donnie darko

[mud_]

since i'd imagine everyone has seen this now (if not you should leave this thread)

can we talk about one of the weirdest fucking movies ever

i'll start with : what the fuck is it ABOUT?
(please dont say time travel...dig a little deeper)

one thing i noticed is this:

just after the school has been flooded theres a scene where donnie is in the school bathroom and the fonzie looking motherfucker is holding a knife at this throat. thats it

until about 20 minutes later AFTER donnie has that trip out and see's "gods finger" pointing him to the parents bedroom and the gun in the closet.

the next scene (after he finds the gun) is him sitting in school, his girlfriend is sitting next to him and she points to his neck and says "you're bleeding" .

im not sure i understand that scene (among just about all of them) completely

either the last scene is immediately after the school bathroom scene and all the 20 minutes of other plot in between is something else entirely

OR

after donnie takes the gun from the closet THATS when he first shoots frank (with a whole bunch of time hopping in between)

can anyone A) make sense of what ive just asked or
B) help out with something to look for in the movie that will break it all open for me?

thanks

[Euphonae]

i havent seen it.

[JDMCivicHatch96]

i didnt read the thread, and i havent seen it. Could ya tell me if its worth seeing?

[Pudie]

Actually , according to the director/writer it is about time travel. So , yea......


Great movie though.

[EtchedInCold]

i believe in the commentary, they say that the bathroom scene is supposed to be somewhere else in the movie, but they had to move it to set things up or something to that effect. I'll watch it again tonight to be sure, or maybe one of you can.

yes i watched the commentary
/nerd.

[The Agent]

once again not my cup of tea.

[mud_]

i didnt read the thread, and i havent seen it. Could ya tell me if its worth seeing?

it's worth seeing

[iha]

I love the movie. I have yet to see the directors cut, but really want to.

[jims]

i find it weird how this film is...like...so popular. its kinda cult like. i watched it on tv about 3years ago. and id never heard of it. didnt know anyone who knew it. then in this last year its super popular. cool film though.

[FOXON]

call me weird, but i think the most significant line is
"what kind of a name is donnie darko, sounds liek a superhero"
"what makes you think i'm not??"

i think donnie has some kind of power, and he is using this to conquer his fear of dying alone... if he never flooded the school, he'd have never met gretchin.. and so on

i think he discovers the theory of time travel and uses this to not die alone... cuz he has to sacrifice himself to save the others....

dunno what frank is all about tho...

totally awesome film

[Pudie]

Frank is his guide through the alernate dimension

[mud_]

call me weird, but i think the most significant line is
"what kind of a name is donnie darko, sounds liek a superhero"
"what makes you think i'm not??"

i think donnie has some kind of power, and he is using this to conquer his fear of dying alone... if he never flooded the school, he'd have never met gretchin.. and so on

i think he discovers the theory of time travel and uses this to not die alone... cuz he has to sacrifice himself to save the others....


did you get that from the movie without hearing the directors commentary?

cause the director DOES talk about donnie being a super hero (though its entirely miss-able i think)

also in the directors commentary they called frank the "deus ex machina" (machine of god/god machine)
which i dont really understand cause i understand "deus ex machina" to be a device the ancient greeks used to move scenery and stuff around during their plays

BUT. i do understand the whole "manipulated dead/living reciever" as long as the manipulated dead is SEPARATE from the "god machine"

as soon as someone tries telling me that frank IS god. no thanks.

so it seems that the challenge isnt actually "whats it about?" (its about a time travelling super hero that needs to set things up in place B so that the universe doesnt end) but trying to work out exactly how the movie makes this clear.

e.g is it fine to say "oh...donnie is a superhero, he controls fire and water " when we actually SEE him cut the water main and pour fuel all over the floor of the house?

where else is it apparent that he is a super hero (apart from the quote and even then does that line you quoted mean that donnie is AWARE of whats going on?)

[EtchedInCold]

also in the directors commentary they called frank the "deus ex machina" (machine of god/god machine)
which i dont really understand cause i understand "deus ex machina" to be a device the ancient greeks used to move scenery and stuff around during their plays

they used deus ex machinas to make people float/fly/appear to be gods. that's why they named it what they did.
but Frank being a deus ex machina also fits because that's exactly what he is, a machine of god. God is using Frank to guide Donnie to get everything back to how it should be.

[Pun'KinG']

I was contemplating whether or not to buy the Director's Cut of Donnie Darko last weekend, but I opted to purchase the 40th Anniversary edition of Dr. Strangelove instead. Probably because I had a hankering to watch it again. :smoke: Oh, and this version has a newly created 5.1 audio mix from original mono. :confused:

[jazz]

i haven't read any of the responses in this thread yet, so bear with me...

here's what i understood from the movie thus far...

