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I finished watching this for the 3rd time last night...and I think I finally completely understand it

Donnie Darko is amazing, wasily one of my favorites

It's a very flawed movie that's great because of its flaws.  :thumbup:

The director's cut is an abomination. The original theatrical version is the one to watch.

I feel the opposite way.

Anyway, I adore this film. In my top 20 of all time.

Great movie. Great soundtrack. I'm quite smitten with Jenna Malone as well.  :smile:

I remember being very confused by this movie. In most cases for me, that is a good thing, because either A. I enjoy being confused while intoxicated and I can trip out, or B. It means I can watch the movie again and see new things so I'll understand.

In this case, I watched Donnie Darko and it lost me. It wasn't in a good way like Big Lebowski confused yet interested, but in a WTF is going on way, kinda like the first 10 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey confused. So there is my take on it.

the original theatrical version is miles ahead of the directors cut, at least to me

I agree that the theatrical cut is superior to the director's cut.

The original is in many ways an exploration of teenage angst. The actual story remains mostly a mystery because there are simply not enough clues in the film to figure it out. Thematically, it makes the movie work, because the mystery is important to the pervading sense of misease.

The director's adds several important scenes that greatly explicate what is literally going on in the movie, making it more of a science-fiction puzzle.

There are quite a few explanations online which pretty thoroughly explain the literal elements of the story. The most common one (the tangent universe, the artifact, etc.) I happen to agree with, but I don't think the movie is better off for me knowing the full explanation.

I guess it's up to you which one you prefer. I happen to think the film works much better as metaphor than it does as an explicitly told tale, which is why I prefer the theatrical version.

I don't hate the directors cut but I also prefer the theatrical as it lent itself nicely to my reading [which the directors cut disproves] that the whole film could really just be Donnie's way of justifying his own death as he is killed by the engine.  In those final moments his brain concocts this story in a flash to get over the shock of it all.

Yeah its a loose reading, but I liked that idea all the same.  I also do like the plot as-is with tangent universes etc, but I prefer movies that seem complicated but are actually simple; that seems to be the more elegant solution rather than anything that requires too much explanation.

The director's cut is the one with the cards right? And the one where he says he's gonna fart in his sister's face?

I tried to watch this and I couldn't get more than about 20 minutes in, if that.  The last thing I remember is Patrick Swayze finding and waking up a pasty-faced kid (the main character, I think), who was passed out on a golf course.  It wasn't confusing, or bad, just uninteresting to a degree I never thought possible.  Almost immediately after it started I was watching the dust motes floating around the room more than the movie.  I really can't explain it, that's not something that's ever happened to me before with any movie.

director's cut had pages from the time travel book in it

I LOVE Donnie Darko.

Great movie.

A friend told me that it's a bigger movie over in London and parts of England.  Much more 'well receieved' than it was here in the States.  Why, I don't know.