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The Crow in the film...the bird in the film...You could really just look at it as a guide. Almost a piece of his own personality, that guides him back into his life and reminds him who he was, what happened to him.
This is a person who has been pushed right to the limits of his ability to cope with what is going on and in a sense is completely insane. Almost in the sense that you might think of an insane person hearing voices, you know? More rational voices that try and guide him. More irrational voices that come from a more emotional, more deep-seated place. I think that the Crow is that rational voice. The Crow is his guide. The Crow helps Eric do what he has to do. In a very practical sense. It leads him to the places he has to be. It helps him find the people he has to find...It's a story about justice for victims.
His mission is to find the men who killed him and his fiancee, and kill them. It's a wonderful role, and it really is a role that you have to take risks with; it gives you a wonderful opportunity to take those risks and stretch. Because you tell me how somebody who comes back from the dead is gonna behave, you know? And that's one of the wonderful things about playing this character is, it's real -- you can reallly take the gloves off in playing this part because there are no rules about how a person who has come back from the dead is going to behave...
And then there's the part of him that is filled with...rage...towards what was done to him. And one of the things I like best about this movie is the fact that all of those parts of the character are given balance on the screen. He's torn up. He's torn up really badly, emotionally, physically, and psychically.
I think that the appeal of Eric's mission is that it is a very pure one. He has to come back to seek justice. I've done other films that have had violence in them, but I must say that I have never done anything where I felt that the violence was as justified as it is in this. There's very little need to worry about compassion. This is justice, you know? And I truly feel that it is. And I truly feel that if I were in the same situation I would do the same thing. He has something he has to do, and he is forced to put aside his own pain long enough to go do what he has to do. This film deals with the concept of a balance being struck between good and evil.
Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, and yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood? An afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it. Perhaps four or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless. This is the point of view that this character is coming from in the whole film, because it has been brought so sharply into focus for him. How precious each moment of his life feels.
This is the best role that I've had the opportunity to get my hands on in a film.
Brandon Lee
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