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The Fandom Portals Podcast
"Welcome to Fandom Portals—the show that explores how your favourite fandoms can help you learn and grow!" 🎙️✨
Each episode, we explore TV, movies, comics, and games to reveal how these worlds and the characters in them help us learn about resilience, courage, friendship, and more.
The Fandom Portals Podcast is hosted by Aaron Davies and Adam Brasher, two friends who are obsessed with fandoms, storytelling, and building a community where passion and positivity come first. From Marvel to Middle-earth, Star Wars to indie comics, we dive deep into the stories you love — and how they help us learn and grow. ✨
The Fandom Portals Podcast
The Crow (1994) – Cult Classic, The Tragic Loss of Brandon Lee, Legacy & Behind-the-Scenes Secrets
Episode Summary:
In this Portaleers Pick episode of The Fandom Portals Podcast, Aaron and Brash explore The Crow (1994), the gothic cult classic directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee. They discuss their first experiences with the film, its lasting cultural impact, and the tragic on-set accident that changed Hollywood’s safety standards forever.
They also go head-to-head in the Fandom Fact Face-Off, testing their knowledge of The Crow’s behind-the-scenes secrets. Plus, they share fan reactions from Threads, Instagram, and Reddit, exploring why the film still resonates 30 years later.
Timestamps & Topics:
02:19 - Gratitude & Growths: A Love for Limes & Patient Pups
04:14 - First Takes: How We First Encountered The Crow
09:37 - Community Reactions: Reddit & Threads Weigh In
11:26 - Brandon Lee’s Body Double – Who Was He?
12:03 - How Brandon Achieved His Iconic Makeup Look
13:42 - The Heartbreaking Reason The Crow Was Written
16:43 - Brandon Lee’s Ritual Before Filming – A Morbid Tradition?
18:52 - The Rockstar Originally Considered for Eric Draven
19:55 - The Name Change from Sherry to Sarah
23:56 - Set Secrets: The Tragic Death of Brandon Lee
28:24 - Budget & Production Challenges That Led to Safety Issues
29:53 - The Fateful Scene & How the Prop Gun Accident Happened
33:04 - How The Crow Changed Hollywood’s Firearm Safety Standards
35:15 - Sign-Off & What’s Coming in Part Two
Key Takeaways:
- The Crow remains one of the most visually striking cult classics of the 90s.
- Brandon Lee’s tragic on-set accident led to stricter Hollywood firearm safety protocols.
- The film’s gothic aesthetic influenced an entire generation of alt-rock and comic book fans.
- Despite Lee’s death, the movie was completed with CGI, body doubles, and repurposed footage.
Memorable Quotes (Direct from the Episode):
📖 "Brandon Lee wasn’t happy with his makeup, so he applied it himself, slept in it overnight, and smudged it naturally." – Brash【12:03】
💀 "Before filming, Brandon Lee drove around in his hearse, visited famous graves, and blasted The Doors. That’s so badass." – Brash【16:43】
🔫 "The movie was visually ambitious but had a tiny budget. Long shooting hours led to crew fatigue, and safety rules were ignored." – Aaron【28:24】
Apple Podcast tags: The Crow, Brandon Lee, cult classics, gothic films, Alex Proyas, 90s
Contact Us:
Website: https://www.fandomportalspodcast.com/
Instagram: instagram.com/fandomportals/?locale=en
Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
Email: fandomportals@gmail.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals
Hello and welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms can help you learn and grow. This week we are looking into the Portaleers pick or the community pick episode on the crow. We'd like to thank Samaliso from our threads community for suggesting this one, and we'd like to also thank the 125 plus people that voted on our polls that got this one selected. If you wanted to be a part of our community, make sure you check the show notes below, because all of the links are down there for you. We're very active on Instagram and threads, for this Portal is Pick episode and for a few episodes going forward, we've split our content into two parts, where part one will concern the breakdown, where Brash and I discuss a lot of the different elements of the film, including our first takes, including our fandom fact face-off, and we might also do some segments at the end of each part one that really just give off some interesting facts about the media or the movie in general. So this is where you'll be learning something new from us here at the Fandom Portals podcast, and in our part two segments. That's when we're going to be doing our deep dive analysis, where you will see your favorite segments such as the popcorn perspectives, the MVTs or the most valuable takeaways, and also our real deal segments where we break down the various different elements of movies and tell you all about them and what the vision and meaning was behind those. So our episodes now are going to be split into two parts for you to enjoy them in some bite-sized pieces. It also gives us a little bit more space to go into more detail with you on our different parts and on our different segments. So we want to thank you guys for being a part of the Fandom Portals journey so far. We hope you enjoy this. Portal is Pick episode for February, picked by Samolisso, and it is the Crow, made in 1994. We'll see you very, very soon.
