Donnie Darko

There are some films that just capture the public imagination and the PR company doesn't really need to do much as all magazines need to do is feature an article on the film, its director or one of the lead actors and they are guaranteed to sell copy and word of mouth does the rest. The Matrix was one of these as it really was something new and groundbreaking and some of the dialogue and characters have since entered the zeitgeist and popular culture to such an extent that even people who haven't seen the film will recognise the references. Donnie Darko was a little like that (although to a lesser extent) as it was a much lower budgeted film with a lower profile cast and none of the incredible special effects that The Matrix boasted.

It is strange looking back on the film, eight years after its theatrical release of the UK and over five years removed from the two DVD releases (one of the theatrical cut and one of the director's version) and you look at members of the cast and crew and their varying fortunes since 2001. Writer/director Richard Kelly should have gone from strength to strength but his career seems to have just wobbled and fallen into a ditch following the rather appallingly received misfire that was Southland Tales and the equally badly received The Box, a film that could have worked extremely well as an episode of The Twilight Zone but just didn't function properly as a two-hour feature film. As far as the cast goes on the other hand, Jake Gyllenhaal and his sister, Maggie, who both came to prominence here, have both been Oscar-nominated and are extremely hot property in Hollywood. Nevertheless, Donnie Darko remains a cult favourite and a film that many people love.

The film is set in October 1988 when the titular teenager is having extreme psychological problems, taking medication, seeing a psychiatrist, sleepwalking and hallucinating a giant rabbit called Frank. One of these hallucinations coincides with a sleepwalking trip to the neighbourhood golf course and Donnie wakes up with 28:6.42.12 written in marker pen on his arm as Frank has told him "28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes. That... is when the world... will end". Donnie's encounters with Frank lead him to ponder time travel and the very nature of mortality, especially when a jet engine falls from out of nowhere through the roof of the Darko residence and into Donnie's bedroom at the same time that he was sleeping on the golf course.

Donnie isn't the only kid with problems as the Chinese girl in his class, Cherita Chen, is picked on by other boys in the class and the new girl who takes a shine to Donnie, Gretchen, has had to move to Middlesex because her mentally unstable step-father tried to murder her mother. Donnie's home life isn't exactly perfect as his father and elder sister, Elizabeth, clash about the upcoming presidential election and she enjoys winding up about her age to vote for Dukakis and Donnie and Elizabeth's expletive filled dinnertime arguments aren't exactly fit for his younger sister, Samantha. Aside from that, he is also sick of his parents' interference and they are struggling to hold the family together. Aside from all that, everything is perfect.


Things at school become increasingly strange that Donnie as he begins to act out and become increasingly less patient with the banal and ridiculous teaching methods employed by some of the teachers, especially Kitty Farmer, a devout follower of Jim Cunningham, a local celebrity whose self-help books and teaching aids (designed to help you to love yourself and force the fear out of your life) don't go down at all well with most of the students, especially Donnie who snaps in one lesson and tells her to, well, 'forcibly insert the lifeline exercise card into her anus'!

The two teachers that Donnie does seem to get on with are his English teacher, Karen Pomeroy, whose lessons on Graham Greene's The Destructors, appear to strike a nerve with our malcontent antihero and his science teacher, Prof Kenneth Monnitoff, who seems to know an awful lot about time travel and is happy to share his knowledge with a student who is keen to find out all the can on the subject. Things get very strange when Donnie seems to dream about destroying the school, only to find that the next day that someone has hacked through a water main and planted the axe in the school mascot's head, scrawling "They Made Me Do It" in paint on the floor.


Donnie Darko is a film that seems to resonate with a great number of people who like that it leaves you with more questions than answers and isn't a film that you can just watch once and be done with; it is a movie you have to concentrate while you are watching it and watch it repeatedly to fully understand what has happened. It helps that the performances from the entire cast are absolutely superb, from Jake Gyllenhaal's career defining turn as the lead character, Maggie Gyllenhaal as his older sister, Holmes Osborne as Donnie's father, Mary McDonnell as his mother, Beth Grant as Kitty Farmer, Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham, Noah Wyle as Prof Monnitoff and Drew Barrymore (who was also an executive producer) as Karen Pomeroy. There isn't a single poor performance amongst the extensive cast and all of the characters and actors are extremely memorable.

Richard Kelly marked himself out as a talent to watch and, just as The Sixth Sense marked the high point in M. Night Shyamalan's career, Donnie Darko is seemingly the high water mark in Richard Kelly's. If indeed this is the case, and Richard Kelly will not make another film that is as nearly as good as Donnie Darko, then at least he made one exceptional film in his career. It is a movie that I have seen many times, puzzling me at first but becoming increasingly rewarding with each subsequent viewing. I am much less keen on the Director's Cut (which is 21 unnecessary minutes longer) than the theatrical version as that was seemingly dumbed down and this is the version that takes you by the hand and points out all the things you should have seen the first time. It is an interesting addition to the set, and one worth watching if the theatrical version was a little too abstract and left you thinking "What the hell was all about?" Personally, I don't see the need for that version and would stick with the theatrical cut every time but, every so often, will watch the Director's Cut more out of curiosity than anything else.


I think Donnie Darko is a great movie, one of the most ambitious feature film debuts and an extremely impressive piece of work by any definition. The fact that it was by someone making their first feature film makes it all the more remarkable. As a science fiction thriller, it worked tremendously well and Kelly's rich script contains so much information that you need to watch the movie several times before you understand everything. If someone tells you that they 'got it' on the first viewing, I would guess they are lying! I'm normally very good at reading a film and predicting a twist or trick ending, but was left utterly bemused by Donnie Darko the first time I saw it and it was only on the second viewing that all the pieces fell into place. Although it isn't an all-time great, it is one of the best films of this fledging 21st century and a film I could watch over and over again.

