The Role and Function of Music Within The Crow (1994)

'The Crow' is an American action thriller featuring the late Brandon Lee (1965-1993) and was directed by Alex Proyas and released in 1994. It was produced by Crowvision Inc., Jeff Most Productions and Edward R. Pressman Films, released through Dimension Pictures and Miramax Films and filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina and Nacogdoches, Texas, USA.

The film is "a gorgeous black valentine" incorporating the opposing extremities of human emotion with the action, violence and fast-moving plot of a Hollywood blockbuster. It is set in Detroit between the 30th-31st of October, the latter date being Halloween, or 'Devil's Night'. The city has become a dismal place, with rain pelting down onto the litter covered streets and sunlight, even daylight, being a thing of the past. Everywhere fires are burning, lighting the sky up red, and giving the audience the impression of the city being a corrupt industrial slum area. Rock guitarist Eric Draven (whose surname reflects the Draven>raven>crow idea) is resurrected from his grave and the land of the dead to avenge the murder of his fiancee Shelly Webster who had been brutally attacked a year beforehand. Eric himself was also murdered that night on the grounds that he and Shelly had submitted a petition against tenant eviction. Eric's restless soul, now back in his mortal body, is accompanied and guided by the crow that had been perched upon his gravestone, which leads him to those that he seeks. This crow is also his spiritual guide between the worlds of the living and the dead and for as long as the crow is with him he is invincible. He is gifted with new powers, and yet is caught up in a new world of pain, grief and emotional, physical and mental turmoil.

Eric's retaliation is against the gang of lawless and dissolute thugs and arsonists (T-Bird, Funboy, Tintin and Skank) who were responsible for the double murder and who continue to wreak wanton havoc as henchmen under the control of gang-leader and crime-boss Top Dollar (Michael Wincott). Appropriately Draven leaves a symbol of the crow, whether it be in blood or flames, wherever and act of revenge has taken place. In the closing scenes Eric finally meets and faces Top Dollar and his sister Myca who sees fit to kill the crow and capture his friend and daughter-figure Sarah, thus leaving Draven defenceless. His only weapon is the unceasing grief he carries with him and this alone is power enough to kill the evil leader and save Sarah. The film ends emotionally as Draven is reunited with Shelly and returns to his grave, no longer a pained and restless soul.

There is a particularly gothic feeling to the film in as far as its cinematography, emotion, music and costume are concerned. Gothic music has been described as "generally dark, angst-ridden and introspective" , the corresponding fashion centres very much around black clothing and the heavy use of dark eye and face make-up and gothic imagery features dark and gloomy representations of castles, vampires and medieval life. 'The Crow' mirrors this gothic culture. After clawing his way from the grave and making his way back to his flat (which is also the scene of the duel murder) Eric applies white make-up to his face and paints his eyes and lips black in imitation of a 'Pierrot' mask that had been on Shelly's dressing table and was featured in one of his flashbacks. His attire is black - a tight T-shirt, leather trousers, heavy boots and trenchcoat and his hair is long and bedraggled. Top Dollar is also a dark "Luciferesque" character with long black hair and a certain air of evil surrounding him.

The film's underlying aura and the key emotions picked up upon by its audience are that of the power of love to overcome all obstacles even to the point of death and beyond, Eric Draven's pain, misery and obsession with vengeance and the timeless battle for supremacy between good and evil. Draven's mission is pure, with the audience feeling very little compassion for his victims, as they are by no means victims in the true sense of the word. The Crow is an adaptation by David Schow and John Shirley of the highly original 1981 comic books of James O' Barr who's fiancee had suffered a similar fate to that of Shelly. The film is absolutely stunning visually, evoking perfectly the dark and dismal comic-book world of O'Barr's mind, with a soundtrack and score which enhance the foreboding emotions of the comic. 'The Crow' was described in Variety Magazine as "A seamless pulsating dazzlingly visual revenge fantasy that stands out as one of the most effective live-actioners derived from a comic strip." It is interesting to note that O'Barr makes a cameo appearance in the film as a crook stealing a TV set from Gideon's pawn shop at the conclusion of the scene where Albrecht has seen the resurrected Draven for the first time.

Although the film was regarded by many critics as being visually stunning yet all together too predictable and formulaic, it has attained a cult status, perhaps due to the morbid curiosity of audiences fascinated by the death of its leading actor Brandon Lee on set, or perhaps due to the infectious nature of its fantasy tale of eternal love and the pursuit of justice.