Speaker 1:I'm Aaron and I'm joined here by Brash, as usual. How are you going, brash and yourself? Yeah, pretty good. And today we're here to talk about the Crow, made in 1994, directed by Alex Proyas, starring the late great Brandon Lee, michael Wincott and Rochelle Davis. It was written by James O'Barr as well.
Speaker 1:Before we jump into that, we are going to get into our gratitudes and growth segment, where we share a personal gratitude for the week on an area we feel like we require growth in or that we're grateful for. I might start off today I am grateful for limes. And you might ask why, brash, I'm grateful for limes? Because my daughter returned from the farm today and she was clutching onto nothing other than a lime and she wouldn't let it go. She was absolutely enamored by this green fruit and she's only one and a half, so she can't say L's properly, so she calls it an I'm. And it was just the sweetest thing that she just held onto all day, like she had a bath with it, she went to bed and read a book with it. It was just and it was just beautiful to see. So it's amazing the things that kids latch onto, and today it was a lime. So I'm grateful for limes.
Speaker 2:What about you, brash? I am grateful for mine and my dog's patience Not all the dogs, but sometimes we go to Dog Park or other dogs there that really need a little bit more training to be a bit more socialized around our dogs. Poor Ace, our little co-host, got battered and beaten a little bit but he soldiered through it and he was alright and we ended up okay. But yes, I'm grateful for our patients who I know he did nip back a little bit and have a bit of a bark back, which actually is really good. I'm really pleased he actually did that, because usually he just lays down and just takes it and I'm like, no man, you have to fight back a little bit, let him know that you don't like what's going on, like a bit of a yap, just like nip at him and just try and get him to back off, because like he did that and he did and then, but the other double was just laying down and trying to play dead and hopefully he loses interest.
Speaker 1:But yeah, Well, I'm obviously also pretty attached to Ace, so he's just so sweet, isn't he?
Speaker 2:Ace's temperament is just so sweet, he wouldn't hurt any sort of fly.
Speaker 1:Well, that's something that Ace definitely doesn't have in common with the protagonist of our movie, because Eric Draven absolutely would hurt a fly. Today, we are indeed talking about the movie called the Crow. We are going to jump into our first takes segment now. All right, so in our first takes segment, we discuss how we first connected and encountered the media, what our initial impressions were of the movie, and we also talk about what our feelings were after watching it. In this time, we'll also flick to our social medias, where we will read out some of your takes on the movie. We always put a social post up, so if you're wanting to join in on that, every single week you might hear yourselves getting shouted out on our podcast on this first takes segment. So, yes, indeed, we are talking about the Crow, made in 1994. On the night before his wedding, a musician called Eric Draven and his fiancee Shelly are brutally murdered by members of a violent gang. On the anniversary of their death, eric rises from the grave and assumes the mantle of the crow, a supernatural avenger.
Speaker 1:Before we get into our first takes, I do want to thank our threads, reddit and Instagram community, because every single month, as you might have seen. We run a portal is pick from our community watch list. So if you want to suggest a movie for us to feature on our podcast, then definitely go and check that out and drop a movie in the comments, because these portal is picks come from your community voice, and this one here was suggested to us by Sam on our threads page and it was voted for by over 125 people, which is pretty massive for a small podcast like us. So we want to thank you guys for voting for it and especially thanks some moloso from threads for suggesting it as well. He's pretty active on our community, so shout out to him. Let's get into our first takes. Brash, how did you first hear about the Crow?
Speaker 2:I watched the Crow when I was four. I watched the Crow when I was four, I want to say six or seven. Oh my God. Yeah, that is a young introduction. Yeah, because my sister and my brother used to make me watch all kinds of shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. You're the youngest, aren't?
