Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is a 2001 psychological thriller containing elements of science fiction and horror, directed and written by Richard Kelly. It is about a teenager named Donnie Darko who is encouraged by an anthropomorphic rabbit to commit acts of vandalism in the coming of the purported end of the world. The film was a flop upon its release in the U.S., but found strong DVD sales and is now considered a cult classic.

Plot Synopsis

The story is set in the town of Middlesex, Virginia during the 1988 presidential election campaign. Donnie Darko is an emotionally troubled teenager who sleepwalks and visits a therapist with whom he discusses his deepest thoughts throughout the film. One night, an unidentified jet engine falls into Donnie's bedroom. However, he unknowingly avoids getting killed by sleepwalking outside to follow a voice in his head. This voice belongs to Frank, an (apparent) imaginary friend in a man-sized rabbit costume. Frank prophesizes that the "end of the world" will occur in "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds". As their encounters grow, it becomes less clear whether or not Frank is just imaginary or actually contacting Donnie from another time.

Frank instructs Donnie to perform various acts, which cause certain events to chain react and allow the final scenerio to take place; he floods the school, which gives him the chance to court Gretchen Ross, a new classmate and potential love interest; he pursues the concept of time travel upon Frank's instruction, leading to a talk with his science teacher who then gives him The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book by an elderly resident of the town named Roberta Sparrow (known as "Grandma Death" amongst children); and eventually burns down the house of a motivational speaker who Donnie had ridiculed at a schools assembly, which exposes a secret room full of child pornography.

Donnie also begins seeing "portals" during the film, wormholes that protrude out of people's chests. He is shown this concept by Frank during one encounter in a movie theatre, during which Frank reveals himself to be a teenager of the same age as Donnie, with a bullet wound in his right eye. One particular portal eventually leads Donnie to a gun in his parents' closet, which he takes and keeps. On Halloween night, with Donnie's mother away to attend their daughter's Star Search audition, and his father out of town, Donnie takes Gretchen and two other friends to seek advice from Roberta Sparrow when they get ambushed by two rivals from school. In the ensuing struggle, Gretchen gets run over by a car and dies instantly. The rivals flee. After realizing that the driver is Frank, Donnie shoots him, killing him and causing the same wound he saw Frank bearing earlier.

As the prophesized time of the world's end draws near, Donnie retreats with Gretchen's body to a hillside overlooking town. Donnie's family experiences turbulence on their return flight, and a jet engine detaches from their plane. The engine travels through a "portal" to 28 days earlier, hitting Donnie's bedroom and fulfulling a predestination paradox of time travel. This time, Donnie laughs and chooses to stay in bed.

The movie ends on the morning following the jet engine accident. Donnie is dead and his body is removed from the house as his family mourns. Gretchen is alive and rides by on her bicycle, never having met Donnie before she just remarks with a neighborhood kid about the sad event.

Cast

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Donald J. "Donnie" Darko
• Jena Malone as Gretchen Ross
• Mary McDonnell as Rose Darko
• Holmes Osborne as Eddie Darko
• Maggie Gyllenhaal as Elizabeth Darko
• Daveigh Chase as Samantha Darko
• Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham
• Drew Barrymore as Karen Pomeroy
• Noah Wyle as Prof. Kenneth Monnitoff
• Beth Grant as Kitty Farmer
• Katharine Ross as Dr. Lillian Thurman
• Patience Cleveland as Roberta Sparrow, AKA "Grandma Death"
• James Duval as Frank
• Ashley Tisdale as Kim
• Seth Rogen as Ricky Danforth
• Jolene Purdy as Cherita Chen

Director's cut

The director's cut of the film was released on May 29, 2004 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle International Film Festival, and later in New York City and Los Angeles on July 23, 2004. This cut includes twenty minutes of extra footage, an altered soundtrack, the director's interpretation and visual excerpts from the book The Philosophy of Time Travel. The director's cut DVD, released on February 15, 2005, included the new footage and more soundtrack changes, as well as some additional features exclusive to the two-DVD set: excerpts from the storyboard, a 52-minute production diary, "#1 fan video," a "cult following" video interviewing British fans, and the new director's cut cinematic trailer. The director's cut DVD was released as a giveaway with copies of the British Sunday Times newspaper on February 19th, 2006.