***SPOILERS***

donnie gets awoken from bed by frank (a guy in a creeped out rabbit costume) so that a.) he doesn't get killed, and so that b.) he could lead him on a path that will help save the universe by giving the plane engine (which appears out of nowhere) a purpose for appearing in the first place. this plane engine appearing out of nowhere represents a tangent universe that had been formed, and if donnie did nothing to help close it, it would wind up collapsing upon itself and destroying everything in it if not closed in time (28 days).

so, with the "rabbit" communicating to him from another dimension, he instructs donnie on doing certain things that ultimately lead him to complete his task...flooding the school which led him to meeting gretchen because school had been cancelled, burning that perv's house which led to kitty having to appear in court to support him and force donnie's mom to leave the house on a flight to accompany that dance team (the flight that justifies the engine falling off)...which in turn leads him and his sister to throw a party where gretchen gets killed at the end and makes donnie kill frank out of rage (by killing frank in the tangent dimension, he ensures his appearance to him in his dreams).

am i on the right track here? if anyone knows of a good FAQ, hook me up...

[KenKill75]

:doh: I already responded to this before you moved it from the morning thread.

[jazz]

sorry, i felt that it would get lost in the goodmorning thread...

btw, i deleted your responses in that thread, so feel free to respond here.

[KenKill75]

Good point.

I just read this whole thread. Some interesting points. I didnt buy the director's cut, so I dont have all the special features that may discuss the movie in depth.

[jazz]

i don't have that version either. :shrug:

[KenKill75]

Im guessing Frank, who obviously is a real person, was sent back in time, by who, I dont know (God maybe?), to guide him. Obviously at the end, he finds a portal to go back in time and make sure he is in his bed when the jet engine crashes through the roof. Im not really sure what, if any, significance the jet engine itself has, and im not really sure about the whole "end of the world" thing.

[jazz]

i don't think was sent back in time though, ken. i think he just exists in another dimension (maybe the future?) while he communicates to donnie. remember, frank is still alive (in human form) up until donnie shoots him dead in the tangent dimension.

[KenKill75]

Yes, I know he's still alive. But in the future he is already dead. Thats why when he takes his mask off in the theater, he has the bullet wound in his eye. What exactly do you mean by "another dimension". To me, given the time travel theme of the film, that other dimension is the future. He is there to get Donnie to change the course of events, though im still not sure what it has to do with the end of the world.

[jazz]

by no means am i an expert on this film (shit, ive only seen it once), but IMO the 'other dimension' from what i understood was the offshoot of the "real" dimension that they were in (by "real" dimension, i mean pre-airplane engine crash). frank exists only in that offshoot dimension for the amount of time it takes donnie to close that loop by going through what he did and setting the "real" dimension back on track by his actions. you following me here?

[KenKill75]

Not at all :eek2:

[jazz]

i can't explain it any better than that. :faint:

[KenKill75]

Nigga talkin' 'bout offshoot dimensions...shiiiiiiiiiiiit :wookie:

[Pudie]

i haven't read any of the responses in this thread yet, so bear with me...

here's what i understood from the movie thus far...

***SPOILERS***

donnie gets awoken from bed by frank (a guy in a creeped out rabbit costume) so that a.) he doesn't get killed, and so that b.) he could lead him on a path that will help save the universe by giving the plane engine (which appears out of nowhere) a purpose for appearing in the first place. this plane engine appearing out of nowhere represents a tangent universe that had been formed, and if donnie did nothing to help close it, it would wind up collapsing upon itself and destroying everything in it if not closed in time (28 days).

so, with the "rabbit" communicating to him from another dimension, he instructs donnie on doing certain things that ultimately lead him to complete his task...flooding the school which led him to meeting gretchen because school had been cancelled, burning that perv's house which led to kitty having to appear in court to support him and force donnie's mom to leave the house on a flight to accompany that dance team (the flight that justifies the engine falling off)...which in turn leads him and his sister to throw a party where gretchen gets killed at the end and makes donnie kill frank out of rage (by killing frank in the tangent dimension, he ensures his appearance to him in his dreams).

am i on the right track here? if anyone knows of a good FAQ, hook me up...
Thats pretty much dead on. GG.

www.salon.com has a sexcellent 6 page explination of it.

[jazz]

thanks, pudie. i need to rent or buy the director's cut just to see if i could answer any of my questions (or maybe wind up more confused, lol).

thanks for the link.

[Pudie]

The directors cut pissed me the fuck off. Couldnt stand it.

