Donnie Darko...a very strange movie - Page 11

Dave, I'm glad somebody enjoyed it. Most of the time I think I only amuse myself.

Don't worry John, gave me a chuckle too!

late entry into the game...just watched the film on DVD last night

spent quite a while reading through the past 10 pages, and I don't think this was really clarified. a few posts have mentioned Dr Thurman, the psychiatrist, as a Manipulated Living, and having the knowledge about Donnie being the Receiver and his role in the realigning the Primary Universe, but are there some specific things she said that pointed Donnie in that direction? if her character is to be grouped together with those of the english (Barrymoore) and science (Wylie) teachers, as guides, I don't recall any instances of "guidance" as the teachers provided, in terms of reading the Destructors short story, poetry day, watching 'Watership Down', discussing wormholes, etc.

the reason I bring this up is Dr Thurman makes a last ditch effort to call Donnie hours preceding midnight on Oct 28, asking him to call back ASAP. what is the purpose of this call? if Thurman is considered a guide, a Manipulated Living, I suppose we can presume this phone call was to explicitly instruct/warn Donnie on his role or purpose, but I don't recall seeing much that pointed to she being much of a guide. it appeared most of her role in the film was to direct attention to the subthemes of the movie involving religion/belief of God, dreams/reality, choice/destiny, etc. and to Donnie's psychological state (sleepwalker, repressed memories, placebo prescriptions, etc)

I don't really have any ideas what she may have been calling for, except she wasn't calling for Donnie, she was calling for his mother.

I think I heard somewhere that the reason she was calling the mother was because Donnie confessed to the arson. Because of his age (as a minor) she could not inform the police of the crime, but instead had a legal obligation to inform Donnie's parents. Something like that.

For Atlanta HTFers:

According to today's newspaper (Atlanta Constitution-Journal), believe it or not, but Richard Kelly (the director) will be at tonight's 7 p.m. showing of Donnie Darko at the Madstone theater (just north of the Roswell Rd. and I-285 intersection) in north Atlanta to discuss his film!

Donnie Darko is getting a limited re-release through the Madstone series of offbeat films this summer.

Oh, now that's cool!

Wow, that is cool. Too bad I live in Indiana...I would be there in a second.

That is cool.

This film is one of the best cult/slow growth popularity films of the last 10 years I think. I just happened to talk to another friend who rented it and loved it the other day without knowing my recommendation. It's building a very nice fan base I think.

That is exactly what I did the first time I watched it. I ended up about 1 am and decided to put it right back in. I love films but that kind of experience is still very rare for me.

The first time I rented it, my roomates and I ended up watching it three times to process it. I truly hope I'll get to see it on the big screen some day; still can't believe it never got a wide release.

Oh, the Entertainment Weekly from a couple weeks ago contained a follow-up article on their 50 greatest cult films to respond to the massive reader response. Donnie Darko was one of the top films people told them they should've included.

Hey, just got back from the show, and the director's Q&A. What was funny was some serious Donnie Darko geek who was monopolizing the Q&A and basically got booed by the rest of the theater after asking like 10 questions in a row in a rambling fashion and basically proclaiming his fervent love for the film. The guy even rattled off a laundry list of all of the TV shows and movies that were eitehr mentioned in the film, or paid homage to them. Even Kelly was getting a little uncomfortable by this sort of devotion.

Kelly did cite September 11th as being a contributing factor to the lack of marketing (when the film was released in October, 2001) and had to compete with the likes of K-Pax and Thirteen Ghosts. At that point in time, nobody was going to the theaters, and the studios weren't spending money to promote new releases.

Also, the marketing geniuses in Hollywood went with the horror angle, and that wasn't the niche the film truly fit in, but, hey, "trust us".

Kelly finished the first draft at the end of 1997, took a year for him to get an agent, and then after 15 months, he was getting some interest in his screenplay, and finally Drew Barrymore read the screenplay, and got the ball rolling as things were basically fleshed out in Drew's trailer, on the set of Charlie's Angel in early 2000, and the film started shooting in the summer of 2000.

The scene with the Love/Fear line in class was autobiographical (high school gym teacher trying to just follow the course curriculum), with the exception that Kelly didn't speak up like Donnie did in the film.

Also, the Love/Fear line scene was useful in trying to get across that we shouldn't just accept the 2 extremes of any issue (not everything is black and white), but need to consider other aspects of the issue, and don't let people shovel their conclusions on you, make up your own mind on issues.

Kelly touched upon going back after the film was done to do some writing of "The Philosophy of Time Travel" for the website. He felt the 2 drawings from the book was enough to get his point across in the film.

