Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (2004)

91% of critics liked it
(43 reviews)
89% of users liked it
(9,136 ratings)

In a funny, moving and distinctly mind-bending journey through suburban America, one extraordinary but disenchanted teenage is about to take Time's Arrow for a ride. October 2nd, 1988: just another ordinary day in Donnie Darko's teen-aged existence. He's taken his medication, watched Dukakis & Bush… More In a funny, moving and distinctly mind-bending journey through suburban America, one extraordinary but disenchanted teenage is about to take Time's Arrow for a ride. October 2nd, 1988: just another ordinary day in Donnie Darko's teen-aged existence. He's taken his medication, watched Dukakis & Bush debate, and had dinner with the family. Then an outrageous accident occurs, which just misses claiming Donnie's life. As Donnie begins to explore what it means to still be alive, and in short order to be in love, he uncovers secrets of the universe that five him a tempting power to alter time and destiny. From 26 year-old first time writer-director Richard Kelly comes the provocative DONNIE DARKO, a genre busting fable that blasts the American suburban drama into a wildly imaginative realm of time travel, alternative universes and the manipulation of one's fate. But at the core of DONNIE DARKO is the simple story of a boy trying to make a stand in a lonely, chaotic world - and discovering that every little thing he does counts on a cosmic scale. Originally screened at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, DONNIE DARKO became one of the festival's most talked-about and debated films, praised for blending sci-fi fantasy with an original vision of a modern suburbia teetering on the edge of dread and disaster. The question became: what is DONNIE DARKO? Is it a look back at the underbelly of the Ferris Bueller and Back to the Future era? Or is it a wild journey into multiple realities and multiple outcomes? Is it the story of an increasingly cynical, hypocritical society on a crash-course with apocalypse? Or is it a fairy-tale about a teen hero who changes the world around him? Is this the cosmic death knell of the Regan Era, or a portrait of a troubled community redeemed by the hand of God? The surprising answer is that DONNIE DARKO is all of these - a deep inquiry into the recent past and the possibilities for the future all wrapped up in the story of a teenager unlike any you've met before. Writer/director Richard Kelly purposefully wanted DONNIE DARKO to be vast enough to mean different things to different people. But he offers this guidance for the mind-blowing ride ahead: "Maybe it's the story of Holden Caulfield, resurrected in 1988 by the spirit of Philip K. Dick, who was always spinning yarns about schizophrenia and drug abuse breaking the barriers of space and time. Or it's a black comedy foreshadowing the impact of the 1988 presidential election, which is really the best way to explain it. But first and foremost, I wanted the film to be a piece of social satire that needs to be experienced and digested several times." DONNIE DARKO - THE DIRECTOR'S CUT features 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage; new & enhanced visual effects and new music. -- (C) Newmarket Films

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Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 13 min.
Directed By: Richard Kelly
Written By: Richard Kelly
Genres: Documentary, Drama, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Oct 4, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Sep 27, 2007
Studio: Newmarket Films

Critic Reviews

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The film feels like a collision between a John Hughes teen comedy and a David Lynch freakfest.
Leighton Klein, Boston Globe
What remains unchanged is the realization of just what a superb actor Jake Gyllenhaal is.
Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News
It's a dreamlike, intuitive movie that has much to say about life and death and points in between.
Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The new Darko is just as marvelous as the old.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Contains about 10 additional minutes and is as fabulous and enjoyable as ever.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
If Kelly felt it necessary to add the new material, that's all to the good. It just means there's more to love.
James O'Ehley, Sci-Fi Movie Page
Get in contact with your inner emotionally disturbed teenager today!
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Oddly not as good as the theatrical cut.
Beth Accomando, KPBS.org
The resulting film reveals an artist who has seriously reflected on his work and carefully considered what to add, what to alter and sometimes what to remove.
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com
...other additions -- most egregiously at the climax -- are just intrusive and reduce our interpretive choices by replacing them with one choice, purely science-fictional in a George Lucas 'midichlorians' sense, that's a diminishment, not an illumination.
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com
All that said, Fox's edition of Donnie Darko: Director's Cut is everything a DVD should be.
Gregory Weinkauf, New Times
Friends and neighbors, this is a Great American Movie.
Douglas Pratt, Movie City News
it cannot be discounted that the substantial supplementary features went a long way towards backing up the film's legitimacy to its ever-increasing population of followers.
Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters
The problem embodied by Donnie is at once mundane and painfully special.
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing
Like Being John Malkovich and 2001: A Space Odyssey and too few others, this is one of those mind-melting cinematic achievements.
Brent Simon, Now Playing Magazine
The director's cut explains more than it should, and so the movie loses some of its hazy, conceptual beauty...
Sarah Chauncey, Reel.com
This movie is addictive.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
The director tells us he wanted to reflect more concretely the science-fiction aspects of the plot....the possibility of other, tangential dimensions helping to shape our own.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...in the years since the film was made, the country and the world have become even more divided.... Maybe the movie is more meaningful today than ever.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
This "remix" of the film is a totally different beast, as is the collection of features collected on this accompanying 2-disc DVD edition.

