donnie darko dvd versions?

[sphinx]

studios just don't put the effort forth into producing such editions of films because it's not economically viable.  criterion focuses only on these types of film and doesn't have to spend as much money on marketing or other kinds of costs studios would be burdended with, so they can spend the extra money on making better editions and yes, the price has to be higher considering they won't sell as well as more popular films.

[Derek]

In Donnie Darko's case, it already has a decent edition. Yet, people are clamoring for a Criterion one. As for Bottle Rocket, why won't a Columbia release suffice?....And, there are titles that would have sold well without the Criterion moniker: The Rock, Armageddon, Silence of the Lambs, Robocop, Traffic, to a lesser extent the Wes Anderson flicks...

I'm not knocking the line's intentions, just the people that assume because it's Criterion, it has to be better.

[Cecil]

compare the current robocop version and the cc robocop.

[bonanzataz]

cc robocop rules.

cc usually has better transfers (if we're talking about an obscure foreign movie then yeah) and they don't lend their commentaries out to studios (usually). they gots the good shit.

[sphinx]

criterion version of SOTL had a commentary by tony hopkins and the jodes...can't get any better than that

i was thoroughly entertained by her on the contact 'mentary

[MacGuffin]

compare the current robocop version and the cc robocop.

Criterion RoboCop is the X-Rated director's cut; more violent and much bloodier. There is also commentary and more extras that the MGM release doesn't include.

[Duck Sauce]

criterion version of SOTL had a commentary by tony hopkins and the jodes...can't get any better than that

i was thoroughly entertained by her on the contact 'mentary

I actually still have a copy that is in its original shrink wrap.

[cowboykurtis]

quick question about possible plot holes in darko... if he has super human physical powers, as inferred by the ax in the head of the brass sculpture, why was he so helpless when the "BULLY" attacked him outside the cellar door. why couldnt he throw him off and save his girlfriend. also, if he knew that he was going into the past to kill himself in order to save his girlfriends life, why couldnt he just make a concious effort to never "fall in love" and never take her to the cellar door. if this was done, she woould never be hit by the car.  is it really neccessary that he kills himself? i think the biggest problem is, there are rules that supposedly govern the occurences within the world richard kelly creates, however those rules are never clearly articulated.

[picolas]

note: the following is all picolas' interpretation of the film in question and brimmed to the fill with spoilers...

if he has super human physical powers, as inferred by the ax in the head of the brass sculpture, why was he so helpless when the "BULLY" attacked him outside the cellar door. why couldnt he throw him off and save his girlfriend.

i'd say it's 'cause his powers only existed in the sleep/dream world and could only be summoned to help things to continue along the timeline they were supposed to... if he had pushed the bully away, Gretchen wouldn't have been run over and Frank wouldn't have been shot.

if he knew that he was going into the past to kill himself...

it took him a while to realize that. long after he met Gretchen.

...in order to save his girlfriends life...

and..the whole universe...

why couldnt he just make a concious effort to never "fall in love"

kinda hard to do, there..

is it really neccessary that he kills himself?

yeah. he's got to take one for the team.

there are rules that supposedly govern the occurences within the world richard kelly creates, however those rules are never clearly articulated.

you'll find the complete rules somewhere in here...yeah...it's not the kind of movie that explains itself...but i guess that's partly what makes it so great. you decide what you think the rules are yourself...

[cowboykurtis]

i think a film is a garbage if you have to read a manual or listen to a commentary in order to make up for weak script. that's my biggest problem with darko. a film maker can't expect that every viewe is going to scower the internet for answers -- its either in the film or its not. everything else does not count.  also by the time gretchen dies, donnie is aware of what his task is. i feel that he goes into that bed knowing that hes going to die. if this is all in attempt to save her life, why doesnt he just reverse time  and leave town. its more logical than killing himself. if its just trying to be poetic, i dont feel it locically works. i disagree that donnie saved the world -- when are there ever allusions to that in the film?

[picolas]

i think a film is a garbage if you have to read a manual or listen to a commentary

i enjoy that you have to dig deeper to get truly concrete answers, but i still think that if you saw it by itself, you could make a bazillion different interpretations and not one of them would necessarily be wrong. you don't have to take a look at the site or listen to the commentary to decide what happened in that movie. it does still stand on its own...

by the time gretchen dies, donnie is aware of what his task is

well then, by your interpretation, he still wouldn't have known long enough in advance to "make a consious effort to never 'fall in love.'"

i disagree that donnie saved the world -- when are there ever allusions to that in the film?

"28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end."

[cowboykurtis]

then how does the act of killing himself save the world?

[cowboykurtis]

when referring to gretchen. by the time shes dead, donnie knows his task. he knows he has the ability to go back in time and undo her death. the act of killing himself prevents him from ever meeting her. im saying with that knowledge, why cant he go back in time, and just make a concious effort to never meet her? if ithe film is trying to say that their love was soo deep that he couldnt live without her, i feel that relationship wasnt developed enough.

[picolas]

then how does the act of killing himself save the world?

well, personally i believe it to come from the idea that the engine was destined to kill him and he was destined to be killed by the engine. there was a mistake made somewhere along the way (most likely by a higher being), and the engine created this...other version of the last part of his life in order to let him make the events make sense. the mistake was that, although Donnie was 'sposed to be killed by the engine (for whatever reason, in the grand scheme of things), he was also the one meant to bring the engine into his bedroom by making it travel back through time by way of a wormhole/time machine he created in the future (AFTER his death). if he had lived the alternate timeline and not redirected the engine to his room (which had technically already happened), he would've created an enormous time paradox. if BTTF Part 2 taught us anything, it's that time paradoxes aren't yummy for the universe. just one causes the whole shebang to die.

so, yeah.

he knows he has the ability to go back in time and undo her death.

does he, though? i don't think the process of time travel as suggested by this movie is as simple as something you can flick on and off. it's a major event that takes a lot of time and preperation to pull off. if you go with the possibility that it's the WORLD at stake, and he's GOT to die, you can't just let him run away from Gretchen without denying the fact that the world will take a big hit for that. and what if Gretchen just acts as the motivation for him to go back in time, and as the key to the creation of Frank as a time travelling space ghost? without Gretchen's death you have even more paradoxes because suddenly Frank's out of the picture. say you're right about the idea that he can go back in time EASY and he does in order to never meet Gretchen. Donnie probably wouldn't have learned about his powers without Frank's guidance and again, Frank wouldn't exist unless he shot him if he hadn't run Gretchen over...and without the powers he wouldn't have been able to so easily travel back in time and prevent Gretchen from dying...

OOOOY!

[cowboykurtis]

do you actually think theres enough information within the film to make that conclusion? and if thats the case. your interpretation makes me think even less of this film. if all occurences in this film are controlled by a "higher being", it is an extremely weak plot device. if you have an "all powerful being"controlling the destanies of the protagnist, and really the outcome of the film, why should we care?  its a cheap way to solve problems. its ludacris.  to have  the inciting incident, and  every plot point and resolution based on something that inst in the protaganist control is so lazy. you can write anything, all motivations can be ludacris, all conflicts can be irrevelent -- as long as you put it on the shoulders of the "higher being", it allows the writer to be irresposible in his story telling. i think this film is garbage and the narrative collapses on its circular logic.