Synopsis:

What is it about? To let people see the true intention of the film, before Miramax crapped all over the director, and to hopefully get enough people wanting to contact Miramax after seeing it so that the real Director’s cut will be released offically to DVD. The movie’s intended slower, more deliberate pacing is appearant, and is not erratic and all over the place like the released version. This edit lets the movie breathe. It is quite different in tone.

Intentions:

To let people see the true intention of the film, before Miramax crapped all over the director, and to hopefully get enough people wanting to contact Miramax after seeing it so that the real Director’s cut will be released offically to DVD.

Change List:

Deleted footage and story elements restored; corrected scene order; timeline supertitles re-inserted. Cleaned up image quality from previous releases. Corrected sound issues. Removed several technical mistakes, such as goofs, safety wires and crew members appearing on-screen. Added a few personal editing touches to certain scenes. Cuts and Additions: Current FOOTAGE additions: __________________________ Extended execution sequence of Ashe and Danny killed by gang on pier: 1.) Extra shots of Nemo with his camcorder saying “Lights! Camera! Action!” and Spider monkey telling Danny “You’re wasting your breath, angelito, no ones up there listening!” 2.) Brief closeup of Danny’s bloody face after Kali shoots him. 3.) Extra shot of Ashe crying as Curve walks up to him. 4.) Curve gives Ashe the “kiss of death” before killing him. 5.) During Sarah’s dream, Ashe’s soul is seen being lifted out of the water by the Crow. 6.) Quick shot of the Crow on Ashe’s shoulder during Sarah’s dream. 7.) Extended dialogue sequence between Sarah and Noah. Sarah says the candy skull tastes “like shit” and then gets serious and tells Noah that she thinks “Someone else is coming back.” Brief deleted shot of Curve approaching the tattoo parlor. 8.) Before Ashe has his face painted by Sarah, I’ve inserted a deleted shot, which is an alternate camera angle: Sarah runs her fingers through Ashe’s hair, and she moves her face really close to his.. she seemingly almost kisses him! Although this is a short shot, it is definately a very important one for the deleted Ashe/Sarah love subplot to form — and this shot, more than any other in the film shows just how strange Sarah has become being “fascinated” with dead things – And Ashe from the get-go. 9.) This is a deleted shot where Sibyl is seen walking up to a Curve, right before she says that Ashe can’t be hurt or feel pain. Aside from being a nice shot, it also fixes the continuity in the release version (she just suddenly appears on screen). 10.) Ashe flashback while talking to Sarah in apartment: He and Danny are walking through water, and Ashe tells him “There’s nothing to be afraid of up here.” 11.) During the conversation Ashe and Sarah, Ashe grabs Sarah’s face, he says “No.. no!” he stands up. This is an aternate/cut shot. 12.) Judah asks Sibyl can (Ashe’s) “his power be taken?”. She says “The bird is the key.. the lifeforce that flows within it.” 13.) The crow lands on Ashe’s shoulder after he breaks through the side of the bridge with his motorcycle. 14.) Alternate shot of Kali falling out of the window. 15.) After Ashe has thrown Kali out of the window, he is seen in shadow form morphing from huge crow to human. 16.) Alternate Judah death via heavily modified footage from another film. 17.) Ashe tells the dying Sarah that “You can’t die.. I STAYED for you.. I LOVE you..” Sarah smiles. 18.) Deleted shot of Ashe kissing Sarah after she has died. 19.) Short deleted shot of Sarah’s face after she’s died (essential for the next shot below). 20.) I re-created a short special effect of the painting appearing in Sarah’s eyes for the above shot (as was supposed to happen, like in the uncut version). ___________________ ANIMATIC sequences: ___________________ 21.) Ashe dreams while underwater, remembering reading stories to Danny. 22.) Ashe refuses to accept that he is dead, so Sarah stabs a kitchen knife into his chest to prove it. 23.) Additional dialogue from Sarah as she paints Ashe’s face. 24.) After the drug lab explosion, the Crow is waiting for Curve. The crow then flies off the powerlines, causing a chain of palm trees to explode. Curve now realizes his tattoo is a “sign” that he’s marked. 25.) The scene where Curve tell’s Judah that the drug lab has been destroyed is extended. Sibyl tells Judah that his enemy wears the mask of the crow. He says he’s heard the legends, and to “let him come, then.” 26.) As Ashe has killed Nemo, the stripper Holly Daze tries to run out of the building. Ashe grabs her and looks into her eyes. He tells her that she should value what’s left of her soul and to never come back “here” again. 27.) Extended dialogue bewteen Ashe and Sarah. Ashe tells her he needed to “See her again.” Sarah tells Ashe that she knows how everything ends – “Blood. Violence.” When Ashe asks what will happen if he doesn’t want to go back after his “mission” is over, Sarah says he’ll be “damned”. Ashe reaches out and touches Sarah’s chest, but then pulls his hand away, realizing he’s starting to let himself fall for the living. 28.) Ashe finds a postcard in Sarah’s loft. He looks at it and tells Sarah that he’s been there, saying he took Danny last summer. (In the released version, the scene starts by Ashe saying “I took Danny last summer”, confusing the viewer — where did he take Danny? The extended bit here clears this up). Then, there’s extended dialogue between Ashe and Sarah before he leaves to finish his mission: When Ashe tells Sarah “We can’t do this.” and that he must leave, Sarah tells him “I know” and that she wishes she had met him before. 29.) After Kali kills Noah with the needle, Curve runs out of the parlor in pain, clutching at his chest. His “Crow” tattoo is bleeding. 30.) Extra bit of Ashe shooting up the club; he shoots at the bartenders before leaving. 31.) After dragging the injured Curve into the water, Ashe steals Curves gun and puts it into his coat. 32.) Extended death of Kali. After thrown out of the window, she lies on the ground with a broken back and can’t move. Kali begs Ashe to kill her, but he smiles and refuses as he stands over her, telling her that he has already sent her to Hell. He turns his back on her and leaves her to die a slow death. 