The music in 'The Crow' is one of the most important aspects of the environment and emotion of the story. The film has, as one would expect, both a soundtrack (furthermore referred to as the OST) and an instrumental original motion picture score which was composed by Graeme Revell (b. 1955) who himself played and programmed all the keyboard and synthesiser lines within his score. The moody and atmospheric natures of both the soundtrack and score compliment and enhance the narrative interest and visual power of the film and amplify the emotions already present. The audience is made to feel angry, sad, empathic and comforted at appropriate moments within the action.

Collectively the two sets of music (OST and score) are very varied, ranging from the types of hard and heavy sounds found in the underground rock club "The Pit" in the film, to the eerily beautiful ballads which accompany the dead souls as the Crow leads them over to 'the other side'. What makes the film a gothic masterpiece is the way it brilliantly mixes this industrial heavy metal for the soundtrack compounded by the excellent musical score by Graeme Revell.

Revell graduated from the University of Auckland with degrees in economics and politics and is a classically trained pianist and French horn player. Before assuming composition as a career, he worked in various professions including regional planning in Australia and Indonesia as well as being an orderly in an Australian psychiatric hospital. He was also the keyboardist and percussionist of the 1970's band 'SPK', who's music has been referred to as the precursor to contemporary industrial music.

Revell later composed scores for films such as John Woo's "Hard Target" whose score contains Japanese Kodo drummers, and "Dead Calm", (1989) which used the theme from SPK's single "In Flagrante Delicto" for which he won an Australian Oscar for the best score. After he moved to Los Angeles he created scores for cinematic blockbusters such as "Body of Evidence", "Boxing Helena", "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" (1992), and "Tank Girl" (1995). He also composed the score to the sequel to 'The Crow' which was entitled "The Crow : City of Angels" and was released in 1996

Revell's film music compositions often use rhythm as a focal point, with the composer frequently seeking to exploit the rhythmic interest found in everyday sounds, for example insects chirping and metal grinding. This eccentric and percussive sound is apparent in the music written for 'The Crow', where he merges African tribal percussion rhythms with operatic vocals, shakuhachi soli, lush strings, bizarre synthesised noise and industrial rock, thus gracing the film with a dramatic yet eerie and evocative score. The pacing of this score keeps perfectly in step and blends with the originality of the film. His music intermingles with the rock tracks and helps bring this gothic tragedy to life.

The instrumentation of the score to the film is greater than a standard string orchestra in that it incorporates trumpets, a selection of African percussion instruments, standard drum kit, guitars, keyboards and synthesisers, Armenian duduk, shakuhachi and choir. The shakuhachi, a heavy Japanese bamboo flute with a range of over three octaves, is frequently blended with the traditional string music, voices and electric guitar to give the story its overall feeling of despair, sadness and love.

Revell's interest in world music is apparent in the score. African drum sounds and polyrhythms feature prominently, for example in his 'Birth of the Legend' which accompanies the very opening scene, and in the second half of 'Tracking the Prey' which recurs several times throughout the film almost as the sound of the hunt. This drumming appears at times where tension is building, or at times where it can serve to heighten the dramatic impact. The composer may have learned about writing for shakuhachi whilst in Indonesia and this is used within the score either in combination with the drumming or in imitation with a female vocalist. The juxtaposition of the Eastern instrument and Western music adds a tinge of the oriental to the score at times.

Conventionally the use of an instrument such as the shakuhachi in this context may signify touches of exoticism creeping into the music, especially as Revell's modal touches hint at non-western scales in places. The instrument, used in a melancholic and wandering melismatic way, to me portrays Draven's remoteness and disorientation, his lack of integration and the gloominess and misery of his situation and surroundings. Other exotic techniques include the frequent use of drones and pedal notes. These tend to be either very low pitched for a sense of ominous menace and threat, or high pitched strings holding the following chord:-

This drone precedes each recurrence of the main romantic string theme (see below), creating a kind of calming ethereal sonority through its resonant wash of sound and is held throughout the string theme. One of the most moving of Revell's scored pieces is "Pain and Retribution", a choral section displaying Eric's raw human emotion coming to the fore as he realises he is dead and yet still alive. Its sound reminds me a great deal of Thomas Tallis's motet Spem in Alium although it cannot be proven that Revell took any influence from the composer. Revell also co-wrote and performed on the song 'It Can't Rain All The Time' from the soundtrack which was sung by Jane Siberry. Its haunting lyrics and music are evidence as to how in touch the composer was with the story of the film.