Speaker 2:you yeah, yeah, well, we got a younger sister, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And what does a seven-year-old think of the Crow? When you watch it, confused, yeah. What does a seven year old think?
Speaker 2:of the Crow when you watch it confused. Yeah, fair enough, but like cool, because I got the action and then, like it was cool, it was a good watch, not really understanding the premise of the actual movie. But you know, when he's fighting a company of dame, the other knife guy which one's the knife guy, not fun boy? Tintin, tintin, tintin, tin, tin, tin, tin, when he's flying Tin Tin, that was awesome. And then like they come back and they see him and he's just stuck to all the knives awesome. But um, yeah, no, I did not understand like what the whole premise of the movie was about at all, but it was just cool. Yeah, he also because the face painting looks a bit like Sting and I was a big fan of Sting back in the day, so he also looked a bit like Sting. I was like, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his looks definitely are kind of okay. Oh yeah, 100%. I think for me my first takes of this movie. I've always been Crow adjacent so I knew it existed. I'd been around different sort of high school for me communities that kind of really were into it. It definitely kicked off a lot of the sort of millennial gothic subculture vibes, and when I say pro-adjacent I mean I was into the punk scene, which is like gothic's less hardcore brother.
Speaker 1:But I think for me I really do steer clear. As you know, it's a fault of mine I really do steer clear of the horror or any kind of thriller kind of genre. This one was one that I did steer clear of and I even texted you before I watched it, brash. I said I'm about to watch the Crow and I'm extremely nervous and scared and you was like it's fine. And 30 minutes later I said you know, this is fine. So yeah, my very first time watching it was this time. So it was really interesting to see and know about the cult following behind it and watching it from that perspective, as opposed to seeing it when it first came out, where it obviously influenced a lot of people and had them enjoy the movie and enjoy the themes in it as well. So they're the perspectives we're coming from. Did you enjoy it when you first watched it? Brash at seven years old or just too confused, went over your head, I took a few.
Speaker 2:It was a movie I just liked watching movies, and watching it with my siblings was even better. The only reason why I watched it and the only reason why I watched scary movies with them is because I wanted to watch movies with them, because they're six, seven years. Me trying to do anything with them was quite hard because I was so young, watched it through the whole time thing and just pretend I wasn't scared. But I did watch it, like years later on and I've watched it a few times now, one of those iconic movies and sort of like you put it in, like the same sort of probably boxes, like in movies like your Princess Bride and like Incest Sprides and Titanic, and it's one of those movies where it's a hallmark movie of a year in time Of a generation.
Speaker 2:In that time, that's one of those movies that you probably would have watched at the time, and now it's just become a cult classic.
Speaker 1:Exactly right. Yeah, For me watching it this time. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would, so that's surprising for me and it's opened the door for a lot of movies like that, I guess you could say, because now it's almost like the gateway drug for me For thriller and horror and all those kinds of vengeance-filled action movies that I should have watched earlier. It made me want to watch Spawn again.
Speaker 1:Well, that's another one that missed me as well, because, I think you know, I struggled to get my parents to let me rent X-Men the movie when it came out in 2001,. And I was like 11, so these were well off the charts for me. I'm catching up now, though, which is great, all right. So with that in mind, we are going to jump into our Fandom Fact Face-Off. Okay, so our Fandom Fact Face-Off is a segment where a host asks one another a series of trivia questions associated with the focus media, and the host with the most collected points from the Fandom Fact Face-Off segment will shout the opposing co-host to an all-expenses-paid trip to the cinema Brash. Currently, the scores are five to four, and, because we don't play this while we have guests, this is actually the final segment for February, so we're going to find out our winner after today, so I'm going to go first, if that's all right with you. Yeah, that's fine, okay.
Speaker 1:So on the set of the Crow, there was obviously a very tragic on-set accident, which led to the death of Brandon Lee, the show's star. They did then decide to finish the movie, and they did so using digital effects and body doubles and creative editing to complete some of Brandon Lee's sequences. Now my question to you is who was one of the body doubles for Brandon Lee, who has now become quite famous in his own regard? Oh, I'll give you a clue he's very famous in the stunt world and he worked on. His next role as a stunt double was the stunt double for Keanu Reeves in the Matrix, and then, after he did that, he very famously directed the John Wick films not sure.
