Number Two: The Crow (1994)

Let's jump ahead a couple of years. Hostage on one of those bizarre vacations your parents drag their children to, I'm holed up in some hotel in a town that is now completely unmemorable and as evening loomed and dinner was ordered, choices flashed across the screen of which Pay-Per-View movie we would choose. There was no actual choice of course. In fact, none of the other movies even register in my mind anymore. I saw a preview for the Crow! That was the only movie we could watch. And watch I did. It had everything; the tragic hero, the emotional core, the timeless dialogue and music that I couldn't believe was in the world and I was missing it! Now, even though I loved comic books, at fourteen, I had yet to experience the personal journey that is the original source for the movie, the graphic novel by James O'Barr. It didn't matter. Alex Proyas (the director) had perfectly captured every nuance of what a comic book hero was. His graphic sensibilities, gave the visual nature of the Crow a comic feel more potent than Sin City and without using any of the CG technology we rely on today. Sure as a more mature film buff I now know that Proyas's rain soaked dystopia was heavily influenced, like so many, by Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, but I had no idea. To me, this was a revelation. I had no idea you could make a movie like this. (Perhaps this is a phrase I should refrain from using here on out as any movie that failed to do so would not be eligible for this list. Unlike Batman this movie didn't feel like a movie at all. Keaton and Nicholson were larger than life, but the movie had so many winks and nods to the audience, you couldn't help but know it was a Hollywood blockbuster. This was different. Sure I know who Brandon Lee and Tony Todd, Michael Wincott, etc. are now, but at that time, these weren't actors. I hadn't seen them in twelve other productions. These were characters and their rich world of cool, tempered by pain and suffering was something I had never seen before and I was hooked. I still love the Crow for all these reasons. It holds a special place in my heart, introduced me to heavy, rock, alternative music and a brilliant smash of kung fu, superhero, voodoo and the thick bleary eyed haze of revenge that will never leave me. As an aside, Proyas' second effort Dark City took his aesthetic to an entirely new level for me and is, I think, the stronger movie, but the Crow was the only movie that could have made this list.