Differences

In the director's cut:

• The opening-scene song was changed from Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" to INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart". The INXS song was the intended original number. "The Killing Moon" later replaces "Under the Milky Way" by The Church during the party scene. "Under The Milky Way" instead plays on the radio in the car scene with Donnie and his father.
• In the original cut, when Donnie walks into the kitchen at the end of the first scene, the opening music fades and the "The Killing Moon" is playing on a radio in the kitchen. Yet this is not so for "Never Tear Us Apart" in the Director's Cut.
• Donnie follows a transparent "sphere" while watching the football game; the sphere does not form a finger and beckon him, as in the original.
• Donnie's psychiatrist informs him that his pills are placebos, and tells him that he is an agnostic, and not an atheist as he thinks.
• The Holiday Inn scene is longer.
• Several scenes in Ms. Pomeroy's classroom are re-inserted: Donnie reading his own poetry about Frank in class, the teacher announcing the banning of Graham Greene's The Destructors and its replacement with Watership Down, and the class later watching the animated adaptation of Watership Down.
• Frank does not apologize in the theater during The Evil Dead.
• Karen Pomeroy's firing is shorter, while the scene in which Donnie asks her about the words "cellar door" is longer and contains almost entirely different dialogue.
• Various transition scenes show chapter excerpts from Roberta Sparrow's The Philosophy of Time Travel.
• There is more of Donnie and Gretchen, including an arcade scene with Donnie playing the race-car game Outrun. In the game the car is red, as is human Frank's car.
• In a new scene, Donnie's mother and father are eating dinner in a restaurant as they discuss Donnie's situation.
• Donnie and Elizabeth are shown carving jack-o-lanterns. Donnie carves his into the shape of Frank's mask. In the original version, this lantern is still present on the kitchen bench but is not seen being carved.
• The shot of Donnie's eyes bulging as his face enters the sphere at the Halloween party is removed.
• A series of fireworks, clips from the animated film Watership Down, and shots from the Outrun video game are superimposed over the montage at the end of the film.
• The scene in which Frank first wakes Donnie is longer.
• Certain events first appear as images within Donnie's eye (Referred to as "Deus ex Machina"). Deus ex Machina is described by director Richard Kelly in the audio commentary for the Director's Cut. The first image of Frank flashes in Donnie's pupil as Frank wakes him; the second image is that of rushing water to represent the flooding of the school; and there is a shot of fire in Donnie's eyes before Frank tells him to burn Cunningham's house down (instead of a full-screen shot of Cunningham's house on fire). The eye appears every time Donnie is commanded to do a task.
• Near the beginning of the movie, when Donnie's mom comes into his room, "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday is playing in the background.
• The deleted scenes (included in the first DVD release) are hidden as easter eggs.

Production

The movie was shot in 28 days (coincidentally, similar to the length of the Tangent Universe), on a budget of 4.5 million US dollars. It almost went straight to DVD, but was "saved" by financial backing from the production company Flower Films.

The story takes place in the town of Middlesex, in Virginia, but was filmed in California. The scenes at Donnie's school were filmed in part in Loyola High School, a prominent Catholic institution located in Los Angeles, California. The Aero Theatre where Donnie and Gretchen watch the double feature is an actual cinema in Santa Monica, California.

Reception

Upon its selection to the Sundance Film Festival, Donnie Darko was a lightning rod for festival director Geoffrey Gilmore. Gillmore cited that Darko is a movie with elaborate special effects and Drew Barrymore as a producer. Gilmore was quoted as saying "American independent cinema was always defined as cinema having no resources, no actors of note, no technology, but those are boundaries that are no longer relevant" yet stated that "what we'll see over this next decade is not a continuation of American independent cinema as we have seen it before, but a reinvention of that form... let's allow independent films to become what they want to be, not what they (critics) think they should be." .