Speaker 2:No, that's passing the one I don't know it is stuntman Chad Stelheski.
Speaker 1:So he is now obviously famous for directing all four John Wick movies and because of his physicality and the fact that he looked a lot like Brandon Lee. He was quite tall and slender, but still quite muscular. He stood in for Brandon Lee and as a result of this accident he also decided to only use post-production effects for firearms and a gunfire in his movies, which is a great after effect of the tragedy that happened on set. So that means it is your turn, brandon.
Speaker 2:Lee wasn't happy with his makeup, so he did something himself to get the desired look. What was it?
Speaker 1:Well, he applied it himself and he smudged it himself, is that?
Speaker 2:right, I'll give it to you. He applied it himself, but he applied it to himself the night before and slept in it, so when he woke up in the morning it was already faded and smudged from sleeping yeah, I think that would be really hard to oh, how are you going to sleep in?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely murder for your skin too. Like oh yeah, but you know he still had really good looking skin in that movie too. But but I digress, yeah, I think that the worn look did sort of add to the aesthetic and I love that he applied that makeup in the scene in the loft and it was through that fractured mirror. That scene was actually one of the scenes that they had a double stand in for, because, if you notice, you don't fully see his face in total. You only see it through fractured or shattered pieces of glass and various different portions of the face as he's applying that makeup on screen, and I think that that dirty sort of grungy look of it was really reminiscent and then also probably an inspiration to Heath Ledger's Joker later on as well, with the stylistic choices that they used there. So I love that fact. That's awesome, yeah, and he also really cared about that character, didn't he?
Speaker 2:He kind of sort of yeah, he went all into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he sort of even thought of this as because he was obviously Bruce Lee's son and I read somewhere that this was one of the first times he felt like he was a leading man in a movie where he starred as Brendan Lee, not Brendan Lee times. He felt like he was a leading man in a movie where he starred as brendan lee, not brendan lee, son of bruce lee.
Speaker 2:Um, oh yeah, because I um even dropped a lot of um of the action because I didn't want to appear to be some sort of kung fu movie and go straight to video. They wanted it to be an actual movie where he was an actual actor, not some kung Kung Fu Master's, kung Fu Master's Prodigy, like Sun or anything like that, just a movie that he was an actor in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know his physicality can't be denied in it because you can see the way that he moves through some of those action sequences is so quick. And I watched the director's commentary from Alex Proyas who's Australian, by the way, shout out Australian creators. And apparently he was saying when he jumps onto the counter of the pawn shop, that's not sped up or CGI'd or anything like that, it's literally him being his athletic self. So when he jumps up onto the counter and then turns upside down and boinks the pawn shop owner on the head asking for the engagement ring, all him all done, all in real time, yeah, exactly. So incredible athlete too. All right. So that means it's five all, or, in this particular segment, it is one nil to me. So this is your second question from me. All right.
Speaker 1:This movie, the Crow, was obviously inspired by the comic book of the same name. It was made in 1989. It's a graphic novel written by James O'Barr and it was actually written for a particular reason by James O'Barr. That is quite sad. Do you know what that reason is?
Speaker 2:Now, the Crow is one of the comics I haven't really read too much. I'll give you a clue. It's sad, it'd be so sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he was a Marine. He was a US Marine in the 1980s and he was an artist in the Marine Corps as well, so he was always gifted as a drawer and he was engaged at the time to his fiance.
Speaker 2:Was it the death of his fiance?
Speaker 1:Yes, it was, I'll give you that. So she unfortunately was killed by a drunk driver and in interviews later on it was said that he was, whether it was healthy or not, his words. Whether it was healthy or not, he was the kind of person who poured his entire self into that relationship. So when, obviously, she was taken away at an untimely event from something that was just pure chaos and couldn't be controlled by him, he just fell into a very severe and deep depression and his raw emotion behind the graphic novel is almost like how he coped with the events and it's almost like this film's adaptation, and the dark, gothic sort of tone pay a tribute to Oba's original vision of that. So you definitely want to keep it dark and gothic, and it's that form of catharsis for him, going through something similar to what the main character did in Eric.
