philosophy of time travel...directors cut

[Machinus]

Newmarket Films, which had distributed "Donnie Darko," watched the sales figures rising and decided to release it in theaters again, and Mr. Kelly took the opportunity to make some changes. He has added 20 minutes and inserted titles that make the ending somewhat clearer, though still far from straightforward. Not incidentally, said Bob Berney, the president of Newmarket, "I think it will open the door to another DVD version."

All I can say is...w00t! Twenty additional minutes! Sweeeeeet! I only hope Kelly hasn't ruined the ending by making it too obvious.

[TracerBullet]

Yeah, I really wasn't confused by it at all.  So long as you pay attention to the movie, it's pretty self-explanatory.

[wuaffiliate]

According to Kelly, he left it open to interpretation. So noone is right/wrong on their take of the film.

I heard some time ago it was being released in theaters again, cant wait to go see it again.

[Machinus]

While you are correct wu, there are only two possible "interpretations" of the movie. Mutually inclusive evidence is present for both, but there is not a limitless scope of possible meaning. The two theories which all others fall into are 1) the entire movie is a dream/vision, which Donnie somehow encounters before the accident and chooses to embrace; 2) Roberta Sparrow was in fact able to manipulate time, Donnie borders on psychosis, and chooses to alter history after experiencing new feelings of compassion and love for Gretchen. There is really no other way to explain the movie without somehow falling into one of these larger explanations. Most people are somewhere in the second, since there is a great deal of exposition and development of the time travel ideas as they are presented, but opponents of "obvious" plot development sometimes may choose the former based on its "hidden" status. I have participated in probably more discussion/argument than is healthy about this movie since it is really an amazing and almost everyone that has seen it liked it.

What I meant by "obvious" was that I hoped he did not really "lock in" a specific ending, thereby making the whole confusing plot premises less interesting.

[Bram]

I hate rereleases of three-year old movies. I don't give a fuck about the 20 extra minutes. It's all a big marketing scam. Now I have to sell my Donnie Darko DVD and buy the new one. Such a waste of time...

I was WONDERING why there suddelny was a Donnie Darko trailer on apple.com...now I know.

[Machinus]

Bram, this movie was in theaters for about 20 minutes...no one saw it when it first came out. It's not your typical re-release, as it were.

[Bram]

Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact I need to upgrade my DVD version two or three months from now.

[rvs]

Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact I need to upgrade my DVD version two or three months from now.

Or you could like.... not care?

[Bram]

Not caring is not an option...I'm not the president of the USA you know