The Crow (1994)
Director Alex Proyas take on James O Barr's seminal graphic novel is a dark and surreal journey into a fatalistic noir like cityscape where it seems to rain eternally.
A rock musician, Eric Draven, (a tragic role for Brandon Lee who was accidentally shot and killed on set) and his girlfriend are murdered by a sleazy gang lead by Michael Wincott. Thanks to the supernatural powers of the titular bird, Draven is resurrected and lead by the crow on a bloody trail of revenge.
In truth the plot is nothing special but the film works superbly thanks to a superb Gothic atmosphere of decaying city streets that when mixed with frenetic but neatly composed editing and powerful action scenes together with Proyas' brilliant neo-noir directing style (Which would reach it's zenith four years later with Dark City) and a cool industrial rock soundtrack, result in a film that defined a generation of moody alt-rock youths.
That the film still stands up some twenty odd years on is testament to all involved and is up there with Blade Runner when it comes to neo-noir.
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