Kelly touched on how a deleted scene (where it's revealed that Donnie was taking placebos) spoke to where he felt that adults take the easy road and over-medicate kids when it's not necessarily the best course of action. He also hinted that there are other deleted scenes that would make it into the film if he were given a shot to make a fuller "director's cut" (if the suits thought there was money to be made in such an exercise). But more or less, he fought hard for everything that made it into the final theatrical cut, and is happy with it. The distributors wanted 30 minutes cut out of the film, but Kelly stood his ground for most of the cut suggestions.

Kelly can't wait for death to come for him.

The original movie poster was pretty close the one that ended up as the official move poster, but it didn't have the teeth integrated into the main image of the bunny face.

"What was up with Cherita?" Kelly used her as a character building device (and also as an antithesis to the dance squad), in the same way that the Coen brothers did with the "Mike Yanagita" character in Fargo.

One guy wanted Kelly to use just one word to describe the film to someone who hadn't seen it yet. After some blustering, it was decided that it's just a film that tells people it's okay to be different and to do your own thing, even if it might make you seen out of step.

He also touched upon that family dynamic where family members with different political views can still remain family, and how conservative parents can inadvertently create big liberals out of their children, ironically enough. Kelly said it was important to make the parents sympathetic as possible because they were doing the best they knew how to do, and Donnie's condition wasn't totally their fault, and life is what it is.

The Q&A did go on for almost 45 minutes, I guess, so I'm sure I've left out over 10 minutes worth of questions.

Of course, that exact philosophy is becoming quite popular these days, I'm sorry to say. I guess he must have also seen it himself in the late '90s.


Care to elaborate? That's quite a statement to just toss out there.

I viewed this movie for the first time (started at about 11:00pm 6/20/03 and finished at about 1am.

I love these types of unsimplistic formulated films, not because it makes me look unique and intelligent in other people's eyes as some films liked by others are stereotyped as an "xxxx" crowd type film (ie: music with same category- Tool and Radiohead, in depth music fans listen to this with authentic attentiona and to listen for the greater meaning).

I find movies with bizzare perspectives and plots very intriguing and I enjoy them very much, except with this I had some anxiety with the potential eery images in the second hour because my friends left my house and I was being a scurred bish. I really enjoyed this movie.

First I want to comment on the cast. So so many familiar faces, I knew Donnie had that Bubble Boy Tobey Macguire look and sure it was the kid from Bubble Boy (Another great film: Highway...really really good) and he did a great job conveying him. As for "Frank" I knew he was the kid from Independence Day, which was cool to see him again. Also Patrick S. as a motivational speaker was reminiscent to Requiem [for A Dream] (or vice verca).
At first I thought Donnie's youngest sister was the girl from The Ring but I am doubtful. The somewhat chunky kid friends with the badass mullet punk looked very familiar. Cool to see Noah W. and Drew B. too!

What was a little troubling to me was the diagnosis of Donnie that he was a Paranoid Schizophrenic. I definitely do not see things but I do find myself thinking about many thing in a very logical philosophical manner and sometimes darkly. I find myself getting into arguments or debates over subjects controversial or not and coming up with my own theories for things. I highly doubt anything is wrong with me but I saw quite a bit of me in Donnie, I don't know if that's scary or naive...



As looping suggest, "it" has previously happened, so that contradicts the fact that it will happen again if you're suggesting that Donnie saves the world by stopping this loop. Why will the loop destroy the universe, it is looping, so it is reocurring. Why sacrafice himself for something that obviously isn't affecting the universe and how?

So ultimately, we were witnessing the alternate path in God's plane, in which he dies..

Again, this movie was really really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thats the kind of stuff that makes me want to work with film/act.

-Bert

The question to Kelly was "Do you fear death?" and his answer was in a light-hearted vein, much like the "I'll sleep when I die." variety reaction. It wasn't meant to sound all dark and morbid. Sorry for giving y'all that impression.

Donnie was seeing and having conversations with people who are, as far as the other people in the movie are concerned, not there, mainly dead Frank. This is the primary symptom of Paranoid Schizophrenia. During the session where he first talks about Frank, it is apparent Frank is not the first "imaginary" friend Donnie has had.


In fact, one way to take the film is that Donnie is in fact severely mentally ill and it's all in his head. Not sure what the Director would think of that.

Well I meant it was troubling to me personally, as some things I can correlate and relate to, not neccessarily that I was really scared that he had it. My paragraph structure is like not having A without B and vice verca.
Thanks though.

I am going to watch it with commentary soon.

Bert, there are a lot of things about Donnie I relate to. I think many people do.

without scrolling through 10 pages of this thread, i'll ask this question...why would dr monitoff lose his job if donnie asks about god? i know that is forbidden in public schools, but i was under the assumption that donnie went to a private catholic school, with the uniforms and all. anyone know whats up with this?

CJ

Well, I would assume that teaching scientific theory that could possibly conflict with certain religious beliefs that the school holds would be against the rules.

