Donnie Darko Questions

[David In Indy]

I have several. But I'll ask them one at a time since I'm not really sure anyone will notice this new thread.

Why does the bunny's eye light up after Donnie "stabs" the force field. I'm thinking of the scene in the bathroom. The bunny's eye lights up as if Donnie injured it. Later Frank is seen with a patch over his eye in the movie theater. But I don't understand what this has to do with anything? And why did it light up? Was this to symbolize intense pain? Or perhaps some sort of weakness in Frank now? Donnie injured him and he is weaker as a result? The light is his power leaking out?

I don't understand that!

[Lynne]

I see your thread and will work on formulating an answer tomorrow, David!  I love Donnie Darko and it is rife with symbolism, but it's almost 2 am and I have to be up at 7 for work!  Is this the movie y'all watched on Saturday?!

TTYS,
Lynne
 

[David In Indy]

I see your thread and will work on formulating an answer tomorrow, David!  I love Donnie Darko and it is rife with symbolism, but it's almost 2 am and I have to be up at 7 for work!  Is this the movie y'all watched on Saturday?!

TTYS,
Lynne
 

Take your time sweetie!! It can wait.

I've been watching "Donnie" for years and I watched him again tonight. There's sooooo many things I don't understand. I think I understand some of it, but not ALL of it.

David <------- STUUUUUUUUPID!!!!

I'll have some more questions after you answer this one. I really don't feel ALL that stupid though because most of my friends don't understand this movie at all!

[Front-Ranger]

I am by no means a Donnie Darko expert but I can't resist taking a stab at this enniway (sorry about the bad pun!) Donnie lashed out at the rabbit that was haunting him as a means of rebellion, and also, I think, to see if he could hurt it, thereby proving it was real and not a figment of his overactive imagination (or a hallucination brought on by all the drugs he was taking). And wasn't that Donnie's mother in the movie theater who turn to him and showed him her bloody eye? Revealing to him that the rabbit was actually his inner parent or superego, and he was torturing himself? Lynne, help!!

[David In Indy]

I am by no means a Donnie Darko expert but I can't resist taking a stab at this enniway (sorry about the bad pun!) Donnie lashed out at the rabbit that was haunting him as a means of rebellion, and also, I think, to see if he could hurt it, thereby proving it was real and not a figment of his overactive imagination (or a hallucination brought on by all the drugs he was taking). And wasn't that Donnie's mother in the movie theater who turn to him and showed him her bloody eye? Revealing to him that the rabbit was actually his inner parent or superego, and he was torturing himself? Lynne, help!!

Oh, I didn't realize it was his mother in the theater! I thought it was Frank without his bunny costume on. That puts a whole new spin on things. Or maybe Frank and his mother are really the same person! I'll have to go back and watch that scene again. I still have the DVD loaded in the machine. I'll check it out later tonight. Thanks Lee!

[Mikaela]

No, it isn't his mom in the cinema. It's Frank, Donnie's sisters boyfriend - or the alternate version of him, whom Donnie shoots in the eye towards the end of the movie. Most of the film takes place in a parallell (alternate) universe, where Frank moves about in space and time, and so he sports the gunshot wound and his halloween costume before he's actually killed.

Donnie Darko is one of my favourite films, but even I would not take a stab at explaining half of the strange goings-on! It's fascinating to try to get to grips with it though.

But this article in Salon might perhaps help a bit:

"Everything you were afraid to ask about Donnie Darko". It has a section on Rabbit Frank, among other things.  http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2004/07/23/darko/index.html

[Kd5000]

I've always been curious as to where the screenwriter/director Richard Kelly got all this stuff...The living dead, the manipulated living, the living receiver.  It's some really deep stuff. How guided are we by God or other forces among many other things. 

One of my favorite scenes has to be when Donnie and his girlfriend are watching The Evil Dead and this operatic music comes on and Frank in the bunny rabbit shows up.  Danny asks him why are you wearing that silly rabbit costume (well maybe not exact wordchoice) and Frank asks "why are you wearing that silly man-suit."

