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Donnie Darko Missing image Donniedarkoskelcostume.jpg Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is a 2001 film, the first by writer and director Richard Kelly. The movie is a noirish science fiction film and psychological thriller about a boy named Donnie Darko who, after narrowly escaping death, has visions of a giant bunny rabbit named Frank who predicts when the world will end. The title may be an intentional play on Donnie Brasco. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Donnie, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, and Patrick Swayze. Jake's real-life sister Maggie Gyllenhaal also appears as Donnie's older sister. This film was released by Newmarket Films. It is one of the films which represent an era when Hollywood has turned toward new fresh talented filmmakers to introduce new ideas which break away from the old templates of Hollywood genre movies. Since its release on home video, Donnie Darko has become a cult film. In Britain the film sold moderately well on DVD but was then reissued in a budget edition, with no director's commentary or other extras, which sold for a fraction of the original price and shot to number 1 in the DVD sales chart. A director's cut for the movie debuted on June 4, 2004 in Seattle, Washington. Some taglines for this movie's release were:
Cast
Plot synopsisThe plot of Donnie Darko is somewhat confusing, and some of the events border on paradoxical. Fans have discussed the film, its meaning, and multiple interpretations exist. In the middle of the night, on October 2, 1988, a huge jet engine falls from the sky and crashes throught the ceiling of Donnie's bedroom. Donnie is not killed, however, because he had been lured out of the house by a strange voice. The audience soon learns that the voice belongs to a human-sized bunny named Frank (who is actually, we learn later, a human being in a bunny costume). (Some viewers have seen here a reference or homage to the 1950 motion picture Harvey, but director Kelly has denied any such intention and in fact has stated that he had never seen Harvey before directing this film.) Frank informs Donnie that the world is going to end in just over 28 days. Donnie's mental illness (presumably a severe form of schizophrenia) is alluded to early in the film with a comment about his decision to quit taking his medicine. Much of the following film, dealing with Donnie's experiences in high school and his burgeoning romance, seems to be interweaved with hallucinations caused by a psychotic break. (The deleted scenes included on the DVD release indicate that Donnie's meds were placebos anyway, but there is no way to be certain that this revelation is veridical. At any rate, Donnie's belief that he was going off his meds could have triggered such a break. The break could have also been triggered by Donnie's belief that the medication was not helping him overcome his visions, which turn out not to be hallucinatory.) Yet the film's website and the director's commentary on the DVD indicate that the director believes that Donnie is capable of time travel: some sort of corruption has occurred in the fabric of time, and Donnie, somehow chosen to correct it, has entered an alternate universe by leaving his house and not being crushed by the falling engine. (Indeed, on this view the engine is now actually falling in the alternate universe.) The alternate universe is highly unstable and will collapse in just over 28 days, probably taking the original universe with it. The only way to prevent this outcome is for Donnie to divert the falling aircraft engine from the alternate universe/timestream to the original, thereby also mending the temporal corruption and preventing the collapse of the alternate universe. (The logic behind this view seems to be that, had Donnie not created an alternate universe at the beginning of the film, the engine would have fallen in the original universe but, paradoxically, would have had nowhere to fall from. In creating the alternate universe Donnie has provided a source for the engine, but has not yet re-diverted it back to the universe in which it is "supposed" to land.) At that point the alternate universe, rather than collapsing, simply ceases to exist, and everyone (including Donnie) returns to the original universe, with some dreamlike memories of the alternate timestream. Whether Donnie's death is necessary for this restoration is a matter of some contention. Some viewers believe the bunny exists to convince Donnie to die, by manipulating him into a position where his mother, younger sister and girlfriend will die, making him shoot Frank, and become willing to sacrifice his life to bring his loved ones back. (Shooting Frank transfigures him into one of the manipulated dead referenced in The Philosophy of Time Travel, thus revealing that Donnie is responsible for creating Frank as we know him.) On this view, Donnie's actions parallel those of Jesus in Martin Scorsese's production of Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ, the name of which appears in the film on a movie marquee. Other viewers question the necessity for Donnie's death for the salvation of the original universe; director Kelly himself, in the commentary included on the DVD release, gives two possible reasons for Donnie's death, neither of which seems to entail that he needed to die in order to preserve the main timestream. (Then, too, the death of Donnie's mother and sister in the alternate universe seems unnecessary as such a means, since the aircraft on which they fly would presumably have travelled the same flight path whether those two people were