- This is how the Broad Spectrum of Crow Consciousness works: LLcruize and tWISTEd sPINe brainstorm ideas until one jumps out at us.  Then we write.  Separately.  We DO NOT read each other's articles. We DO NOT discuss what the other has written.  We simply take the same theme and let our minds loose… the end result will be as much a surprise to us as it is to you. Will we agree? Disagree? End up in totally different zones making different points? You'll have to read and find out…just like us.

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Does the Crow belong in the hands of more independent Film Makers? 

The Crow is built on personal pain.  What lends this mythology power is the fact that its creator offered up his own life experience, his own sadness and anger, to create something extraordinary.  James O'Barr suffered tremendous personal loss and compacted all that rage, sorrow, and desire for revenge into the pages we know as The Crow graphic novel.  Combined with his unique talents as an artist (the way he uses shadow to pull emotion from his characters, the way he organizes panels and chooses the angles), then combined with his talents as a poetic writer…well, The Crow he molded is one not likely to be matched in intensity or pure emotional force.

 

What's the point of that first paragraph?  My point is this: The further The Crow moves away from a vibrant source of personal pain, the weaker its impact will be.  This is true of just about anything.  Whenever something is taken from its source of power, it grows increasingly weaker…the further you go, the worse the affect gets. 

 

Let me make myself clear now before I go any further, I in no way mean that O'Barr is the only man that can write/create a powerful Crow story, or that all Crow stories should be similar to what James did.  The intent of this article is to show that it takes more than artistic/creative talent to produce something that burns brightly enough for me to consider as part of The Crow mythology.  It takes someone at the helm who has a deep personal knowledge of loss, somebody who has experienced pain and has the sensitivity to reach deep down into self and examine that pain.  Then unleash it.  Without this, there is nothing to feed the images or stories being produced. 

 

Just like happiness shows through everything we do, so does pain.  So does sorrow and anger.  These things need to be REAL to be felt, even more so when you are conveying through a medium like comics/movies/novels/etc.  If the pain is not something personal to the director or writer or artist, the consumer will KNOW it, they will sense it, and they will walk away feeling empty.  I truly believe this, and when I read O'Barr's work, his emotion pulsates from the pages.  Just like watching Brandon Lee in The Crow, I know he understands the sorrow of death.  It comes through loud and clear that this is someone who has felt anger because of what death took from him. 

 

So the question then.  Does the Crow belong in the hands of more independent film makers/comic artists/writers?  I have to answer a resounding YES!  The Crow does not require a big budget.  The Crow spirit cannot survive with executives breathing down the neck of creativity, so concerned about marketing and dollar bills.  The Crow needs to be in the hands of the passionate independents, those that know pain caused by loss and feel it deeply enough to put those elements onto the screen or paper.  What I fear is that each generation of Crow products that come out loses more of the personal edge which flourished in O'Barr's book and Proyas' film.  Each movie will be an attempt to appeal to a broader market until The Crow is nothing more than a hollow shell, something safe for lunch boxes and Saturday morning cartoons.