The Disc

Extra Features
This two disc set contains both the Theatrical and Director's cuts and all of the extra features that came on the previous DVD releases. You have the three commentaries, the first by Richard Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal, the second by Richard Kelly and various members of the cast (both on the Theatrical version) and one with Richard Kelly and über fan and filmmaker Kevin Smith on the Director's Cut.

Kelly and Gyllenhaal clearly get on very well together and provide an interesting and informative commentary track, talking about locations, the other cast members and what the shoot was like. The other one is far busier and has much more laughter as the participants partly treated it as a reunion, happily chatting to one another whilst Richard Kelly does his best to moderate the commentary and guide them all in the right direction. He does quite a good job but this is much more of a 'background' commentary track than the other one which is something that you would concentrate on to get as much information from the two participants as possible. For the third commentary, it is Richard Kelly's turn to answer questions rather than ask them as Kevin Smith, no stranger to commentary tracks himself, almost acts as the moderator and prompts Kelly for information about the intricacies of filmmaking and little bits here and there. As both men are good talkers, this is probably the best of the three commentaries and, if you only want to listen to one of them, this is the one to choose.


Disc one contains the Theatrical Cut and the following extra features:

They Made Me Do It is a five minute feature about an art gallery displaying art inspired by the film with Gary Jules' Mad World playing over the top of the images. In addition, there is an art gallery of those pictures which the artists had to complete in almost the time given to Donnie at the beginning of the movie: 6 hours, 42 minute and 12 seconds.

The Behind the Scenes featurette comprises B-roll footage (4:37) and Cast & Crew Interviews (15:16) which shows you how Richard Kelly operated on set and the interviews are fairly typical EPK material with 14 members of the cast and crew talking about how they became involved in the project, what it was like during filming and what they think about how the film would be received but it's still worth a look.

The additional scenes (31:50) comprises deleted and extended scenes from the original cut before it was trimmed down to the version shown in theatres and is quite interesting to see what they had in mind originally in what they decide to leave out. I can't say that any of it really cries out for reinsertion. These are very much in rough form and have the time counter running at the bottom. Richard Kelly provides an optional commentary in which he explains why certain things were omitted/trimmed.

The Philosophy of Time Travel (3:11) is a selection of pages from Roberta Sparrow's book explaining how time travel works. The pages change automatically, dissolving from one to the next so you don't need to manually navigate through this.

There is also a selection of promotional material comprising the theatrical trailer, a series of Cunning Visions infomercials with commentary, some promos and five TV spots. These can be watched individually or sequentially using the Play All function.


Disc two contains the Director's Cut and the following features:

The Production Diary (40:44) is basically Richard Kelly's video diary of the shoot from July 15-August 30 2000 and is quite a revealing look through how the film was made and the process that Richard Kelly used taking you from the initial location scouting right through to end off. There is an optional commentary from Kelly which adds even more information to the Diary. You get a look at locations, rehearsals and plenty of B-roll footage which adds a great deal to your appreciation of the movie.

They Made Me Do It Too: The Cult of Donnie Darko (30:17) is a look back at the cultural phenomenon that impacted on so many people's lives and comprises interviews with die hard fans and film critics (such as James King and Colin Kennedy) who talk about the amazing popularity of the film and why it became such a massive hit, feeling incredibly personal to many people.

Finally, there is a trailer for the Director's Cut.


The Picture
I was expecting to be blown away by the upgraded visuals which was made all the more odd when I wasn't. This isn't to say that the transfer is particularly bad, it's just that it is fairly underwhelming even in 1080p, which just goes to show how good the DVDs were.

The contrast levels are extremely good, which they need to be as there are a high number of low light shots that really need to be sharp for you to get the most out of the movie. What is impressive, and Kelly mentions this in the commentary, are the special effects which, for a film of such a modest budget, are extremely good and owe a great deal to The Abyss which pioneered the 'water tunnel' effects which is used here. As with any CG effects, the first time you do it is extremely expensive but, once they have been done, the trick is out of the bag so people can copy or do their own version knowing how to do it and therefore can do the effects quicker and for a lot less money.


The Sound
The soundtrack of choice is clearly the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is a terrific upgrade on the SD 5.1 soundtracks on the DVD releases. The film doesn't go overboard with action or other scenes that will use your entire speaker setup, but the initial scenes in which Frank speaks are extremely good and the "Wake up Donnie" is reassuringly bassy and reverberates around you, as do the scenes where Donnie has his hand or knife against the 'force field' and each thud bounces around the room.

Richard Kelly assembled a great selection of source music to go with the wonderful score so you have contributions from Echo & the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, Joy Division, The Church and Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' cover of Tears for Fears' Mad World which was extremely unlikely Christmas number one. Thanks to the success of the theatrical version, Kelly was able to get the music he wanted for the opening: INXS' version of Never Tear Us Apart. I still like Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen.


Final Thoughts
Donnie Darko is a marvellous movie, one that improves with repeated viewings and, with good reason, made an A list star out of Jake Gyllenhaal as his performance as the troubled teenager is utterly compelling and realistic. I think it's a shame that Richard Kelly found a need to go back and revisit the film, inserting extra CGI and scenes that were not included in the theatrical cut (mostly due to budgetary reasons) but, all that being said, the Director's Cut still works extremely well, albeit as a rather simplistic and less rewarding experience.

This is a splendid package, including all of the extra features that were released on DVD and presenting many of them in high definition. If you only own one of the versions on DVD then this is a Blu-ray package that is almost a 'must buy' but, if you already own both and are a huge fan of the film, then this is worth serious consideration for the improved AV package.