on it or not; some viewers have therefore suggested that the object of getting Donnie's mother to go on this trip is simply to get her out of the Darkos' house so that the concluding Halloween party can take place.) On any interpretation, the purpose of the bunny is to induce Donnie to rescue the main timestream in some way. Whatever the precise details, Donnie ultimately brings about the restoration using what appear to be telekinetic powers. During the entire month of October 1988, Frank the bunny induces Donnie to carry out a series of bizarre and apparently vandalistic acts, all of which turn out in fact to help in bringing about a final resolution in which Donnie telekinetically sends the falling aircraft engine through a wormhole into the original timestream. As the film concludes, the engine falls into the Darko house in the original universe, this time killing Donnie. The film carefully leaves open the possibility that the entire alternate-universe sequence of events may be Donnie's (or even, perhaps, his mother's) hallucination, reverie, fantasy, or dream (and Kelly has hinted in interviews that dreams and alternate universes just might be the same thing). At any rate, the story draped on this science-fiction backbone includes a good deal more than speculative inquiry into time travel; the film is also, for example, a darkly comic satire of public education (although Donnie's school is in fact private), and so-called self help gurus; and Jake Gyllenhaal has received much praise for his performance as the disaffected, alienated, yet charming Donnie. Much of the backstory is explained on the official Donnie Darko website, which acts as a combination puzzle and teaser for the movie. It shows that Donnie was institutionalized before the events of the movie occur, and offers other details that help in explaining the goings-on of the movie. The director's commentary on the DVD also gives crucial details, such as the point of departure between the real world and the alternate universe--not when the engine crashes through the ceiling, but instead a few minutes before, when Donnie is called out to meet Frank for the first time. There are many easter eggs present in the film, including a reflection of Ronald Reagan being visible while a right wing teacher rants on, and strangely Amnesty International being listed in the credits for apparently no reason whatsoever. Director's cutA director's cut of Donnie Darko was released by New Market Films in New York and Los Angeles on July 23, 2004. Twenty minutes of never-before-seen footage were added, as well as some soundtrack changes. Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/newmarket/donnie_darko/ SoundtrackMaking of the soundtrackRichard Kelly commissioned Michael Andrews, a San Diego musician who had worked as a member of a range of bands including The Origin with Gary Jules and the Greyboy Allstars. He had also produced both of Gary Jules solo albums. Michael Andrews had done some soundtrack work on the Ben Stiller film Zero Effect and worked on the music for the TV show Freaks and Geeks. Richard Kelly tells that he was confident that Michael Andrews could do the job on the Everloving Records web site. "I met with Michael and I just knew right away that he was really, really talented and that he could come up with a really original score. He would allow me to be in there and be really kind of editorial with how I wanted the score to be." Michael Andrews relocated to Los Angeles to work on the film between October and December 2000. As Michael Andrews states on the Everlasting Records web site, the low budget for the project encouraged him to play a diverse range of instruments for the soundtrack. "The film was pretty low budget so my portion of the money was pretty thin. I couldn't hire anyone, it was just me. I played everything; piano, mellotron, mini marimba, xylophone, ukulele, organ. I also brought in two female vocalists Sam Shelton and Tory Haberman. But no guitar because Richard said no guitar or drums; he just wasn't into it. I was down with that - I've played guitar my whole life." Like many of his role models for soundtrack composing such as John Barry and Ennio Morricone, Michael Andrews wanted to put a song on his otherwise instrumental score. He chose the song "Mad World" by Tears for Fears originally released in 1982 and got his old friend Gary Jules in to sing it while he played piano. Tears for Fears were one of the duo's favourite bands growing up along with Echo & the Bunnymen and The Smiths. The film features several exceptional songs, like the aforementioned Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and The Church's shimmering "Under the Milky Way" in the cathartic party scene. Album releasedThe score was not put on a soundtrack album until Andy Factor, a friend of Michael Andrews, released it on his Everloving Records independent label in 2002. As Donnie Darko was not a hit at first, there was little interest in the soundtrack in the US. However, the film enjoyed more popularity in Europe especially in the UK where its total box office was greater than for the whole of the US. This sparked interest in the soundtrack and in the song "Mad World," taken from the original soundtrack, was a 2003 Christmas Number One in the UK singles charts. It has also made the charts in a number of other countries including Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia in 2003 and 2004. Track listing
Note: All songs except Mad World (written by Roland Orzabal) were by Michael Andrews. The Donnie Darko Directors cut DVD will be released on Feb. 15th 2005. External links
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