33.) Judah tells the captured Sarah about the time he nearly died as a child after falling under icy water. He tells her that ever since then, he’s known that Death would be coming back for him. He says that Ashe is that Death, but that he will escape again by trading places with him. 34.) After falling from the tower, Ashe sees the ghost of Danny. They briefly “re-unite” and then Danny tells his dad that it’s time to go back. Ashe says he can’t, that he must stay to help Sarah. Danny tells him that he’ll never be able to return to the land of the dead. Ashe chooses to stay. Danny leaves, but Ashe goes after him. He grabs who he believes to be Danny and takes his mask off. Only this time it’s a drunken dwarf laughing and making fun of Ashe. 35.) Extended dialogue and “action” sequence between Ashe and Judah. Ashe pulls out Curve’s gun and unloads it into Judah’s chest. It has no effect. Ashe tries to punch Judah, but Judah crushes his hand. 36.) As Sibyl is freeing Sarah from her chains, Sarah asks “Why are you doing this?”. Sibly tells her “Ashe needs you now. More than ever. Go to him.” 37.) After the crows have taken Judah, Ashe looks down at his hands. His wounds close up and the blood is gone from his mouth. By passing through him, they have “cleaned” his body. This explains the goof in the release version where the blood on Ashe’s mouth is suddenly gone in the next shot when he lays down by Sarah on the ground. 38.) Extended dialogue sequence between Ashe and Sarah. Sarah gives Ashe her ring and tells him that “If two people really love each other, nothing can keep them apart.. nothing.” Ashe cries. Sarah tells him that she’ll wait for him, “Forever if i have to.” 39.) The director’s intended ending. Ashe is seen carrying Sarah through the church door. He lays her on the offrende and sits in one of the pews, looking at Sarah’s ring. The word “Forever” is inscribed inside of it. The priest from earlier in the film enters the church and, knowing that Ashe is walking dead, asks why he is “still here”. Ashe replies that he has no where to go. The priest asks what he will do then. A slightly aggravated Ashe says that the city is already full of shadows, and that one more won’t make a difference. Ashe leaves the church and rides through the city on his motorcycle. The end. Additionally, several sound effects have been restored. New music cues inserted. Addtional songs used to fill in soundtrack for certain animatics. Others use the offical score. Plus even more deleted material on the second disc that didn’t work in the animatic flow, which include: 40.) Sibyl freeing the beetle, and then smiling because she knew what was going to happen to Sarah, and led her to death on purpose — making her much more of a villain than seen in the release version. An even more extended alternate ending: 41.) The little girl Grace is sober from Judah’s drugs and has found Sarah’s cat. Ashe tells her the cat looks like he needs a home. 42.) Ashe returns to Sarah’s apartment and reads from her journal. And likely more that i can’t remember at the moment. Still, several minutes of the movie remain missing, anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes. Some remaining missing things are: Curve getting his tattoo, a long, several pre-death moments between Ashe and Danny, more interation amongst the villains, non-flashback sequence of Ashe and Danny being dragged to the pier, Kali and Curve dig through papers in the tattoo shop after killing Noah to find Sarah’s home address. The ending footage in the release version where Ashe tells Grace that he’s going to a “Better place” had to be cut because it is from a Miramax re-shoot (or partial re-shoot) and does not match up with the “depressing” ending. A corrected ending replacement animatic piece was created in place of this, but it just did not fit as well as i would have liked. Personal editing changes: 43.) New opening title sequence 44.) Trimmed beginning of scene where Curve goes into the Second coming club for the first time to ask Spidermonkey what his tatoo looks like. 45.) Reconstructed original edit of scene where Ashe asks Sarah how he survived using a low-quality reference clip. (I was able to use the sound, and layed DVD footage over it, recutting footage where needed). Contains score cue not found in release version. 46.) Recut version of of the scene has flashbacks of him and his son in the garage. 47.) Recut version of Ashe face-painting sequence 48.) Recut scene where Ashe chases Spidermonkey in the drug lab that more closely follows the originally-intended one. 49.) Recut first Ashe talking to priest scene to remove Miramax editing mistake (One priest being in two places at the same time). 50.) Curve fleeing from Ashe out of the Second comoing club plays out slightly differently. 51.) Curve’s freakout at Ashe has been toned down (the “You think i’m afraid?!” scene). 52.) Recut Ashe & Kali fight sequence. 53.) Some new score cues and songs added throughout the movie. (to be detailed later) Toned down over-the-top sexual content: 54.) Candle wax pouring scene with topless women removed. 55.) Nemo’s peep-o-rama scene has been toned down. 56.) Sexual content in the scene where Ashe attacks Curve in the Second coming club has been slightly toned down. 57.) Cut all villain flashback sequences when Ashe encounters them (when possible). This actually wasn’t so much of a personal editing choice as i really don’t think these were intended to be in the movie by the director. I believe they are something that Miramax came up with to during cutting to make City of angels more like a copy of The crow, and to make the movie more “flashy”. Flashbacks do work in the first movie, but here they don’t really have a purpose. They are not missed in my opinion. Edit: I have learned that there were never supposed to be these flashbacks in the movie. I’ve been told that it’s stated in the “Diary” book of the film. Audio restorations: 59.) Sound of Ashe smashing Nemo’s eyes into his skull. 59.) Original audio take of Ashe telling Ashe that he has to finish what he started. (This is a more “gentle” take, which was changed in the release version because the love story aspect was removed).

