If I recall correctly, it was a landlord/ slumlord / rent raise issue.
All the other tenants of the building had been run off/evicted or left, and the gang was sent over to Eric and Shelley's to threaten them too.
Screenwriting 101.
They started a petition against some eviction that was perpetuated by none other than Michael Wincott, AKA Top Dollar, AKA the nameless main villain of the film.
Why was he evicting people? Who the *beep* knows? It's never explained.
The hackneyed plot was not this movie's strong suit.
In the comic, it was just some random incident--Eric and Shelly's car broke down on the side of the road, T-Bird's gang rolled up, high on crack, and decided to have a little fun. Rest is history.
Frankly I prefer this setup as it is more straightforward, brutal and thus outrageous and deserving of the Crow's unholy retribution.
Yes, I wasn't sure I was remembering right, but it was Top Dollar was pretty much the landlord (corrupt finger in every pie in town), and he sent the guys over to do his dirty work. I forgot about the petition part, but yeah.
I think it works well as a reason why the brutality happened, leading to the rest of the story.
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that his half-sister/lover (Bai Ling's character) saw her village razed by American troops in Vietnam (My Lai?)
As revenge and a declaration of love for his... ah, sister, Top Dollar burns Detroit down every night before Halloween on Devil's Night.
I read that a long time ago--might be true, might be not. Still a goofy premise as far as I'm concerned, too vague, and if it was true I can see why they discarded it altogether.
Interestingly enough, Tony Todd does to his henchman character as a "Vietnam veteran" in an interview and DPK's T-Bird seemed to have a military bearing.
On the dvd commentary the directors refer to the Vietnam stuff, but I really wish they'd explained it better. honestly if they want to keep top dollar and stuff I don't mind I just prefer the original brutal random killing rather than some gangster landlord stuff.
shareThe producer told the story about TD and Mycah in the commentary.
shareWho the *beep* knows? It's never explained.
Exactly.
The same thing is happening to a building near where I live. Same reasons -- they want to push out the low income people, rebuild the whole place with higher-rent apartments, and attract more money and upscale people. Social cleansing. The building happens to have spectacular views over parkland and other dwellings command million + prices across the way.
It's pitiful for the people in the threatened building as they are the last of the original locals and have family and roots there. The area is being gentrified and unaffordable for regular people to live in.
Ladies and gentlemen...Mr.Conway Twitty
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Top-Dollar and his gang didn't need a "good enough" reason to kill anyone anyway. Whoever was in their way was going to get it, be it Eric, Shelly or someone living on the street.
shareTrue!
The gang enjoyed their collective psychopathy, didn't really need a reason, a bit like the Manson 'family.'
I believe the official explanation is that she wasn't going along with our tenant relocation program. Then her idiot boyfriend shows up and turns a simple sweep & clear into a total cluster fuck! Who gives a shit? It's ancient history. Why? What do you want? What is it? What? Speak to me! Speak!
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