out, regardless, that a live bullet had been fired directly into Brandon, killing him. Negiligence all the way around. But, could someone have figured out what the possibilities of such action could be? Could it have been planned? Brandon himself, that day, refused to wear his bullet-proof vest, and actually had stated, "If it's my time to go, then it's my time."
-
- The mystery will continue forever as no one will be able to find out the truth. The tragedy however, remains as well as a testament that lack of attention and detail removed one of our most aspiring and promising young actors.
Written by Philip Anderson
-
|