Speaker 2:I still took a stab at the um because when you said, john, say my god, it's all that, that's it for you, she probably unfortunately passed away all right, so that brings us to one all uh with your question to go. Your second question talking on um before how brandon, how he was really into the character Prior to the filming of this movie. He started doing something sort of ritualistically before the filming of this movie. Do you know what it was?
Speaker 1:Yes, I actually don't, but I'm going to have a guess. Actually, was it something to do with nocturnal activities? Yeah, is it safe for work, brash?
Speaker 2:It is safe for work? No, it's. I wouldn't say nocturnal activities. I mean you could do it in the nighttime, I guess, if you wanted to.
Speaker 1:I know he dropped a lot of weight and he obviously worked out quite a bit. I don't know this one, but actually gonna have to tell me okay.
Speaker 2:So he had the. He obtained a morbid fascination with death so he'd drive around in his hearse that he owned, visit, visit famous grays and listen to the doors while doing it. And I just think that's fucking badass. Yeah, just going to grays listening to the doors, I love, I love the Doors and oh, when I heard, when I read about that, I was like, oh, that's so dope mention, like being passed by a hearse that's just blasting the Doors as you go down on the highway.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh man, what a way to get into character too, because this is a movie that's shrouded in an awesome sort of soundtrack as well. So the fact that he really got into that rocking vibe knowing he was playing a musician that paid Come Back From the Dead, he was really really getting into it good fact, brad that was awesome.
Speaker 2:When I read that I was like that's awesome.
Speaker 1:All right, so score is still one. All with one question, a piece to go. My last question all right, there was a famous musician that was considered for the role of Eric Draven by Alex Price, who is an Australian filmmaker, but he was also very famous because he directed a lot of music videos. If you can tell from some of the scenes in the Crow they look very music video-esque. Now, looking at this particular person, he was not able to officially play Eric Draven at the time but he was cited as having been a major visual influence on the character from James O'Barr when he drew the character. So a punk rocker from the 80s, slash 90s who do you think that was Brash that influenced the look of the character of Eric Draven and also was considered for the role of it before Brandon Lee was With the face paint. Was it the look of the face paint or just the look of the character of Eric Draven and also was considered for the role of it before Brandon Lee was With the face paint?
Speaker 2:Or was it the look of the baseball or just the look of him in general?
Speaker 1:Just the hair and the thin athletic sort of vibe and also just clad in black leather and leather pants and an electric guitar strung along the back. Is that Iggy Pop? Is it? Yes, it's Iggy Pop. It's Iggy Pop. It's Iggy Pop, and he actually. He wasn't in this movie, but he talked to Alex Proyas and he actually secured a spot in the sequel, the Crow City of Angels, where he played the villain in that movie. So he did make his appearance. I do not believe that Crow the City of Angels did as well or is as well liked as this one. He popped Very nice, all right. So that is 2-1 your way so far. Last question for me, the best I can hope for is a draw now, because our total scores right now is six. You're on seven and I'm on six, so it'll either be me shouting you again or it'll be a draw. What's your last question?
Speaker 2:Last question In the original graphic novel, Sarah went by a different name. What was it? I'll give you a hint. Both starts with S.
Speaker 1:The girlfriend was Shelly. I know that there was a character in the graphic novel called Skull Cowboy who didn't make it.
Speaker 2:The name that Sarah, sarah's name in the comics, which is it's very similar.
Speaker 1:Both starts with S as well. I'm going to go, oh yeah. No, you go. You were going to give me a clue. I'm going to give you a clue. I'll lock it in, is it? Sadie Sasha fucking Becky, sherry, sherry, oh, sherry and Shelley. Yeah Well, that would have been a bit confusing, wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So they changed it to Sarah for the movie, but her name in the original was Sherry, sherry, very nice, I think that means for the second consecutive month, brash, you win our fandom fact face-off. So cue the applause here. Before we move on, I did forget to read some of our Reddit notifications, our uh first take segment, and some of our threads ones as well. So, just before we move on to our newer segment, the set secrets, uh, our community had some very strong feelings about the crow as well and we've kind of really sort of tapped on them. The most prominent comment that we got when, um, when we put the post up and the post said, you know what was some memorable moments from the crow or what do you like about this film? The crow c-tap from reddit said, uh, it can't rain all the time, obviously being one of the quotes from the movie that has gone hella viral. You might say, uh, we have j hill 74 that says it's peak 90s, especially the soundtrack. Um, we have the Chad Williams 97 that says love, the grittiness of the film, also an awesome soundtrack. And I was saying to Brash earlier before we started, probably about 85% of the comments that we have gotten have commented on how great the soundtrack is and the music from the movie. So it definitely defined a generation in that regard.