[KenKill75]

Why is that, Puds?

[jazz]

The directors cut pissed me the fuck off. Couldnt stand it.
i wanna see it just to see how they fucked up the movie, but i'm definitely keeping the theatrical version i have now.

[EtchedInCold]

Jazz, can you tolerate watching movies with commentary on? becasue DD's commentary might help clear things up... if not then go for the new cut. I haven't seen that one but i hear it spells everything out for you too much and then the movie just sucks.

[jazz]

i might just do that...

[KenKill75]

I just read the explanation in Pudie's link. Very interesting. Alot of good info. Certainly makes things clearer.

[jazz]

i haven't read anything from his link...was i even close?

[KenKill75]

Yes, you were very close. The link doesnt go directly to the info we needed, so its kind of a pain to find. Would you like me to post some of the info?

[jazz]

sure.

i bought the director's cut, btw. i have yet to see it.

[KenKill75]

The vast majority of "Donnie Darko" takes place in a parallel universe. From the moment the clock in the Darko house strikes midnight, 10 minutes into the film, right up to Donnie's hysterical laughter in bed, the setting of the film is Tangent Middlesex, a parallel dimension, spontaneously created, which exists only during the 28 days that cover the majority of the film's action. The through-line of the film is Donnie Darko's quest to erase the Tangent Universe before it destroys the world.
To understand what actually occurs in "Donnie Darko," it helps to have read "The Philosophy of Time Travel," by Roberta Sparrow. This is difficult in that the book is an imaginary one, written by a fictional character. Luckily, much of the book's text is included on the film's Web site and DVD and is now incorporated into the director's cut.
"The Philosophy of Time Travel" explains that time, while usually stable, will occasionally become corrupted for reasons unknown to all. When this happens, a Tangent Universe is created -- an alternate reality parallel to the primary universe in which we all live. "If a Tangent Universe occurs," Sparrow writes, "it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks. Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence." During that collapse, a time-space vortex will form that leads back to the birth of the Tangent Universe.
In a nutshell, this is precisely what the hell happens in "Donnie Darko." At midnight on Oct. 2, 1988, a Tangent Universe is spontaneously created, centered in Middlesex, Va. This Tangent Universe threatens the existence of life as we know it; it falls to one person to do whatever necessary to put the world back in order and keep the Tangent Universe from destroying the real world when it collapses in 28 days. That person -- that superhero -- is, of course, Donnie Darko: a 16-year-old with emotional problems, a history of arson, and bedroom eyes.
The Artifact
Hand in hand with the creation of a Tangent Universe, writes Roberta Sparrow, is the spontaneous appearance of an Artifact. Made out of metal, this artifact will inexplicably show up near the epicenter of the Tangent Universe; in order for disaster to be averted, the Artifact must be sent through the time vortex back to the Primary Universe -- back to before the split in dimensions occurred. The Artifact in Tangent Middlesex, of course, is a gigantic freaking jet engine that falls out of the sky.
The Living Receiver
That's Donnie, in the words of "The Philosophy of Time Travel": the Living Receiver. He's the chosen one, picked (seemingly at random) to return the Artifact to the Primary Universe in order to avert catastrophe. Being the Living Receiver has advantages and disadvantages: You get superpowers, like strength, telekinesis and the ability to see into the future, but you also get horrifying hallucinations and the people around you tend to fear and attack you.
The Manipulated
This refers to pretty much everyone else in the movie. "They are prone to irrational, bizarre and often violent behavior," writes Roberta Sparrow, because their entire raison d'être is to help the Chosen One fulfill his task. Which is to say that every other character in the movie has been set up like a piece on a chessboard, ready to behave in the exact perfect way necessary to push Donnie toward his eventual destiny -- returning that jet engine to its proper time and place in the Primary Universe. Nearly every event in the film, when viewed in this way, has a specific purpose; together the events create an inexorable chain of coincidence and consequence designed to make Donnie's fate inescapable.
All this mumbo-jumbo, of course, skirts the big question: Chosen by whom? Manipulated by whom? The movie leaves that ambiguous, but it seems clear from comments Kelly makes during the DVD commentary that the person in charge here is, basically, God. When the Middlesex Tangent Universe is spontaneously created, God arranges the people in that Tangent Universe around Donnie Darko in such a manner that their actions lead inevitably to Donnie's delivering the jet engine back through time.

[dionysusolympus]

Deep. Now let's try A Brief History of Time...

[ByrcheWroot]

Yes. Harrison Ford's character was a replicant.

[KenKill75]

:gtfo:

[ByrcheWroot]

:cringe:

:sorry: