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Started by SmallBlueThing, 04 February, 2011, 12:40:44 PM

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Funt Solo

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 04:43:49 PM
Don't be mean! Any film that needs a director's cut to explain its plot is mince.

Don't get me started on the Director's Cut of Aliens! Mince AND tatties. I'm getting hungry now.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

pictsy

Quote from: I, Cosh on 24 May, 2021, 05:06:44 PM
You probably wouldn't have liked it anyway but this is definitely where you've gone wrong. The Director's Cut is notoriously shite and generally taken as evidence (alongside his next film) that the director himself didn't understand what made the film good in the first place.

So it was the Director's Cut that was bad and not me misremembering what I liked about the film. 

I really don't think the DC explains the film, I remember the theatrical cuts plot being pretty simple to follow.

The Enigmatic Dr X

I may have the benefit of spending 20 odd minutes googling this stuff after watching the film.

I watched the theatrical cut. The DC adds around 20 minutes including a series of excerpts from The Philosophy of Time Travel book that features in the film. That book, which was available on the film's website at the time of its release, explains what is going on - that Donnie is in a bubble universe, basically.

Without that explanation, the firm is (take your pick) either impenetrable twaddle, or deep because it lets you draw your own conclusions. The DC has a backlash (not from me) for giving a definitive explanation of what the sneck is going on, thereby shattering the emo-illusions of a generation, I guess.
Lock up your spoons!

The Enigmatic Dr X

Quote from: Funt Solo on 24 May, 2021, 05:12:55 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 04:43:49 PM
Don't be mean! Any film that needs a director's cut to explain its plot is mince.

Don't get me started on the Director's Cut of Aliens! Mince AND tatties. I'm getting hungry now.

But the DC of Aliens isn't needed to explain its plot?
Lock up your spoons!

JOE SOAP

#15724
Donnie Darko DC is an exercise in overindulgence and convolution – a runaway trait that quickly ground the creator's career to a halt. The least interesting thing about the film is the logicality of the plot. Adding more of, or trying to explain it via clunky exposition and incongruous FX scenes, takes away from what is a fairly simple, atmospheric story. The film-maker misjudged that appeal.

Funt Solo

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 05:54:31 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 24 May, 2021, 05:12:55 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 04:43:49 PM
Don't be mean! Any film that needs a director's cut to explain its plot is mince.

Don't get me started on the Director's Cut of Aliens! Mince AND tatties. I'm getting hungry now.

But the DC of Aliens isn't needed to explain its plot?

Arguably, neither is the DC of Donnie Darko. In both cases, the DC actively undermines the theatrical cut, by over-explaining in a way that reduces tension. Given that both narratives thrive on tension, reducing it is ... reductive.

On the other hand, the (original) DC of Blade Runner removed the voice over, which was a studio-applied over-explanation that spoiled the atmosphere of the theatrical cut.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

The Enigmatic Dr X

Quote from: Funt Solo on 24 May, 2021, 06:22:38 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 05:54:31 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 24 May, 2021, 05:12:55 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 04:43:49 PM
Don't be mean! Any film that needs a director's cut to explain its plot is mince.

Don't get me started on the Director's Cut of Aliens! Mince AND tatties. I'm getting hungry now.

But the DC of Aliens isn't needed to explain its plot?

Arguably, neither is the DC of Donnie Darko. In both cases, the DC actively undermines the theatrical cut, by over-explaining in a way that reduces tension. Given that both narratives thrive on tension, reducing it is ... reductive.

On the other hand, the (original) DC of Blade Runner removed the voice over, which was a studio-applied over-explanation that spoiled the atmosphere of the theatrical cut.

Y'know, in 20 odd years on this forum, this might be my first argument. My first on-line argument! Woo-hoo.

Anyway, you're wrong because without the DC...

och, you know what. Life is too short. I know lots of people like Donnie Darko. I didn't. I guess it's just a marmite movie. I am certainly not going to lose any sleep over it. It would be a dull world if we all liked the same things.
Lock up your spoons!

Funt Solo

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 24 May, 2021, 06:58:56 PM
och, you know what. Life is too short. I know lots of people like Donnie Darko. I didn't. I guess it's just a marmite movie. I am certainly not going to lose any sleep over it. It would be a dull world if we all liked the same things.

Hey - we both liked the music!

Totally agree with you - there's nothing I can say to make the movie intrinsically good for you, and then the vice versa is also true (or the arsi versi, as they said in Master & Commander).
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

milstar

Quote from: Funt Solo on 24 May, 2021, 06:22:38 PM

On the other hand, the (original) DC of Blade Runner removed the voice over, which was a studio-applied over-explanation that spoiled the atmosphere of the theatrical cut.