Speaker 1:On our threads community, we had a lot of activity as well from you guys, which was always very welcome. We had the Gron that says saw it in the cinema when it was released, loved it, and Brandon was amazing. We have T Horton that says the Crow is a masterpiece. I must have watched it 50 times over the past 30 years. I absolutely love it. We have Samolisso, who is the person who recommended this movie to us and had it voted by our community. He said that oh Burn is the best song written from the soundtrack. It's amazing. It was one of the best comic book movies for years until X-Men 2 came out and they did a really great job stitching the movie together, considering 60% of it was done with him and the 40 other percent of it was done without him. So it's a pretty spectacular movie. X-men 2, bold statement. Well, I kind of liked X-Men 2.
Speaker 2:I liked it because that's the first time you really saw like Kitty Pryde.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I reckon it's still probably one of the best comic book openings for a movie. Oh yes, the White House scene with nightcrawler which cost them so much of the budget but nightcrawler, oh yeah, he's my favorite.
Speaker 2:He's been my favorite nightcrawler by any of the interaction of movies yeah, but we digress.
Speaker 1:We've got our last one from our threads. It's damien boomgart who says I was 15 when the movie came out and I hired it as a new release from video. Easier, I think it was. I was the exact demographic, for I watched it three times in the 24 hours. I had it, bought an ex-rental copy as soon as I could, bought it on DVD after the VHF copy shat itself, and my wife even bought me the steel case copy a few years back. The soundtrack is one of the best mixes of alt-rock, indie metal and industrial fusion of all time.
Speaker 1:Damien Beaumgart, thank you so much for commenting. That is a definite fan right there. So there is a cold following. There is definitely a big following for the movie. So, yeah, if you want to be involved in our community where you can have your comments, read out about the movie that we're doing, or if you want to vote on the orderly's pick, then that is definitely something you can do by checking out the show notes below. We put posts on Reddit Threads and Instagram for you guys to check out and we want to thank you guys again. All right, so, brash, I'll be taking to the movies again. You guys will have to tune in to see what we see, all right.
Speaker 1:So this next segment that we're going to do is called Set Secrets. Now, this is where we take a look behind the scenes of the Focus movie and give you all the information that went right and the information that went wrong and some of the things that made the post-production or the production of this movie quite interesting, and we also talk about how the movie was made. So Brash we talked about a little bit earlier and we touched on it, but this was a movie that is obviously marred with a little bit of tragedy. For those of you going forward, this next part is probably going to be discussing elements of death, and we are, of course, talking about the tragedy of Brandon Lee.
Speaker 1:One of probably the most mysterious, or something that added to the mysterious aspect of this movie, was that he did indeed die on this set before the movie was finished being made. The movie is dedicated to him and his then fiance, eliza, and I think we lost a rising star in this one, bash. There was a lot of people that have said that he was probably going to go on to bigger and greater things had he remained alive for the remainder of the movie and thereafter. So what did you think of Brandon's performance to start with, and then we might go into some of the details.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely brilliant. But I did notice every minute when I was watching it. If you look at some of his facial expressions in some of the scenes we actually do get a shot of his face, spitting image of his father, like how he pronounced he's very pronounced when he's pronouncing his words yeah, with his jaw, line with his jaw and I was like ooh, bruce Lee, right there yeah, exactly but no, as an actor himself, I reckon he was brilliant.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, so I could feel a lot of his father in his performance, though. Not a bad thing, of course, but just their mannerisms were. There's a few similar mannerisms I found between the two, and actually watching it also made me want to watch Enter the Dragon again. Actually watching it also made me want to watch um. Enter the dragon, you know, really showed his actual acting capabilities rather than like going all in action physicality because he, he was very fit, he didn't know how to fight, but it showed a bit more of a more of a bit more of his acting chops.