Read all 25 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Richard C

I love the directors cut even more then the theatrical version. this movie is funny, wierd, orginal and much more. this is one of the best films ever made. A
Mike N

[b]Obscurity is the refuge of the incompetent.[/b] - [color=DarkOliveGreen]Robert Heinlein[/color] [b]My mind to me a kingdom is, Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind: Though much I… More
[b]Obscurity is the refuge of the incompetent.[/b] - [color=DarkOliveGreen]Robert Heinlein[/color] [b]My mind to me a kingdom is, Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind: Though much I want though most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.[/b] - [color=RoyalBlue]Sir Edward Dwyer[/color] [b]I find a little giggle-gas before I begin gives me immense pleasure.[/b] -[color=SandyBrown] Orin Scrivello[/color] [b]Many times I've lied, many times I've listened Many times I've wondered how much there is to know.[/b] - [color=Gray]Robert Plant[/color] [b]I told myself I'd make an entry about my Halloween costume, but that sort of never materialized. Perhaps I'll resurrect that endeavor, seeing as how my journal is collecting stale fingerprints from users shuffling past it to all the other updates in this asylum. Maybe later tonight I'll update? Yeah, no. Also, this is the best quote you've ever read.[/b] [b]I'll quote myself to prove it. Yeah. No. [/b]- [color=Green]Neum Daddy/Neumthor/NeumDagger/Neumorado Sexington/Somebody Else[/color][b] Perhaps, if I am lucky, the feeble efforts of my lifetime will someday be noticed, and maybe, in some small way, they will be acknowledged as the greatest works of genius ever created by Man.[/b] - Jack Handey[color=Red] [/color][b] Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.[/b] - [color=Red]John Ciardi[/color] [b]You know, if I were to die right now, in some sort of fiery explosion due to the carelessness of a friend...well, that would just be ok.[/b] - [color=YellowGreen]Spongebob Squarepants [/color] [b]The problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.[/b] - [color=Red]Bertrand Russell[/color] [b]I've finally found someone I can love - a good, clean love...without utensils.[/b] - [color=DeepSkyBlue]Frank Drebin[/color] [b]The vision and the faculty divine; Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse.[/b] - [color=Sienna]William Wordsworth[/color] [b]It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black. [/b]- [color=DarkSlateGray]...uh, modern proverb?[/color] [b]Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.[/b] - Vince Lombardi [b]Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions. When it ceases to be dangerous, you don't want it.[/b] -[color=Navy] Duke Ellington[/color] [b]We ask for strength and you give us difficulties which make us strong; We ask for wisdom and you send us problems, the solutions of which develop wisdom; We plead for prosperity and you give us a brain and brawn to work; We plead for courage and you give us dangers to overcome. We ask favors and you give us opportunities; Therefore, Great Spirit, we ask you bless us and assist us according to thy will.[/b] - [color=DarkOrange]Unknown[/color]
Bryce I

It might be longer, and may only have more scenes than the original, but oddly enough, it comes nowhere close to being as good as the theatrical cut.
Audra H

An extremely ambitious piece of work that rightly gets people to think and debate over it. In interviews, Richard Kelly, himself, seems vague and indefinite in his interpretation of the chain of events and what they could represent. But I think he just wants to stimulate an opinion in… More
An extremely ambitious piece of work that rightly gets people to think and debate over it. In interviews, Richard Kelly, himself, seems vague and indefinite in his interpretation of the chain of events and what they could represent. But I think he just wants to stimulate an opinion in his viewers rather than influence his personal ideas on them. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the performances, and the way the film made me contemplate the ideas of fate, time travel, finding meaning in one's life. As far as Donnie Darko's character, it definitely had a "Catcher in the Rye" meets "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" feel, which I loved. *SPOILER* My belief is that Donnie was meant to die. He escaped his would-be death by chance of the recurring hallucination of Frank, a giant demonic-looking rabbit. He was given a grace period of 28 days to see how he can either change or better the world around him. His attempts were both unsuccessful (his flooding the school leading to the termination of his favorite teacher, Mrs. Pomeroy) and successful (his burning of Mr. Cunningham's house leading to the exploitation of his pedophilia ring). Among all this corruption, he finds the one thing that balances him and gives him a reason to love something. That's Gretchen Ross (played by the really awesome Jena Malone). His obsession with Frank and following his orders (as payment for 'saving his life'), however, consumes him to the point of putting his new-found love in danger. Gretchen is run-down by a car operated by real-life Frank (dressed in the same rabbit suit for a Halloween party), and consequently killed. My thoughts are that this real-life Frank was actually the trigger object (as mentioned in the time-travel book by Roberta Sparrow/'Gma Death') that traveled back in time to meet Donnie before the jet engine turbine crashed in his room. Having realized these past 28 days only demeaned his world even more, Donnie, I think, realizes that he should have been the one to die from a freak accident instead of Gretchen. Meanwhile, miles above him, his mother and sister are flying back home on a plane when it, believe it or not, loses its engine turbine. As it falls, it is implied (again, I THINK...) that the world is turning in reverse, sending Donnie back to his room 28 days earlier to be present when that engine turbine hit his room. Hence there being no record of a plane losing its engine turbine on that specific day (Rose and Samantha Darko being safely in their own beds, of course). A lot of this interpretation is filling-in-the-blanks the movie (the Director's Cut) didn't exactly cover. Critics might say that that is a lot of missing explanation. But, for me, it's fun to create my own story so I can relate to it. I think that was Kelly's intention, after all. To each his own interpretation!