Throughout the score there are four recurring themes that appear to portray different feelings, places and human emotions. For ease of reference I have labelled these themes A-D:

• A Music characterised by the use of African tribal percussion, shakuhachi melodies and imitative melismatic female vocals.
• B The "It Can't Rain All the Time" theme in C major which recurs in different reorchestrations.
• C A romantic and haunting string theme in C minor, preceded by a high string drone (see above).
• D A six note musical idea derived originally from "Fire in the Rain" by Hangman's Joke, Eric Draven's band, but first heard in the opening scene. It is found mostly in Eric's guitar scenes.

Theme A is used for turmoil, tension, fighting, aggression, the thrill of the chase and to represent the evil of Top Dollar and Myca (Bai Ling). It is stated in 'The Technique of Film Music', "Tension deliberately plays on the nerves of the audience when some climax of threat or violence is anticipated…Music can introduce the feeling of tension into a situation while the images on the screen retain their calm" The shakuhachi used within theme A evokes the oriental and exotic feelings discussed above, and the melismatic female vocal harmonies add an element of serenity into the intensely rhythmic music. 'Last Rites' by Graeme Revell, used in the final scene on the church roof as Top Dollar has Sarah captive, contains a single female voice singing very high notes, and bears a certain resemblance to Allegri's Miserere (written in the early 1600's).

In contrast to this, theme B is used at times of heightened emotion, sadness and remembrance, for example as Eric Draven sees Shelley die through policeman Albrecht's eyes. This theme is written below in a simple piano reduction:-

This theme, written by Revell, is supposed to have originated from the song " Fire in the Rain" by Hangman's Joke, Eric Draven's old band. However, the first time it occurs is in Albrecht's flat and we do not hear Draven play it until halfway through the film. The melody is also used in the closing titles in Revell/Siberry's song "It Can't Rain All the Time" and several times in its instrumental form. Its recurrence throughout the film creates a kind of cohesive unity reminding the audience of Draven's purpose.

Theme C is a beautiful string melody, reminiscent of a fragment of Elgar or Vaughan Williams, used at sentimental moments and whenever the graves of Eric Draven and Shelly Webster lying side by side in the church ground are shown. Its timing is a little ambiguous but the basic melody is as follows:-

The motif D is first used in the opening credits of the film as the crow flies over the red and black skyline of Detroit. Its origin is also in "Fire in the Rain" by Hangman's Joke as it is the guitar solo Draven played on the recording. It does, however, recur frequently throughout the film, for example in the muted trumpet lines, and as Draven plays his guitar on the rooftops. The musical idea is as follows:-

A very interesting and noteworthy point on the theme of the film's scoring is the almost complete silence that is reached at each of Eric Draven's moral passages. An example of this is the scene at Gideon's pawn shop where he quotes from Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven", saying "Suddenly I heard a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping on my chamber door". As he introduces himself to Gideon and explains why he has come to retrieve the engagement ring he had given Shelly the year before there is no accompanimental music. Later as Eric explains to Darla that "Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children…Morphine is bad for you" there is again complete silence. This again accentuates Eric's goodness, proving his violence is justifiable. Throughout the film the audience are made to empathise with Eric and feel compassionate pity for him despite the fact that his character performs several extremely violent acts.

In terms of the diegesis of the instrumental score, it can be seen that the majority is non-diegetic and used solely to heighten emotion or accompany action on screen. However, there are points of metadiegesis present, for example the scene where Eric is sitting upon his rooftop playing his guitar which he had earlier recovered from Gideon's pawn shop. He plays a distorted rock guitar solo from Revell's track 'which is intrinsically linked to the "It Can't Rain All the Time" concept of the film discussed above. His anger is apparent and in a fit of rage he smashes his guitar and throws it from the rooftop. Another example of the metadiegetic treatment of Revell's score is as Sarah plays a record in Darla's flat. It is the opening section of 'Tracking the Prey' from the recording of the score, but in the film the song is called "Fire in the Rain" and is supposed to be by Eric Draven's band 'Hangman's Joke'. The "It Can't Rain All the Time" idea is once again made obvious due to the fact the needle of the record player sticks on this line of the song. Despite the fact the majority of Revell's score is non-diegetic "Gorbman makes the point that whilst most music in film scores is non-diegetic, the music can also be part of the diegesis, part of the implied spatiotemporal world of the actions and characters" . I would agree that the instrumental music in 'The Crow' could feasibly be a part of the spatiotemporal world of its characters.

