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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: aldo_14 on May 15, 2006, 03:20:10 am

Title: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: aldo_14 on May 15, 2006, 03:20:10 am
http://film.guardian.co.uk/cannes2006/story/0,,1772595,00.html

According to his official biography, Richard Kelly is the director of the acclaimed Donnie Darko, the writer of the less acclaimed Domino and a contender for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes film festival. According to the Department of Homeland Security he is a suspected terrorist who may now be prevented from travelling to Cannes next week.

Kelly, 31, appears caught in bureaucratic limbo after his passport was reportedly "held under review" by the US government. Sources suggest that the film-maker has been confused with another man, "James Kelly", who is on the terrorist watch list. Kelly's full name is James Richard Kelly.

Born in Virginia, the son of a NASA technician, Kelly made his feature debut in 2001 with the black comedy Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. His latest picture, Southland Tales, is set in a dystopian Los Angeles paralysed by economic and environmental collapse. Ironically, the film is implicitly concerned with security measures taken by the US government after the events of September 11 2001.

"The paranoid conspiracy freak inside me is starting to think this has something to do with the film," Kelly admitted yesterday. In the meantime he has enlisted his mother to hunt for documents that prove his American citizenship.

The Cannes film festival runs May 17-28.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ace on May 15, 2006, 04:17:15 am
The Department of 'Homeland' Stupidity strikes again.

...and am I the only one still bothered by the whole Nazi/Soviet "fatherland/motherland" overtones of "homeland?"
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Herra Tohtori on May 15, 2006, 04:29:00 am
Makes me think... how many similar cases have occurred with people who are no celebrities? I mean, it's quite a coincidence that the very first one would involve a commonly known person.

How many others before this have been stripped of their passports (and citizenship, it appears) because they have the wrong name, only they didn't become known in media because they were just average people with no particular importance...?

Meh, perhaps I'm just being overly paranoid. But still, quite a coincidence, you have to admit.  :nervous:
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: aldo_14 on May 15, 2006, 04:55:39 am
The Department of 'Homeland' Stupidity strikes again.

...and am I the only one still bothered by the whole Nazi/Soviet "fatherland/motherland" overtones of "homeland?"

Show some respect for Uncle George, comrade!

This message brought to you by the Campaign For Homeland Security.  All dissenters will be branded quails
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: karajorma on May 15, 2006, 10:16:25 am
Actually I reckon they just wanted to interrogate him so that they could figure out what the **** was going on in Donnie Darko :D


Seriously though Herra Tohtori is correct in that it's very doubtful that this is the first time that such a stupid mix up has occured. Maybe the department of homeland security should go back to what they do best. Punishing people who infringe on the Rubix cube's expired patents! (http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2004/291004toystore.htm)
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: aldo_14 on May 15, 2006, 10:28:37 am
I know someone who was pulled aside at US Immigration for having a beard.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ford Prefect on May 15, 2006, 12:15:03 pm
He was going to the Cannes Film Festival. He's obviously some kind of terrorist. You don't set foot in that filthy bachhanalia of moral bankruptcy unless you hate freedom.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: karajorma on May 15, 2006, 12:37:57 pm
Or love porn.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: aldo_14 on May 15, 2006, 12:41:42 pm
How much to Canne?

And the next flight?

Lovely.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Rictor on May 15, 2006, 12:53:42 pm
Donnie Darko was a comedy?

 :wtf: :wtf:
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ford Prefect on May 15, 2006, 01:26:50 pm
Not a "ha-ha" comedy. It was tragicomic, as many of the world's greatest works of art are. Donnie Darko takes the audience through a wide range of emotions because its philosophical goals are so ambitious.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ferret on May 15, 2006, 01:36:18 pm
It certainly made me laugh a few times. Good film. This story is hilarious too.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Nix on May 15, 2006, 11:17:58 pm
You've got to be kidding me.  I'd rather watch Solaris - Looney Clooney edition, rather than Donnie Darko again.  Great piece of work my ass.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ford Prefect on May 15, 2006, 11:39:38 pm
Donnie Darko gets an unfair reputation because of its large fanbase of moronic teenagers who think the movie is about themselves. Disregarding that, I think it's a very beautiful, moving film. It's an almost overwhelming stream of questions and ideas that come at you in such a swirl that you have to watch it over and over again. I'm still getting more out of it each time I watch it.

I also discovered something that may make you see it in a totally different light (it did for me, anyway): Apparently the entire film was inspired by Ambrose Bierce's "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". For me that completely changed how I interpreted the film's structure.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Grey Wolf on May 15, 2006, 11:54:59 pm
The Department of 'Homeland' Stupidity strikes again.

...and am I the only one still bothered by the whole Nazi/Soviet "fatherland/motherland" overtones of "homeland?"
Would you prefer the Committee of Public Safety?
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ferret on May 16, 2006, 12:58:47 am
You've got to be kidding me.  I'd rather watch Solaris - Looney Clooney edition, rather than Donnie Darko again.  Great piece of work my ass.

Hey, Solaris wasn't terrible. Bit slow, but a very touching story. *Sniffs*
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ford Prefect on May 16, 2006, 01:03:20 am
I agree. I admit my view of Solaris was somewhat uninformed, since I haven't read the book or seen the original film, but as a work of itself, I thought it was pretty good.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ferret on May 16, 2006, 03:02:46 am
I also have never seen the original or read the book from which it was based.
Anyway, one thing you can't deny is that the soundtrack was bloody brilliant. Some of the best ambient ever.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ace on May 16, 2006, 04:15:26 am
The Department of 'Homeland' Stupidity strikes again.

...and am I the only one still bothered by the whole Nazi/Soviet "fatherland/motherland" overtones of "homeland?"
Would you prefer the Committee of Public Safety?

Well at least Robespierre made it sound so... friendly...
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Kosh on May 16, 2006, 10:43:59 am
"Homeland Security" always sounded more like the name of a mortgage company to me.....
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Rictor on May 16, 2006, 01:40:37 pm
Quote
Donnie Darko takes the audience through a wide range of emotions because its philosophical goals are so ambitious.

Ebert and Ford give it two moody, existential thumbs up. Way up.

As for Homeland Security, I maintain that the Saudis have the best ministry name I've heard of. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which is basically their religious police. How awesome it that.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Ford Prefect on May 16, 2006, 02:29:42 pm
Ebert and Ford give it two moody, existential thumbs up. Way up.
Ha. Ha. You know, it's not my fault that being an artfag makes me better than other people.
Title: Re: Donnie Darko director investigated for terrorist links
Post by: Nix on May 17, 2006, 12:33:56 am
I also have never seen the original or read the book from which it was based.
Anyway, one thing you can't deny is that the soundtrack was bloody brilliant. Some of the best ambient ever.

I like how the Clooney version explained the story, did a much better job for this generation of people, and kept things interesting.  I have the original Solaris, Criterion version, which in my opinion, was an exercise in masochism, but I still liked it.  Where I was confused in Tarkofsky's Solaris, made sense in the new version. 

I guess one reason why I cant really enjoy Donnie Darko enough to get into it, is Drew Barrymore, and "secretary" Maggie Gyllenhal.  (her brother on the other hand, isnt too bad.)  I cant stand EITHER of them.  They, literally, make me want to pull my own teeth out at the sounds of thier voices.  I'm sure everyone's got thier actors/actresses who annoy to the absolute core.  Barrymore is one for me.  I can't stand her at all.  "Cellar Door".  I about threw the remote at the screen.  Whatever, I'm dumb, but yeah, she's just irritating beyond my level of acceptance.