Speaker 2:yeah, being able to like sitting down having a chat with um talking to sarah, uh, talking to, uh, bernie hudson's character yeah, albrecht, and them actually sitting down talking his interactions with the other cast members, um, all there, just brilliant, and like his, who did it? Remind me of where he'd like switch and go from menacing to playful, not so much like even in the shop with the pawn shop, but even with Tintin they're fighting and then he's sort of like playing with him a little bit before yeah, before he finished things off but brings in that playfulness and I don't know. You'll bring this up later with your comparison, but, um, who's I? I will think of it later on, I bet you.
Speaker 1:But I can't think of there's.
Speaker 2:There's a movie I watched wasn't even spider-man. Is it because I'm thinking we're thinking talking about spider-man earlier, that andrew garfield scene when he's cracked down uncle ben's killer? Oh yes, that's right, yeah like two or two are playing with him and then all of a sudden it's like gets up real close to his face and he's like, yeah, really menacing in that moment. It changes into menacing, like in a split second, and I was like ooh, damn. But like Brandon, oh, gave me chills, he knows it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he's a really good physical performer, not just in his action about when he was like coming out of the grave or writhing in pain or doing a few of the scenes in, like in the loft or running across some of the roofs, and even physically sort of. In those action sequences you could tell a lot of the things that were going on for the character just by watching what his body was doing. So it wasn't just the way that he interacted with the other cast, it was also the things that he was doing with his body.
Speaker 2:So it was almost like his whole self was involved in bringing that character to life well, the last scene was pretty much an entire like interpretive dance, almost yeah, because he was getting the flashbacks of what happened that night and like going through the motions of getting thrown around and then getting thrown through. And his interpretation of Get Through Everything With Me is he jumped and grabbed onto the railing and swung up and swung back in through the window and yeah, like it was just. Yeah, it was just nice Peak cinema, it was great, it was yeah.
Speaker 1:But unfortunately, obviously this movie was marred with that tragedy and it is said that it was caused by the low budget of the movie, a rushed schedule and a lot of safety failures. Brandon Lee tragically lost his life March 31 of 1993. And one of the things that really sort of attributed to this challenging or cursed production, as some say, is that there was some severe weather conditions set in Wilmington, north Carolina, and there was storms and fires that repeatedly just damaged sets and even crew members suffered injuries. On this set as well there was one individual that suffered severe burns because a crane hit power lines and they were electrocuted, caused blackouts. The film did have a low budget, which was about $15 million. They did get some more money later on after they switched production companies after the death of Brandon.
Speaker 1:But $15 million is not a lot to make a movie, even in 1993 when it was being filmed, and it was kind of visually ambitious as well, meaning that there were a lot of scenes that would have required more than just two characters talking in a room which is expensive to pull off. So as a result of this they obviously had longer shooting times, a lot of it done at nighttime, in the rain, which led to a lot of crew fatigue and therefore safety protocols were overlooked, and it led to a lot of cost-cutting and mistakes, which led to the tragedy. So do you know what happened, brash with Brandon Lee? Do you know the story as it goes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was sad, but Michael Massey, who played Funboy with Brandon Lee, do you know the story as it goes? Yeah, so it was sad, but Michael Massey, who played Funboy, was meant to Well see, the thing is this is just how the bad luck of this movie just kept going Like there wasn't even meant to be a shooting in that scene, like he wasn't meant to get shot. Like last minute, like, oh no, we'll have him shoot you in this last in the scene, and it wasn't never meant to be. But it's just a last minute thing that they decided to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't meant to have the gun. It wasn't even meant to be him shooting either.
Speaker 2:Michael massey yeah and um. Yeah, it was just. It was just a piece of a dummy bullet that got stuck in the gun. The blanks got away with it and went and fired it fired it and unfortunately you'd think hopefully, because it was only a shot, it would ricochet off to the side or something like that but unfortunately it went straight ahead and lodged into his abdomen and eventually part of his spine.
