Author Topic: Just watched Donnie Darko . . .  (Read 1612 times)

Recovering_Cynic

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Just watched Donnie Darko . . .
« on: February 19, 2010, 03:48:22 PM »
 . . . and I don't think I've watched a more disturbing/thought provoking movie in a long, long time.  If I were still an English major, I could write a thesis on that movie alone.  Heck, I could write a thesis on just a few of the scenes.  I guess the ultimate question the movie put in my mind was, "What the ^&$*& was going on?"
this is the way the world ends,
not with a bang, but a whimper
~T.S. Eliot

ErikHolmes

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Re: Just watched Donnie Darko . . .
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2010, 05:00:30 PM »
Here is the best explanation of it I've seen:

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Director's interpretation


According to Kelly and his fictional Philosophy of Time Travel, at midnight on October 2 - a Tangent Universe branches off the Primary Universe around the time when Donnie is called out of his bedroom by Frank, immediately before the appearance of the Artifact, the faulty jet engine. The inherently unstable Tangent Universe will collapse in just over 28 days and take the Primary Universe with it if not corrected. Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the Living Receiver, Donnie, who wields certain supernatural powers to help him in the task.

Those who die within the Tangent Universe (and would not have died otherwise) are the Manipulated Dead (Frank, Gretchen). Frank, at least, is also given certain powers in that he is able to subtly understand what is happening and have the ability to contact and influence the Living Receiver via the Fourth Dimensional Construct (water). All others within the orbit of the Living Receiver are the Manipulated Living (e.g. Ms. Pomeroy, Dr. Monnitoff), subconsciously drawn to push him towards his destiny to close the Tangent Universe and, according to the Philosophy of Time Travel, die by the Artifact.

Frank appears in the story in two guises (three guises if we assume that he 'never' dies on account of the restoration of the Primary Universe through the negation of the Tangent Universe). First, there is the Manipulated Dead Frank who appears to Donnie as a premonition from the future of the Tangent Universe in the disturbing rabbit suit. Dead Frank is aware of Donnie's fate and destiny, and impels him to realize it so that the Primary Universe can be restored at the point where/when the Tangent Universe branched off from it. Secondly, Frank appears alive as Donnie's sister's boyfriend, whose fate unfolds within the Tangent Universe by means of Donnie's successes in realizing his mission. This living boyfriend is fatally shot by Donnie towards the end of the film, a killing which was foreseen by Donnie.
Who the hell is interrupting my Kung Fu!

Recovering_Cynic

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Re: Just watched Donnie Darko . . .
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2010, 05:43:31 PM »
SPOILERS (But seriously, the expiration date on this movie is long past, and it's worth watching even spoiled)

That is very interesting, and it makes sense, about as much sense as anything you can get out of the film.  On the other hand, there are enough hints in the movie to lead me to speculate that the entire story was a psychotic delusion, but the question is, who's delusion was it?  Can't be Donnie's because he winds up a corpse.  Perhaps Frank's?  Anyway, it's probably the wrong interpretation considering how the ending plays out, but on the other hand, the alternate universe explanation negates the psychosis aspect and also doesn't explain some of the movie's events, e.g. burning down the mansion.  This seems more psychotic than anything; it doesn't seem to push toward collapsing the alternate universe.  The only real consequence of the burning is that Donnie's mom goes to California for the competition . . . *epiphany* . . . and if she hadn't, then the party would not have happened and Gretchen would not have died and the universe would have ended.  I had previously only considered the aspect that the plane would still have been flying over the city regardless of whether Donnie's mom was in California; I hadn't thought about the party.  Still, I could see the events leading up to Gretchen's death happening even without the party, so it's not completely explained.

Flooding the school is much more easily attributed to saving the universe--without that happening, Donnie wouldn't have met Gretchen, and then the whole thing would have been thrown off.  The idea that Gretchen was manipulating Donnie throughout the film the same way that Frank was is at the same time amazingly creepy and totally awesome.

That aside, I think the single aspect I most appreciated about the film was the craftsmanship.  Every single scene and event in the film was carefully thought out and placed.  There are set-ups and pay-offs galore, all of them well done and well executed, some even gut-wrenchingly so, e.g. Mrs. Death constantly wandering in the middle of the road being the first that comes to mind.

Of course, I'm not sure I appreciate some of the film's messages.  There's a lot of Christianity bashing in the film, but the particular brand of Christianity the film takes on is laughably one-sided.  It was a straw man argument, not something worthy of debate in the film.  The only reason it was tolerable was Donnie's own internal debate on whether God exists.  He is truly torn and for good reasons.  Without his real questions and beliefs, I think I may not have liked the film so much.

In sum, as I stated earlier, the film got me thinking more than any movie has in a long, long time.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2010, 05:46:28 PM by Recovering_Cynic »
this is the way the world ends,
not with a bang, but a whimper
~T.S. Eliot