Upon its first screening at Sundance critic Andy Bailey billed Donnie Darko as a "Sundance surprise" that "isn't spoiled by the Hollywood forces that helped birth it."

Although critically acclaimed, the film debuted in U.S. theaters in October, 2001 to a tepid response. Shown on only 58 screens nationwide, the film grossed $110,494 in its opening weekend. By the time the film closed in U.S. theaters on April 11, 2002, it had grossed $517,375.

Despite the poor showing at the box office, the film had attracted a devoted fan base. Donnie Darko was originally released on DVD in March of 2002. During this time, the Pioneer Theatre in New York City's East Village began midnight screenings of Donnie Darko that continued for 28 consecutive months.

Strong DVD sales led Newmarket Films to release a "Directors Cut" on DVD in 2005. Bob Berney, President of Newmarket Films, described the film as "a runaway hit on DVD," citing US sales of more than $10 million.

As of May 09, 2007, it ranks 109th on the Internet Movie Database Top 250.

Score

In 2003, composer Michael Andrews and singer Gary Jules found their piano-driven cover of the Tears for Fears' hit "Mad World," featured in the film as part of the end sequence, at the top of the UK music charts.

A slightly remixed part of the song was used in the David Fincher directed TV commercial for the 2006 Xbox 360 game Gears of War. The advertisement brought the song an increased level of popularity, propelling it to number one in downloads at the iTunes music store in late 2006. This song has also had a strong presence in Internet culture, as it has been used countless times for fan videos and trailers.

Awards and nominations

2001 — Richard Kelly won with Donnie Darko for "Best Screenplay" at the Catalonian International Film Festival and at the San Diego Film Critics Society. Donnie Darko also won the "Audience Award" for Best Feature at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. The film was nominated for "Best Film" at the Catalonian International Film Festival and for the "Grand Jury Prize" at the Sundance Film Festival.

2002 — Donnie Darko won the "Special Award" at the Young Filmmakers Showcase at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The movie also won the "Silver Scream Award" at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. In 2002 Kelly was nominated for "Best First Feature" and "Best First Screenplay" with Donnie Darko, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal being nominated for "Best Male Lead" at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film was also nominated for the "Best Breakthrough Film" at the Online Film Critics Society Awards.

2003 — Jake Gyllenhaal won for "Best Actor" and Richard Kelly for "Best Original Screenplay" for Donnie Darko at the Chlotrudis Awards, where Kelly was also nominated for "Best Director" and "Best Movie."

2005 — Donnie Darko ranked in the top five on My Favourite Film, an Australian poll conducted by the ABC.

2006 — Donnie Darko ranks ninth in FilmFour's 50 Films to See Before You Die.

It also came in at number 14 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

Related products

• The Donnie Darko Book (2003), written by Richard Kelly and introduced by Jake Gyllenhaal, explained some of the film's details.
• NECA released a six-inch (15 cm) figure of Frank the Bunny, and later, a foot-tall (30 cm) 'talking' version of the same figure.

Trivia

• The movie was shot in 28 days, exactly the time-span of the movie itself, on a budget of under US$5 million.
• In the film Donnie refers to "Married with Children" (1987) and, more specifically, Christina Applegate during conversations about sex with his therapist. The script initially called for Donnie's fantasies to be about Alyssa Milano. This had to be changed however when Richard Kelly was denied the legal rights to reference her in this manner.
• Elements of the film bear a resemblance to a certain episode of "The Smurfs" in which Clumsy Smurf was confined to his house for seven years after breaking Vanity's mirror, due to the bad-luck curse poisoning the village. He exiled himself to the forest. The same night a meteor demolished the house, and the other smurfs, thinking him killed, eulogized him passionately.
• Richard Kelly originally wanted Tim Robbins to play the part of Donnie's father.

External links

• DonnieDarkoFilm.com - Official Film Website
• test
• Template:rotten-tomatoes
• Template:rotten-tomatoes
• The Donnie Darko FAQ
• Extensive analysis of the film by Lawrence Person
• Cellar Door: with web site guide
• Donnie Darko Wallpaper
• eSnips.com - The Artifact and Living by Michael Andrews (mp3 clip)

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