How Eric Draven of ‘The Crow’ is an Advocate for Girls and Women

Cornell University is in hot water over the reopening of a case, surrounding a crime that happened on their watch. In 2024, seven members of a fraternity drugged and raped a woman for hours. In a case that should have resulted in not just expulsion but imprisonment, suspensions and essay writing were how they were dealt with instead. The woman, who’s known anonymously as Jane Doe, has recently filed a lawsuit against the university, and following outrage online is what led to the case being reopened.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse online since then, not just about the rapists themselves, but also about the 57 other fraternity members in a group chat, who knew what was happening, yet not a single one of them did anything to stop it. That, in turn, is leading to a bigger conversation about how men can and should be advocates whenever any of their male friends are either saying or thinking of doing something dehumanizing towards a woman.

It’s seeing these conversations play out, feeling the warranted anger towards every perpetrator involved in this case, that I find myself thinking about a fictional male character who is a major advocate for girls and women: Eric Draven from the 1994 film, The Crow.

Based on the 1989 graphic novel of the same name by James O’Barr, The Crow — directed by Alex Proyas — follows an engaged couple who are assaulted and then murdered by a gang of men. A year later, Eric (played by the late Brandon Lee) is resurrected by a crow, and through a series of visions finds out that Shelly was beaten and raped, ultimately leading to her death at the hospital. Distraught, Eric makes it his mission to avenge both of them, but mostly Shelly.

That’s what makes Eric such a compelling character. While yes, he is furious at what the gang of middle aged gasbags did to him, he is pained over what happened to her. Visions throughout the film also reveal the life they shared together and the love they had for one another, without revealing too much nor saying much at all. It’s why he even went out of his way to retrieve her engagement ring from Gideon’s pawn shop before blowing it up.

At the same time, for a tragedy that could have easily blinded him with rage and kill without much thought, he remains methodical throughout his mission; not just with who he targets, but who he protects, which says so much more about his character. For instance, when Eric takes out Funboy, he finds Darla — the neglectful mother of a girl he and Shelly looked after named Sarah — doing drugs with him. She very easily could have also been taken out. Instead, he sobers her up and reminds her of her responsibility as a mother to Sarah.

Sarah, the film’s narrator and de facto deuteragonist, shows the close bond she has with him, and vice versa. Even when she doesn’t realize right away that he has returned from the dead, he is already looking out for her, such as the moment when he grabs her before she could have gotten hit by a car. She is very much the most important person to him after Shelly, which is why when he goes to save her after being kidnapped by Top Dollar and his crew, it feels like him making up for when he wasn’t able to protect Shelly.

It’s not just the female characters Eric is close with or adjacent to that he protects, but just the innocent in general. In a blink and you’ll miss it moment from when Eric is shooting up Top Dollar’s associates, Skank — the one he’s actually after — attempts to use a woman (likely there against her will) at one point as a human shield. Eric stops and lets her escape before continuing.

Now it’s not lost on me that a lot of these situations the female characters are in could easily fall into the damsel in distress trope. I don’t deny that, and seeing that this was back in the ‘90s, it could be seen as a marker of the times. But with Eric as the protagonist, it really does come down to how he treats them, and that is with all the care in a world that has otherwise been so cruel to him. The writing, combined with Lee’s performance, really sells the complex yet nuanced man that Eric is.

Not to mention that even after he’s returned to the grave, so much has changed for the better because of him. His and Shelly’s murderers are defeated, and so is Top Dollar. Sarah and Darla, estranged before, start rebuilding their relationship. Even Shelly’s ring is left in better hands than previously, which Sarah is in possession of. Also, the night these events play out — Devil’s Night — frees the city of Detroit from such catastrophic destruction going forward.

To say that Eric is an advocate for girls and women may not necessarily be the first thing that comes to mind when people think of The Crow. It’s a film that is a big contributor to the Goth culture in the ‘90s that, unfortunately, has an equally sad story attached to the one told onscreen, with Lee having been accidentally killed while making it. However, as someone who was a toddler when this film came out, perhaps that’s why it’s easier for me to view it for what it is — a well made film for its time — while also acknowledging its legacy. In the latter case, there’s definitely more to it with its messaging and what Eric represents.

As the case revolving around the Cornell rapists and perpetrators continue and hopefully ends with long overdue accountability, let me just say: Fellas, Eric Draven is the kind of man I need you to be — an advocate for girls and women.