MIRAMAX / DIMENSION FILMS

James O'Barr Commentary

Crow Rating: 4 Crows

Released: April 2003

Personal Thoughts
Available exclusively through the Crowfansonline is a 2-disk CD movie commentary from James O'Barr for the first Crow film. James gives his first ever detailed recollection of the film production.

The first disk starts off with James giving a brief history of how the Crow comic came to be and its eventual creation as a film. From there, James turns on the DVD and starts watching the film and gives his insight to the production. Some of the information he details has been covered before by other commentaries, but for the most part, we are given new information from his unique perspective as creator of the characters on which the film is based. More so than any other time I have heard him speak, O'Barr sounds confident and comfortable during the commentary. A worry on my part was that his natural shyness and monotone style of delivery would make for a less than stellar commentary track. No worries here, O'Barr is in great form and his comfort has to be attributed to the setting that Matt Gillmore, webmaster of Crowfanclub, set him up with.

The first disk takes us up to the point of Albrecht's suspension. Switching over to disk #2, O'Barr gives us a "1-2-3" count to synch up with him before he continues with the commentary. The second disk has more periods of silence from James. I think this is due in part to his admitted displeasure with the supernatural themes used, especially Eric being vulnerable to being hurt if he helped someone. That, and the Skull Cowboy are his biggest complaints with the film. He felt the supernatural element was "Hollywood gratuitous". He comments that one of the best cuts of the movie was removing Skull Cowboy, he did not like the character at all. This was due to his character patronizing the audience by basically being there to explain things (not needed). Also, he comments that the effects were awful. Other than the supernatural element, he is very pleased with the film and comments that he would say 60% of his "vision" is represented by the film.

During the closing credits, James makes some interesting comments. He mentions that even though David Schow has garnered the lions share of credit for the script, John Shirley, credited co-writer, deserves most of the credit for the bulk of the story/script. Also, he (James) is adamant about there being a re-release of the film to theaters in a director's cut format.

I recommend this CD set to any fan of the film. James does a great job and is exactly how you would think he would be, honest and reflective. Each CD is labeled with original artwork from O'Barr. Give the Crowfanclub a visit to contact Matt about this must have Crow collectable.

Take care

Where to find
You can find the commentary at Crowfansonline.com.