Revell composed music for many other films but he was at the zenith of his abilities when he put this score together and it is unimaginable that any other person would have given such a rich and unique accompaniment so full of emotion that would flow so seamlessly with the soundtrack material. All other music within the film is provided by the soundtrack ('The Crow' OST), which contains fourteen songs by popular rock artists. As Mundy states in 'Popular music on Screen' "the near-ubiquitous pop soundtrack in contemporary Hollywood films is and essential element of the popular cultural landscape in the 1990's"

So powerful and influential was 'The Crow' OST in America that the Stone Temple Pilots won an MTV Award for the best movie song in 1995 with their single 'Big Empty'. Brandon Lee was also nominated as best actor in the same year for his performance in the film.

The rock soundtrack is exceptional due to the way the songs so perfectly augment the mood of the film. Each track adds something to the darkness nature of the movie and helps to set the mood and tempo of the plot.

The majority of bands featured on the soundtrack come from the American metal and industrial musical scene, for example Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Pantera and Stone Temple Pilots. In my opinion, aside from purely commercial reasons such as soundtrack sales, the rock songs are included in the film to emphasise the fact that Draven used to be a rock musician before his life was taken, to enhance the mood created by the dark streets and buildings, and to make 'The Pit' seem like a real authentic rock/metal night-club .

Notable integrations of popular music into 'The Crow' can be seen in the scene where Eric is applying make-up when you hear "Burn" by the Cure, or during the scene where he is running across the rooftops accompanied by "Dead Souls" by Nine Inch Nails with its lyrics "When figures from the past stand tall…They keep calling me". It is very rare when soundtrack music and film are so perfectly married, however, this is one of the cases when this is successfully done.

The majority of the popular music within 'The Crow' is metadiegetic with the source appearing on screen. On two occasions bands are shown performing on stage at The Pit (these bands are Medicine performing "Time Baby III" and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult performing "After the Flesh"). Soundtrack songs are also used metadiegetically from jukeboxes (Violent Femmes "Color Me Once") in the bar at The Pit, car stereos (Stone Temple Pilots "Big Easy")in the first driving scene with the villains, and hi-fis (Machines of Loving Grace "Golgotha Tenement Blues") in Funboy's apartment.

However, some of the music used diegetically, for example when there is music playing in the pub/bar at The Pit.

The lyrics of the songs used within the film invariably have a strong message to carry in keeping with the film's key underlying philosophy. 'Burn' by the Cure is used in the scene where Eric experiences flashbacks in his apartment and paints his face before setting out to avenge Shelly's death. The lyrics that accompany these visuals non-diegetically are:-

'Don't wake at night to watch her sleep
You know that you will always lose
This trembling, adored, tousled bird mad girl
But every night I burn, Every night I call your name
Every night I burn, Every night I fall again'

These words seems to mirror Draven's infernal suffering at the loss of his loved one. The next verse is timed perfectly as Eric paints his face:- '"Just paint your face" the shadows smile - Slipping me away from you'. The closure of the song which is not actually used within the scene, but is on the OST recording, mentions "Every night I burn, dreaming the crow black dream", which seems to fit Draven's personality and situation perfectly.

Other apt lyrical moments seem less important, but still portray the sense of the film, for example as Draven shocks Funboy in his flat the words "I'm shocked and I seethe, I don't want to believe no more" are playing on his stereo, and as the villains are driving down the road the Stone Temple Pilots sing;

"Drivin' faster in my car, Falling further from just what we are
Smoke a cigarette and lie some more, these conversations kill"

As can be seen, incidences like this demonstrate the popular music of the soundtrack commenting upon the on-screen action rather than adding something to it as the song by the Cure seems to.

What seems perhaps more interesting is the dynamic level of certain songs. Both Rage Against the Machine and Pantera are credited as having songs in the film and both acts appear on the OST recording, although in the scenes in which their respective songs occur they are so quiet as to be almost inaudible. It is strange to me that two of the most famous bands in the soundtrack line-up are virtually silenced.