Speaker 1:he underwent six hours of surgery but eventually lost his life. These sorts of accidents, the way that it kind of happened very much similar to what Brash said. The dummy bullet, or what people call dummy bullets in the industry, is obviously just the cartridge and the bullet head, so it looks like a bullet but it has no powder and it has no firing mechanism and it has no primer. So when it goes off in the gun it doesn't move, it just doesn't do anything. It's still in the gun. So when you look at it visually it's there. And the reason that they needed to have these dummy bullets in the gun was because they decided last minute that they needed a snapshot to the gun. So the audience saw it there in hand and then they'd move back into the shot, almost like a close-up impact shot. And when they did that and you looked at a revolver or a Magnum 44, and you looked at it straight on, the audience would obviously see if it wasn't loaded because of the way that the Magnum revolver sits as a gun. So they ended up having to get dummy bullets, but they didn't have any on set because the armorer and the props technician had actually gone home, the professional firearms expert had gone home. So they actually went and got live ammunition and made their own dummy bullets and when they did that one of them obviously wasn't done correctly and the primer went off lodging that end of the bullet into the barrel of the gun and it stayed there for an uncertain amount of time until the next scene was shot with Michael Massey and he unfortunately had the gun loaded with with the dummy bullets and you know the blanks explosion fired and the bullet lodged straight into Brandon Lee, obviously causing that wound, usually from here. The aftermath of this has been that there are stricter firearm protocols in Hollywood now. There are mandatory firearm checks before every single scene that a gun is in, and more sets even hide professional armors, which I think it's by law. They're required on set. Now you have to have one on if real guns are being used and, as we spoke about before, some filmmakers will even opt to put in post production effects instead of having live ammunition being fired. Today there are still some accidents that do occur, but it's definitely reduced those accidents and it's really sort of brought to light some of the incidences that can occur when you mismanage a set in terms of, you know, production and people's well-being, in terms of fatigue. So, yeah, thinking more recently, alec Baldwin, yeah, on the set of Rust, yeah, that tragedy. That was 2021, I believe. Similar thing.
Speaker 1:So after this event occurred, the film was at risk of being shut down for obvious reasons. But, you know, eliza, his fiancee at the time, was one of the ones that really staunchly wanted this film to be made, and I think a lot of the crew did as well, just because of how much Brandon Lee put into the performance. Yeah, and it almost they urged it forward as a legacy to him to finish it. They did so with body doubles and using previously repurposed footage. So, if you notice the scene where T if the scene where t-bird dies when he's put into the car yeah, and he's, he's taped into the seat you do not see brandon lee's face in that scene at all. All you see is the hands doing the action. The only time you see his face is of an extreme close-up, which was cut from a another scene. A lot of the the scenes where he was running across rooftops was superimposed from other scenes where you saw him running, and some of the loft scenes that we spoke about earlier were also played by body doubles as well.
Speaker 1:I think this sort of also added to the mystery of the crow and the surrounding sort of misfortune. Emphasize that sort of. You know, the fact that this movie was about an Avenger that came back after an untimely death and that actually happened to the main cast member, obviously brought about the sort of immortalizing his performance as a bittersweet yet sort of powerful film that really encompasses that really tragic loss that we have Alright. So film that really encompasses that really tragic loss that we have All right. So with that we might end our part one of the Crow and you can find us again in part two so make sure you tune into that where we will look at our various different popcorn perspectives. We'll do our MVTs and we'll also do our real deal segment. We'll get a really in-depth analysis of the Crow crow of the movie.
Speaker 1:So these part ones is where we really sort of dive deep and talk about some of the aspects of the film. That's really interesting. Some back and forth with brash and I about you know how we, how we really interpreted the film and how others in our community did so as well. And then the second part is where we really dive into the analysis and talk about the, the, the things we can learn and grow from as part of the film as well.
Speaker 1:So, again, I want to thank Samillaso for suggesting this movie for us and all those people from the Portaleers picks that voted on threads and Instagram. Remember, if you would like to add to our community and you would like to have your comments read out on the podcast, you can do so by joining onto our Instagram threads or reddits, and if you had a more longer form question, you can do so by joining onto our Instagram threads or reddits. And if you had a more longer form question, you can find us on our email, which is fandomportals at gmailcom. So thank you very much, guys. That is the first part of our Crow February Portal is Pick Done and we'll see you for part two. You.