I've read alot on Darko and I don't think I will ever understand it all. It's a very hauting film that stays with you.

[delalluvia]

I have several. But I'll ask them one at a time since I'm not really sure anyone will notice this new thread.

Why does the bunny's eye light up after Donnie "stabs" the force field. I'm thinking of the scene in the bathroom. The bunny's eye lights up as if Donnie injured it. Later Frank is seen with a patch over his eye in the movie theater. But I don't understand what this has to do with anything? And why did it light up? Was this to symbolize intense pain? Or perhaps some sort of weakness in Frank now? Donnie injured him and he is weaker as a result? The light is his power leaking out?

I don't understand that!

I didn't think it was his eye lighting up, I thought it was the field Donnie was stabbing lighting up which just happened to be right over Frank's eye.

There are plenty of websites about this movie.  In the director's cut version, the director explains how this is a religious movie (Jesus, sacrifice, etc) - which is a shame because I didn't take the movie as religious at all.  I prefer my version. 

[David In Indy]

I didn't think it was his eye lighting up, I thought it was the field Donnie was stabbing lighting up which just happened to be right over Frank's eye.

There are plenty of websites about this movie.  In the director's cut version, the director explains how this is a religious movie (Jesus, sacrifice, etc) - which is a shame because I didn't take the movie as religious at all.  I prefer my version. 

If you watch closely Del, you'll notice that when the bunny turns his head the light remains in his eye. I could never figure out what it meant though. It seems every single thing in that movie is symbolic in some way. I love watching it because I notice something new and different each time. It's a bit like Brokeback Mountain in that respect - lots of imagery and symbolism. Well that, and the fact that Jake starred in both of them!

[Front-Ranger]

Oh, I didn't realize it was his mother in the theater! I thought it was Frank without his bunny costume on. That puts a whole new spin on things. Or maybe Frank and his mother are really the same person! I'll have to go back and watch that scene again. I still have the DVD loaded in the machine. I'll check it out later tonight. Thanks Lee!

I watched the director's cut of DD again a couple of nights ago, and I still maintain that when Frank takes off his head in the movie theater, it's his mom with a bloody eye.

[Front-Ranger]

I've always been curious as to where the screenwriter/director Richard Kelly got all this stuff...The living dead, the manipulated living, the living receiver.  It's some really deep stuff. How guided are we by God or other forces among many other things. 

One of my favorite scenes has to be when Donnie and his girlfriend are watching The Evil Dead and this operatic music comes on and Frank in the bunny rabbit shows up.  Danny asks him why are you wearing that silly rabbit costume (well maybe not exact wordchoice) and Frank asks "why are you wearing that silly man-suit."

Many of the concepts presented in the movie remind me of those in The Tibetan Book of the Dead as interpreted by the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Since it's Donnie Darko Month: October 1 - 30, leading up to Hallowe'en,
then back  to October 2 again, it seems appropriate to post this--

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PUFJmsCZLE&feature=related[/youtube]
(See 1:37-1:50 for Frank, whole again, yet...)


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXbBlGBoUms[/youtube]
(See 1:49 and etc. Frank was Donnie's sister's boyfriend, and the artist
who created the mask and costume which he wore on Hallowe'en. In
the alternate timeline, when Donnie first avoided the jet engine and his
own fate, Frank accidently killed Gretchen, and then Donnie shot Frank
in the eye, killing him. When the 'original' October 2 timeline (with,
spookily, the October 30 jet engine) went back, killing Donnie, everything
else returned--but with an echo of a dream of a memory....)


Frank was played by actor James Duval

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks for reminding us it is DD month, friend!! And, point taken, that is Frank under that stupid bunny suit!! But, you've got to admit, Frank looks a lot like Donnie's mom, even has the same hair-do!!

And now I had that Tears for Fears song embedded in my brain all night long! Thanks a whole heck of a lot!!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Many of the concepts presented in the movie remind me of those in The Tibetan Book of the Dead as interpreted by the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman.

Robert Thurman is quoted in the current New Yorker article about the Dalai Lama.

He is also the father of Uma Thurman (Robert Thurman, not the Dalai Lama).