Whist the companies involved in the production and promotion of 'The Crow' were unwilling to comment about the financial aspects of the film it was possible to obtain the box office figures in both America and the United Kingdom. The budget of the film was an astounding $6 million, and the film grossed $94 million world-wide to date, with Britain adding at least £3. 8 million to this figure. Video rentals in the USA alone raised in excess of $19.263 million. Unfortunately the details most concerning the topic of this research were unavailable, although there are certain aspects that can be speculated upon. It is likely that record companies were keen for their artists songs to be included in the film, as it is known that "the exploitation of songs for film soundtracks and television productions, including those in the back catalogue, forms a major element of corporate profits" . As Phillips states "In large budget movies, sometimes the film music is selected with an eye to future recorded music sales" . There are countless record labels involved in the production of 'The Crow' OST, most notably the Atlantic Recording Corporation who released the album.

The mention of so many companies begs the question of corporate interrelation, especially as "many corporations combine their interests in the music industry with other interests such as cable, satellite and broadcast television, magazine and book publishing, and film and television programming" It is notable that six songs from the soundtrack credit 'PressmanCherry Music', which seems to link to the fact that 'The Crow' was created by Edward R. Pressman films. It could be suggested that a certain link may be apparent here.

A major issue surrounding the film and adding to its unique atmosphere is the fact that Brandon Lee, like his father Bruce Lee, died due to a tragic mishap on set during its filming. Lee died whilst filming a scene in which he was to be shot by Funboy (Michael Massee). A gun, supposedly full of brass-capped blanks without gunpowder, was used. After the first take, the propsmaster (not the armsmaster who was not on set that day) dry-fired the gun to get the cock off, knocking an empty cartridge into the barrel of the gun. In the next take it was this cartridge that was fired, shooting through a bag that Lee was carrying, puncturing the blood-pack that he had been wearing for special effect and actually killing him. All footage of the incident was immediately destroyed without ever being developed.

The film had to be completed using complex computer technology and animation techniques of digital compositing. There are many scenes that one would believe Lee had filmed himself, that were in fact acted out by a body double and had Lee's face substituted for that of the stand-in actor and there are several scenes where we do not see Draven's face at all, meaning that the entirety was filmed by the body double.

The video release of the film includes an added section which is made up of footage of Brandon Lee's last on-camera interview filmed only days before his death. It is interesting to note that the plot and underlying emotion of the film had made him contemplate his own mortality and grasp the sense that all the trivialities of life are in fact precious and not as limitless as we may think:

"Because we do not know when we will die we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, and yet everything happens a certain number of times, a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive life without it...maybe four or five times more. Maybe less than that? How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless. This is the point of view that this character is coming from during the whole film. It has brought sharply into focus for him how precious every minute of his life is. This is the best role I've had the opportunity to get my hands on."

In my opinion the knowledge that Lee died during the filming of 'The Crow' adds a certain sombre pathos to the film. This is accentuated by the moving string and vocal writing and the repeated message that "It Can't Rain All the Time" implying that life isn't always so bad.

The music within 'The Crow' gains its power predominately from the emotion behind it and the way it interrelates with the emotion displayed by Eric Draven, but it also gains its mental impact from its use of repetition. One of the key themes throughout the movie is the everlasting love between Shelly and Eric, which is evoked each time the "It Can't Rain All the Time" idea is replayed and also each time the romantic string tune enters. The darkness and death is portrayed in a great deal of the OST songs and in the aggressive percussive nature of the score pieces containing the African drums and shakuhachi and throughout the entirety of the film the music portrays blackness. Whilst is seems strange to assign colours to sounds, the score and soundtrack to the film would be black and red through their sombre evocation of the melancholy, the scenery of industrial Detroit and the love and death dualism depicted in the film.

Whilst 'The Crow' has on occasion been described merely as an extended and glorified rock video I would vehemently disagree and state that it is a powerful piece of cinematography with a strong plot and wonderful musical accompaniment. The film is violent and the subject matter is unpleasant at times, but through Revell's score, the apt placing of contemporary rock songs and the timely inclusion of Revell/Siberry's song "It Can't Rain All the Time" it manages to rouse feelings of sadness and empathy with Eric, for whom justice and love are the sole motives.