Is somewhere in existence the theatrical version of BR? It'd work awesome in the noirish atmosphere of the film? Not to mention that I DC version confusing.
Reyt, you lot. Shut up, belt up, 'n if ye can't see t' bloody exit, ye must be bloody blind.

Hawkmumbler

'Laughs in Ghost in the Shell 2.0'

'Cries thinking about the hideous CG in Ghost in the Shell 2.0'

TordelBack

Quote from: milstar on 24 May, 2021, 07:50:13 PM
Is somewhere in existence the theatrical version of BR? It'd work awesome in the noirish atmosphere of the film? Not to mention that I DC version confusing.

It was included in that lovely tin Collectors' boxset a few years back. Personally I enjoy all the BR versions, the Ford voice-over appealed to me as kid and was good quote-fodder (cf SigueSigue Sputnik) in that '80s Schwarzenegger mode, right up to the Final Cut and its rather ponderous unicorn dream.  I even like BR2049, but it is a bit of a slog in the middle.

They all have something to offer.

Tjm86

Quote from: milstar on 24 May, 2021, 07:50:13 PM
Is somewhere in existence the theatrical version of BR? It'd work awesome in the noirish atmosphere of the film? Not to mention that I DC version confusing.

If you look for the US version of the Blu-ray (which is region free) it includes everything up to and including the Final Cut.  Even the long-fabled work print edition.  The DVD boxset did as well mind.  In fact the DVD tin is a surprising example of a superior packaging effort compared to the Blu ray, which in this country was an incredibly inferior product.

Recrewt

Each to their own but I find the theatrical version with its voice-overs massively distracting and once you are reminded of the naked gun movies, then you can't get it out of your head!  Doesn't it also include the awful driving through the mountains ending too?  I suppose you can always just stop it when the lift doors close to avoid that - the DC/FC ending is far superior in that respect.

Funt Solo

Quote from: Recrewt on 25 May, 2021, 06:06:36 PM
Doesn't it also include the awful driving through the mountains ending too?

It does. It's probably redundant for me to mention that's just a clip from a scene in The Shining*, as we all seem to be quite involved Blade Runner geeks.


*Next I'll be telling everyone about Frank Beard.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Professor Bear

ZACK SNYDER: Here is a film I have made, and it is about the inevitable failure of capitalism and why concentration camps are bad.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Typical Snyder.  So right wing.

That Zack Snyder's ARMY OF THE DEAD is an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist work is apparently irrelevant to the living torment that is social media commentary, for Snyder is a right-wing hack and that is the only lens through which his work is allowed to be evaluated.  A Sean Spicer cameo is highlighted as proof that the film is right-wing, but Spicer's cameo actually sees him schooled by an African-American woman for failing to acknowledge racial profiling and America's jailing of political dissidents.  Within minutes of this, we see life in America's concentration camps as a living Hell in which people can "disappear" at the whim of guards who use their authority to hide their raping not just detainees, but also those who enter the camp as medical volunteers.  The camps full of people deemed less than human and a threat to American security, treated like they're diseased, all of them seemingly Latino, all confined behind a massive wall - I don't know who needs to hear this in relation to a Zack Snyder movie but this is not subtle stuff, it is not hard to miss, and none of this is my "hot take", this is the actual text of the film story.

There's a whole sub-plot in this movie where an alpha-male character is struggling to communicate with his daughter, and Snyder devotes long, seemingly aimless minutes to a father and daughter failing to express themselves adequately to each other and they cut the conversation short thinking they have time to work this through.  They've left this conversation in a bad place, but they'll sort it out later.  There's time.
I can think of... another interpretation of this part of the story which was written by Zack Snyder that doesn't involve his right wing politics, but Zack Snyder is right wing, so it's probably just about how he doesn't understand women probably.

There's an axiom in left-wing thinking that goes "we can sooner see the end of the world than accept the end of capitalism", and in recent years this has been born out to be true because capitalists are literally burning the planet to death, but if you want to see a fun examination of this notion played out with a zombie tiger, this movie has your back.  I really enjoyed its silly mix of heist and zombie tropes and while I did feel the running time once or twice, it's got plenty going on to keep you occupied.  It starts with a just-married woman declaring "I love life WOO" and if you know where that's going - and you definately do - but can keep watching anyway, you won't have any problems with this.