Additional Notes:

Via subtitled animatics, this recut, extended edition restores the story and structure that Miramax completely cut from the film after taking control away from director Tim Pope. Miramax then released a very fake “director’s cut” to the public in 1996, with the real cut never seeing the light of day. This is the most complete version to date! Approx. 26 minutes longer than theatrical version. It should be noted that this is more of an informational (ideally for existing fans of the movie), artsy/experimental piece, so sitting down in a quiet room with like-minded viewers is necessary to cath the story. This is definately not a “party” edit, and attempting to view this in such an environment would be not a very good idea. (I found the last bit out the hard way lol). Normally, i wouldn’t use such methods to create an edit, but since the missing scenes are otherwise unavailable and are so important to the movie’s storyline, i had to find another way to tell the story that was intended to be told, so i came up with the animatic idea. You probably will not see another edit from me like this with animatics in it. It is just that this movie was an extreme case that needed “patching” very badly. The techniques that i use in this edit are comparable to what you may see in older silent films, where footage is no longer available. Stills and music are used to fill in the gaps, such as the “restored” version of Metropolis and Greed. The style is also similar to the animated intro in the extended cut of 2004?s The Punisher, although i was working on this well before then. This movie has gone through an estimated 2,600 cuts & edits (big & small) for the “restoration”. (Miramax did a big number on this one).

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

It is to mention that the director of this movie, Tim Pope, wrote a note to faneditor DCP to thanks him for having done this fanedit! It is THAT good.