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks for the heads-up friend. Robert Thurman is the American who possibly knows the Dalai Lama the best, with Richard Gere as the second person.

The idea of DL being the father of Uma Thurman!!  

Later: arrrghhh! An interminably long article, with only one small quote by Thurman. But thanks the same friend!

[Front-Ranger]

Major distraction this morning, trying to figure out the meaning of a smurf that appeared in a recent dream. You think Brokies are bad? Check this out!

Heres some things that I dont really think are coincedental, and some are possible solutions if you don't like the superhero idea. First, Donald is known to mean ruler of the world, Frank comes from roots meaning free, Gretchen meaning pearl, and Gerald( the name Donnie decides to call himself when talking to Jim Cunningham) means spear carrier. Also, Jim Cunningham's initials are indeed JC, which may be religious commentary parodying a Christ figure. Could the whole story be a Smurfs playoff? Is it possible that Donnie represents the Smurf way of life, and that Frank is like Smurfette, sent by Gargamel to spy, but the overwhelming goodness of the Smurf way of life changed him. The 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds adding up to 88, along with the movie taking place in 1988, and the speed at which the car travels fast enough to go back in time in Back to the Future is 88 MPH, may very well play a role in the IMBD's naming of Donnie Darko as the 88th best movie of all time. Also, Cellar Door could be considered a riddle, when unscrambled to mean Recall Rood, which Jesus needed to do, as Biblically referenced, in order to save all of mankind, rood being the concept of the group being more important than the individual. The last concept is from early in the movie, when Frank wakes Donnie up, and says I've been watching you. I believe this is no coincidence especially when we see a skull in the eye poster Donnie has on his wall.

[Mandy21]

OH


MY


GOD


!!!


From where did you get that quote, Lee?  Cause I don't ever wanna go to whatever website he or she visits.  Eek!

[Mandy21]

Article in Huffington Post this morning, called "5 Teen Movies That You Should Watch Again":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celeste-yim-/best-teen-movies_b_3193789.html

Interesting choice for #4:

4. Donnie Darko (2001)

Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

Donnie Darko is the strangest movie you will ever find normal. I have seen this movie at least 20 times and am still far from comprehending half of it. Donnie is constantly being pulled in different directions. He feels pressure from his parents and his psychiatrist to be normal, a human-sized rabbit is ordering him around, he's insecure about girls; he is torn. And I take comfort in the fact that, to some extent, everyone feels some sort of Donnie stage throughout his or her teenhood. It's as if we can hear Donnie's thoughts throughout the movie: Who are you? Who am I? Why am I like this? What does it mean? Donnie's arrogance hits a wall when the rabbit, in retort to questioning the rabbit suit, asks, "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?" This is when it becomes painfully clear that none of Donnie's questions are answerable.

[RouxB]

I read that too and have to agree. I think Jake's performance as Donnie Darko is almost on par with his Jack Twist. But I never fell in love with Donnie Darko...

 

[CellarDweller]

I've watched DD a few times, I just don't get it.

[delalluvia]

I've watched DD a few times, I just don't get it.

The director's cut explained it.  But I didn't agree with the director...even though it's his movie! 

[RouxB]

The director's cut explained it.  But I didn't agree with the director...even though it's his movie! 

 

[Meryl]

I've watched DD a few times, I just don't get it.

I think I finally got it, but I didn't particularly care when I did. 

What a strange movie. 

[CellarDweller]

to put it mildly!

[Sason]

I've only seen it once.

And I have to admit I fell asleep somewhere in the middle.
Woke up before the end, and - judging by most people's opinions on it - I'm not sure I missed a whole lot.

[CellarDweller]

Well, you should see it at least once all the way through.

You may be able to explain to us what it is about!   

[Sason]

Yeah, if I get a chance I'll see it once more - and try to stay awake.   

Are you saying I may be the missing link between DD and Brokie Understanding?   

[Monika]

Donie Darko is one of my favorite movies - it is weird but in the very best of ways.
Perhaps weird isn´t the right word......rather.....thought-provoking.