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Right on, arse. I like both versions, and I have very fond memories of childhood associated with the original. There was something optimistic sounding about the instrumentation, with a bit of bittersweet.
Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies, not least of all because of the music and the sense of place and time it has. The director's cut was cool for some of the things it added, but it also tried to explain TOO much. It seemed to force some of the director's sci-fi trappings into the foreground, and I don't think they work.
SPOILER ALERT--SPOILER ALERT
I think all you need to know is that Donnie made the decision to go back in time and save everybody by sacrificing himself; the details of how he did it are just distracting, IMO. The original cut of the movie does a great job of setting up the bizarre framework... you don't need specifics.
I always recommend people see the theatrical version first.
BTW, someone set the Jules version to an animation a few years ago, I can't remember the name of the creatures, like brown spongebobs but with big jagged mouths, I know some of you guys will know who I mean. It was awesome.
Also, holy cow, it has been eons since I heard the original Tears For Fears song... was this off "The Hurting"? The Jules version has been so burned into my brain by the movie, I forgot what they were working with originally... the song is great, but the way they bent it to fit their movie is genius.
I used to work with someone who thought the Gary Jules one was the original as "it sounded older, scratchier and less produced". And this was about 2 months after it had been the UK's Christmas number one single, while Donnie Darko was still doing the rounds. He was amazed that Tears For Fears hadn't written it and that the "original" hadn't been bigger; if it wasn't for the internet, he'd never had discovered the it...
I've been poking around in people's directories on P2P to see what the kids are listening to nowadays, and the 320 and 256 kbps files of the Gary Jules version are everywhere.
It (the Gary Jules version) has recently been used to good effect in a Gears of War (video game) commercial. No explosion/gunshot/footstep sound effects at all, just the video (I'm assuming a cinematic from the game) and the song. It's really quite powerful.
"The Hurting" is to this day my favorite album to play when I'm feeling depressed. I was in college, and up to my eyebrows in unrequited love, when I first bought it. *sigh* I'd never heard the Jules version of "Mad World" -- I like it, but I think I'm too emotionally bound up in that whole Tears for Fears album for it to get to me in the same way.
Feh. I like the original... As a matter of fact The Hurting is one of the great "rainy day" records of all time.
"Ideas as Opiates" and "Pale Shelter" are the best songs onnit, tho.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
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