Donnie Darko (2001) : Arrow Video Edition (2016)

Donnie Darko (2001)

Dir. Richard Kelly

I'm one of the people who consider Donnie Darko to be a modern classic. But did we really need another edition of it? The film had been previously released and re-released a number of times on disc, even distributed free to thousands of people in a UK daily newspaper years ago.

After having watched the new edition, my short answer is a sincere yes, we did need it. The picture quality on the previous discs was always less than perfect, and when played back on modern equipment it looked even worse.

The Arrow Films remaster was supervised and approved by Dir. Richard Kelly and DD's cinematographer, Steven Poster. It's sourced from the original camera negatives, scanned at 4K (encoded at 1080p to fit on the disc), and includes both the Theatrical Cut (113 mins) and the Director's Cut (133 mins) of the film. Visually it's a little darker overall than the US Blu put out by 20th Century Fox, but it's not as soft and the film grain is lovingly retained.

Arrow know that exclusive packaging, booklets, and throwing around the words Limited and Edition is enough to get fans of their label pre-ordering at inflated prices. So first came a four-disc Ltd Ed box that included a poster, some art cards, and a Blu-ray sized HB book. I wanted none of that, for reasons that I'll go into later, so I waited for the subsequent standard Amaray edition, which contained just the films (on two Blus) and a booklet. It's reduced in packaging, something that both my shelf and I are happy about, but the content is still generous:

• Brand new 4K restorations of both the Theatrical Cut and the Director's Cut from the original camera negatives produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release, supervised and approved by Dir. Richard Kelly and cinematographer Steven Poster.
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of both cuts.
• Original 5.1 audio.
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
• Audio commentary by writer-director Richard Kelly and actor Jake Gyllenhaal on the Theatrical Cut.
• Audio commentary by Kelly, producer Sean McKittrick and actors Drew Barrymore, Jena Malone, Beth Grant, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Katharine Ross and James Duval on the Theatrical Cut.
• Audio commentary by Kelly and filmmaker Kevin Smith on the Director's Cut.
• Brand-new interviews with Richard Kelly and others.
• The Goodbye Place, Kelly's 1996 short film, which anticipates some of the themes and ideas of his feature films.
• The Donnie Darko Production Diary, an archival documentary charting the film's production with optional commentary by cinematographer Steven Poster.
• Twenty deleted and alternate scenes with optional commentary by Kelly.
• Archive interviews with Kelly, actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, James Duval, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Noah Wyle and Katharine Ross, producers Sean McKittrick, Nancy Juvonen, Hunt Lowry and Casey La Scala, and cinematographer Steven Poster.
• Three archive featurettes: They Made Me Do It, They Made Me Do It Too and #1 Fan: A Darkomentary.
• Storyboard comparisons.
• B-roll footage.
• Cunning Visions infomercials.
• Music video: Mad World by Gary Jules.
• Galleries.
• Trailers.
• TV spots.
• Illustrated collector's booklet containing new writing by Nathan Rabin.
• Reversible sleeve featuring original + newly commissioned art by Candice Tripp.

(NOTE: the bulleted text used above is copied from Arrow's own site.)

Most of the extras seem interesting, and usually I'd be all over that kind of thing, but with the exception of the music video, infomercials, and the short film (B+W, 4:3) I didn't watch or read any of it. I know that might seem strange, but I adore the film in its original cut, I love the enigmatic nature of it and don't want any additional information influencing my long-established and deeply personal response to it. I'm covering my ears and singing "la la la la" very loudly at the mere thought of watching or reading anything that might 'explain' the film's plotting.

Even though I once owned the extended edition DVD (the newspaper freebie that I mentioned above), I never watched it and have no plans to ever do so. I've been told that it explains a couple of things that were unclear before, and goes into greater depth about one or more of the characters. I don't know if that's true or not, but I see no reason to find out for myself. There's a danger those additional 20 minutes will ruin parts of the story for me. I don't want too much clarification. I love DD precisely because it doesn't cop-out and give us all the answers.

You'll maybe notice that I haven't once mentioned what the film's actually about. That's not an oversight. I'd love to comment on the visual language, the methods used to capture and define an era, the movement, editing, music, and Donnie's fantastically ambiguous smirk, but I feel it's best to go into the film without knowing anything, without any hand-holding whatsoever.

For anyone interested, the first-pressing Limited Edition box looks like this:

The packaging is more elaborate. It has the same new artwork by Candice Tripp, but isn't reversible, and the book has more content: in addition to the new writing by Nathan Rabin, it has an introduction by Jake Gyllenhaal, writings from Anton Bitel and Jamie Graham, an in-depth interview with Richard Kelly, Arrow's usual 'contemporary' coverage, and is illustrated with original stills and promotional materials. Crucially, the content on the two Blu-ray discs appears to be the same as on the Amaray edition, except you also get it duplicated in SD on two DVDs.

- Some of the art included in the Ltd Ed. Not in the standard Amaray. -