Product Description

During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night, and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. He returns home the next morning to find that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom. As he tries to figure out why he survived and tries to deal with people in his town, like the school bully, his conservative health teacher, and a self-help guru, Frank continues to turn up in Donnie's mind, causing him to commit acts of vandalism and worse. The new Director?s Cut includes a production diary of the film (with optional commentary by Director of Photography Steven Poster), a story-board to screen featurette, the Director?s cut theatrical trailer, They Made Me Do It Too ? The Cult of Donnie Darko and the #1 Fan: A Darkomentary.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1851 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-02-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 133 minutes

DVD features
With an additional 20 minutes of material added to the original theatrical edition (including scenes not included in the augmented version previously released on DVD), Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut has a slower, more reflective pace than its first edit, and many more moments of emotional and tonal complexity. The film also has a fuller soundtrack (INXS' "Never Tear Us Apart" is featured prominently in writer-director Richard Kelly's mysterious opening) and new, startling special effects that underscore Donnie's ambiguous experience of time travel and cross-dimensional encounters with Frank, the 6-foot provocateur in a terrifying bunny costume. (Of course, new f/x or not, Donnie could still be a paranoid schizophrenic immersed in violent delusions.) Purists might find some of these changes to Kelly's 2001 cult hit about a troubled teen (Jake Gyllenhaal) trapped in alternative, apocalyptic destinies troubling. But overall the film is an even more haunting experience, impossible to shake.

An audio commentary track features a conversation between Kelly and Kevin Smith (Clerks) outlining the former's reasons for making a director's cut. Kelly says his intention was to amplify a science fiction and comic book element in Donnie Darko, re-design the sound (actually, Kelly claims, there never was a sound design for the original release), and purchase rights to various songs (including Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart") that were lost between the film's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and the film's theatrical release. Kelly says he also wanted to give something new to the film's fans as thanks for their crucial, early support. Other features in this two-disc set include a highly entertaining production diary (including video of pre-production locations research) as well as a short film about the meaning of "Donnie Darko" as understood by some of the movie's British fans. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Jake Gyllenhaal, last seen in "Bubble Boy," stars as a mentally disturbed teen-ager who cheats death and gets spooked about it. Written and directed by Richard Kelly in a somnambulistic style, the movie is essentially about a young boy's search for himself-he's fighting his inner voices. But as the movie shifts from fantasy to reality and back again a dreary anomie sets in. Patrick Swayze gives a notable performance as a corrupt motivational speaker-his smarm energizes the dour mood. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Sometimes less is a lot more ...
My rating and the following refers specifically to the Director's Cut. I would rate the original theatrical release five stars.

This director's cut brought to mind William Faulkner's line about writers often having to "kill their darlings" in order to meet the demands of a work's wholeness and integrity. Evidently, Richard Kelly was forced to kill his darlings with the theatrical release, and the result was close to perfection, if not perfection itself. The film's emotional force was stunning; its mysteries challenging; its pace so good that hitting pause to get more popcorn was impossible to do; its soundtrack (to my mind) a tour de force. It worked terrifically as a film experience, being a beautiful "whole" work of art. Extras that included Roberta Sparrow's book were great ... who really wanted to read the book during the movie anyways? (Which we can now do in the DC.)

Which does not mean a director's cut had no hope of working. Or even, maybe, revisions to the soundtrack (although I really think that was touchy business better left untouched). There were some good scenes deleted from the original, mainly between family members, and they didn't seem major pace-cutters. Fortunately, we do get those scenes here, but we also get the overwhelming force of the director's enthusiasm ... and WAY too much embedded detail of his personal vision.

On the upside, there's a nifty freedom to that enthusiasm which translates well into the Darko world IF you are also enthusiastic and into "playing" with Darko. In other words, if you love Donnie Darko already, you may find this cut a lot of fun. The pacing's completely blown, and the ending comes across flat compared to the original. (Kelly gets too detailed and baroque at the end, thus the impact of the "Mad World" music montage--don't want to include spoilers--and last scene is severely undermined.) Yet it's great to have more Darko, however we have to get it. And I don't regret buying this.

But if you've never seen the original DVD release, I cannot recommend this DVD set to you over that one. You will probably wonder why a cult ever built up around this film ... what anyone saw in it. You'll be missing that visceral power and compelling wonder that makes movies great and leaves you wanting to see a movie again ... immediately, if possible.

Donnie Darko was a little miracle of a film that cast a huge shadow. The director's cut joins many other films that try for bigness and achieve little ... unless, of course, in Darko's case, you've already seen the light and are into shadow-play.

The question isn't whether or not the movie's good, it's whether or not to watch the director's cut or the original
Donnie Darko is a very good movie. Yeah it gets a little to complicated for itself at times, but it's entertaining the entire way through. A very good film with a very good cast. Almost nothing wrong with it. But...

The Director's Cut: Alright, this version of the film has been criticized by many fans and critics. Often seen as making the film, simple and cheap. I myself do not enjoy it quite as much as the original, for the above reasons. But by no means does the Director's Cut make it a bad movie. I mean heck, I own it. The specials on the dvd are also pretty good.

I still suggest to you that you watch the original first, but if you don't, I wouldn't worry about it. The whole, "The Director's Cut is the Worst movie Ever", isn't true. I hope you enjoy this very good movie.

Rating: 4 Stars

I hope this was helpful, thanks for your time.

Baffling Rework But Still A Great Film
I am tempted to recommend that you stick with the original version because it doesn't have the strange grid effect over the time reversal sequence. This grid makes no sense at all, especially when you hear the Director's weak rationale for the artifice. The other additions are more effective and the sound is vastly improved over the original. The marvelously choreographed intro into the High School environment is a piece of virtuoso filmmaking.