MovieChat Forums > Donnie Darko (2001) Discussion > The reason some prefer the theatrical ve...

The reason some prefer the theatrical version over the director's cut


In a word, G-d.

The director's version makes it clear that Donnie has to find G-d before he can sacrifice himself and save the universe and there's this huge subset of the progressive left out there that hates any sort of affirmative G-d talk. You just have to go on boards about shows with angels or G-d as the good guys and you'll see a bunch of angry Rosie O'Donnell types come along and just sh*+ all over it. They don't mind satan so much and his moral relativism but watch out if there's any sort of absolute moral judgement, they just lose it.

And so they see the theatrical version and really enjoy it even with the couple of minor G-d moments, one sorta with the therapist, G-d's channel with the teacher,and the big one before Gretchen is run over where he has a knife at his throat and says Deus ex machina and then something about a saviour but the director's cut punches it up even more.

Donnie isn't an atheist he's an agnostic is the last words the therapist says to him, making it a big part of what his therapy was all about. We get all these flashes of computer code and computer monitor type images a number of times. This indicates that we're dealing with a holographic universe, a simulation where a code error has happened and it has to be fixed, and that fixing is what the movie is about. To my mind whether it's a holographic super computer, G-d, the great spirit, the clock maker, or the great pumpkin even, it's all the same thing. And that thing is what some people don't like, in my opinion.

That's it. Over and out.

"Bemusement, my favourite form of musement"

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First of all, just type god, there's no need to censor the o. Second, god has nothing to do with people's liking of the theatrical cut more, it has to do with ambiguity. When you watch the theatrical cut, it isn't explained exactly what happens which means a lot of what happens is up to the viewer's interpretation and when Donnie sacrifices himself in the theatrical cut it is a much more noble gesture, giving his own life to save the girl he loves and his family. In the director's cut, it's just another bland save the universe ending, rather than an original and emotionally challenging sacrifice.

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It's because the theatrical cut is better, not your nonsense.

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Aren't they about the same Tristan? I've seen them both, and I can't recall much difference.

In the director's cut, they changed the score a little and added the passages from the time-travel book, but other than that, what else is different?

It seems like pretty-much the same story to me.

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This. The director's cut is a completely different experience to the theatrical version and not in a good way IMO.

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