I certainly seems to be a private school, but I seriously doubt it is Catholic, or based on any religion. If it were, they would never stand for all the "Love---Fear" preaching.


Not all private schools are religious ones.

I haven't listened to the commentary, yet, but from what I read about it, the director would say Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

This is why I am tempted to NOT listen to the commentary, as I like the sort of possibilities offered by not being sure. I think the commentary track leaves no doubt, for good or illl.


Phil

I dunno, I sort of think that the film is a big thought experiment by Donnie Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

I just picked this dvd up as a blind buy for 7.99 at kmart. Is this what the movie is about ? , A psychological thriller set in the 80s ?

Yes, the month before the presidential election of 1988.

No. An example of some of the worst marketing I've ever seen. Ignore the cover completely. In fact, I made a new cover because the one it comes with pisses me off.


Phil, my attitude is that just because the director says this is what it means doesn't mean he has the only answer. With a movie like this, there is far more than what the director intended.


Patrick, one of the ways I look at the film is pretty similar. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Maybe I already posted that, but this thread has gone on so long, I don't remember.

Well im definitely looking forward to watching it this week, because i see people on this thread have different opinions on it. 2 years ago i saw the trailer for this movie on tv , it was playing in my area , but i never got a chance to see it because it only played for a week at local theatres.

Whew...watched this movie last night...through Netflix I have stumbled onto more great movies. I was so taken by this film that I decided to poke around online and see what was out there. Imagine my surprise to see a thread begun over a year and a half ago STILL ON PAGE 1!!! Amazing! Even more amazing, I just finished reading this entire compilations of posts...even more funny, is that the next movie I have sitting here to watch from Netflix(again, knowing nothing about it) is Pi...too funny!

This movie works on so many different levels. Starting from the rational, it DOES work as a depiction of the increasing symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia in an adolescent. He doesn't show any real disorganized thinking at this point, but is hallucinating and has showed behavioral deterioration (the vague references to his earlier legal problems). The "grandiose" delusions that he has this ultimate purpose to save the world certainly fit. Couldn't read the medicine bottle in the cabinet, except that it was for "25 mg, take 2" which DOESN'T fit with what he needed to be taking. I watched some of the deleted scenes and saw a title for one "placebo"...NOT! Sorry, but you DON'T DO THAT in practice. I DID like the humanization of the psychiatrist in comforting Donnie, although that is taboo as well. And finally, hypnotherapy is the LAST thing one would want to do in treating psychosis (if she truly believed that was what he was experiencing). But overall, this works as ONE explanation of the entire film.

Okay, enough about that...what about...spiritual? There have been several posts that nicely depict the Christ metaphor...Donnie's death to save his beloved. Elements of this caught me during the movie, especially the "double feature"...ah, such attention to detail by the director! The journey that this young man takes through the film is extraordinary. From swearing at his family to expressing love at the end...GROWTH! And the hypocrisy of Patrick Swayze's character (and the teacher who is infatuated with him)...gee, I wasn't surprised that he was into kiddie porn, given his enthusiasm for the dancing children!

SciFi? Yeah, after reading all of the debate (and NOT watching with the commentary) there are some logical holes in the time travel / alternate universe theme...but, come on...OF COURSE THERE ARE!!! EVERY movie trying to depict this stuff runs into inconsistencies. That was actually what made Back to the Future interesting, is that it capitalized on the inconsistency inherent in the whole concept of time travel. Looking at the website just makes it a tad more murky, which is okay with me. I do NOT demand absolute clarity in my movies. Ambiguity is what makes us look around for others to discuss this with.

And what did the director intend? Yeah, I'm taken back to Literature classes a lifetime ago, and all of the discussions about the unconscious intent of the author. Clearly MANY elements come through in this film, whether or not it was his conscious intent. I would have loved to have come over to Atlanta to watch the screening and hear the directors comments. The comment about a "director's cut" already has me salivating...and crying, because this movie just hasn't reached a large enough market to make it commercially successful for a new release.

And the music? FABULOUS...as has been previously mentioned, I would NEVER have imagined Tears for Fears being so effective this many years after the fact...and the background score moves with the emotions. I think this is really what captivates me about this film. All of the "cerebral" discussion about time travel, inconsistencies, etc, DON'T really address the emotional impact that this film made on me. The music certainly contributes through the mood, and the superb job done by virtually all of the cast.

This film reminds me of Memento (which I first heard about HERE!)...a first time, indy effort, that I tried to get EVERYONE I know to watch...now to get the word out about Donnie Darko!

Shhhhh.....


We'll pretend you didn't say that, Jack. We've had a nice, constructive discussion going on here. :p)

I saw this last week - what a sad, strange, beautiful movie. Jake Gyllenhaal is definitely an actor to watch. I'll leave it to others to come up with interpretations - I'm no good at that sort of thing. I've enjoyed reading this thread, though.