New Details On The Mistakes That Led To Brandon Lee's Tragic Death On 'THE CROW' Have Come To Light
1993s ‘THE CROW’ is a staple here at MacabreDaily and a film that many of the staff have come to enjoy, sadly the film we all dig is not free from tragedy as it is well known that star, Brandon Lee(Son of Actor and Martial Arts Legend, Bruce Lee) was tragically killed on set while making it.
Some new details surrounding Lee’s death have come to light and we have them for you below.
Director Dwight H. Little, who worked with Lee on Rapid Fire, recently released a memoir called Still Rolling: Inside the Hollywood Dream Factory, and one chapter focuses on what happened the day Lee died.
Though some of this was already public knowledge, Little was able to uncover some new information, and the oversights involved may leave you shaking your head.
Have a read through the excerpts (via JoBlo.com) below.
“The tragedy was so eerie with the death of his father, also at such a young age. I went to the memorial service where Melissa Etheridge sang ‘Ain’t It Heavy.’ On top of everything else, Brandon was engaged to be married. … All these years later, these are the ‘facts’ that I have been able to gather, though I’m not sure I have the full story.
The night before the accident, the second unit was doing some shots on a different set from the main unit.
There was a big (close-up) shot looking up the barrel of a gun.
The camera people were worried that the barrel might seem to be empty, so a ‘slug’ or ‘dummy bullet’ of some kind was put into the barrel to keep light from getting through.
When the second unit wrapped, the gun was put away for the night.
No one remembered to take out the slug. When the first unit needed the gun the next day, it was taken out and a blank charge was put in for a set-up. No one from the first unit crew knew that the slug had been put in the night before and no one checked.
When the actor aimed the gun at Brandon, the blank went off and the slug discharged.
The slug hit Brandon in a main artery in his abdomen and he lost consciousness almost immediately.
Two things. One, the prop man or AD always looks down the barrel of the gun to see that it is clear.
(The prop man is obliged to show the director that the gun barrel is empty.) Two, the actor with the gun is instructed to never aim the gun at the other actor directly.
The shot is always supposed to be ‘off angle’ and the lens and composition makes it ‘look like’ the gun is aimed properly.
How all these mistakes could have been made in succession is almost impossible to imagine.
It’s pretty hard to comprehend the list of mistakes that took place on THE CROW and how they all fit perfectly into place to lead to the tragedy of Brandon Lee’s death. We now know that this type of thing isn’t an isolated incident especially with the latest death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of RUST and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed having just been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter as the films armorer.
A new take on THE CROW is happening as well and the first images of the film have come online and lets just say, a majority of fans want to let the Crow remain buried. We don’t blame them.
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