Hey, Penth, I figured this'd get your attention. ;)
I can't get Tears for Fears' "Mad World" (the song played at the end) out of my head. I keep hearing the line "I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad that the dreams I have of dying are the best I've ever had." Such a beautiful, haunting melody. And movie.
I'll be damned, but I think I've fallen in love with another one of Jake's characters. (And that's rare - honest. I've seen pretty much all his movies and Jack Twist was the only one. Until now.) I just adore Donnie Darko. I love his courage - the way he never backs down to the bully who's constantly harassing and trying to intimidate him, the way he speaks up whenever he sees injustice - and he sees it a lot - the way Frank fascinates him but doesn't scare him. I love the family relationships - how the parents first of all actually look like they could be his (and Elizabeth's/Maggie's and Samantha's) parents and how they're actually likable - something you almost never see in high school type movies. I also like how the bully isn't some pumped up jock (usually the jocks are not the bullies - they're too busy doing their jock-ish thing) but a ne'er-do-well asshole like they really are. And I really love how none of the characters fits neatly into some stereotype. They are all fully-realized human beings. Now that's original, especially in a movie mostly about high school age kids.
"I made a new friend today."
"Real or imaginary?"
:)
DD is a fantastic film, one that gets better and more nuanced (more solutions, but also more questions) upon repeat viewings.
First time I saw it my head was completely spinnning!
I think there are only three Jake movies (so far) in which his character dies at the end, so let's hope that's the end of that little streak for a while. ;)
Cross my fingers. One one hand I'm tempted to ask which one is the third, but on the other hand I don't want to spoil any movie for myself. Hmmm... If I was to give it a shot, I'd say maybe in Bubble Boy. ???
Hmmm... If I was to give it a shot, I'd say maybe in Bubble Boy. ???
That's me now after one viewing. So many questions, especially about Frank. I doubt if I got anything straight about this movie. Frank was another high school kid who plaid a trick on Donnie, wasn't he? But if so, how did these strange things happen? How is it that Frank has a kind of "shield" around him? I don't get the logic behind all this time-shift-thing.
I know what happens in the end (time-travelling backwards, lying in his bed to change the realitiy/future). But I don't have a clue how.
Really, it's such a lovely movie, and everyone with one exception is pitch-perfect in it. The exception being Drew Barrymore. I like the character a lot, but her readings fall flat a couple of times.
I was reading this thread, when it suddenly occurred to me that I was reading more about the plot than I wanted to, before seeing the film. I'm going to do two things - A. Put the word SPOILERS in the subject heading with my moderator Powers. B. Finally rent the film - if so many of you whose opinions I respect love it so much, I'm in. C. Report back. Three things, I'm gonna do three things.
I was reading this thread, when it suddenly occurred to me that I was reading more about the plot than I wanted to, before seeing the film. I'm going to do two things - A. Put the word SPOILERS in the subject heading with my moderator Powers. B. Finally rent the film - if so many of you whose opinions I respect love it so much, I'm in. C. Report back. Three things, I'm gonna do three things.
After I'd seen Donnie Darko some more times and made up my mind about what I *thought* had happened, and why, I looked around the net for information. Here's a couple of links that comments and explains the DD-verse and all the tricky questions. Whether all of them are true, - I doubt it. Surely we're supposed to interpret it all for ourselves and there aren't definite answers to everything.......
Lots of DD Q&A:
http://www.stainlesssteelrat.net/ddfaq.htm
Salon.com's "everything you were afraid to ask about DD:"
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2004/07/23/darko/index.html
Melinda, of course I know just which scene you mean. Poor Donnie - that damned Dr. Thurman keeps waking him up in compromising positions, doesn't she? There's that hugging one, too. And yes - if I were her, I'd definitely wait a while longer in both cases (and then eventually be arrested and/or institutionalized, I reckon).
The familial scenes were incredibly realistic. I very much enjoyed the trampoline scenes. A scene of something so mundane really struck a chord. Unlike some teenager movies, teens aren't always hanging with their friends or on the cell or having some sort of chasing girls action with the buds. Sometimes, real teens are home with their families, jumping on the trampoline with their little sister in the back yard on a sunny day.
Jake was perfection in this movie. It was like the role was written for him. I can see no one else in the role. Donnie was complex and troubled and half-mad and I loved his character. He was by turns extremely compassionate and cruel (see the deleted scene about 'Watership Down'), wise and confused. A perfect teenager.
Devilishly handsome and disturbed young man. LOVED him in this movie. I also loved watching the interplay between Jake and Maggie's characters-- so....realistic as brother and sister!
Devilishly handsome and disturbed young man.
Hope everyone noticed that he wears brown contacts--nice Jewish boy. O.K. half-Jewish. But he looks Jewish with the brown eyes.
Umm, his eyes are really blue in the scene where he's sleeping through the football game with his father and friends and the invisible 'spears' start coming out of their chests.
Actually, I don't tell ppl about the 9 foot rabbit appearing to the main character when discussing the movie. I get that "your kidding me look, no way I'm going to rent that."
Not having seen the credits and not having access to my DVD right now (not that I would have cheated or anything ;)), I'll take a flyer at Eddie and Elizabeth.
James Richard Kelly writer and director of Donnie Darko, is the son of Lane Kelly and Ennis Kelly of Midlothian, Virginia ::) and yes I cheated because Elle said it was an open book test.... ;)
While I thought I was pretty much "getting it" as I watched it the first time, turns out I didn't hardly get nothin' (based on listening to the the writer/director's commentary). How weird is it that I like my version of understanding it better than I like his.
I am astonished by how many references there have been to DD under my very nose and I didn't realize it - our users Sparkle Motion and hungry, hungry hippos, for example.
An early Easter gift...
(http://static.flickr.com/5/7524390_3c2107d175.jpg)
I also saw the movie again, saw it the first time in 2001 and didn't understand a thing... Well, that improved slightly, but I still have a hard time understanding the ending.
I absolutely LOVED the smurf dialogue, god, that was hilarious!!!! :laugh:
Ellen, those are *SO* cool. Where'd you find 'em?
(Barb, you know that's not really my name, right?)
I found them when I was Googling for a good Donnie Darko photo for your birthday thread!! :)
Yes - the original theater and DVD version are different from the Director's Cut. They don't include all the excerpts from the chapter's of Grandma Death's book. I agree that when you have those, there's no confusion whatsoever.
I don't remember being confused by it the first time I saw it years ago - just wondering if it had all really happened to him or if it had been just a dream. Apparently, the answer is "both."
Donnie Darko is a favorite - see screen name :) I'm wanting to order it on DVD, but can't decide between original and director cut. Maybe I should get both?
Maybe because Frank was ultimately a sympathetic character. When he took off the bunny head, he was just a kid his sister knew. Remember - he was at the Halloween party. Donnie's sister says at one point "Has anyone seen Frank?" (which is so funny on a couple of levels) and someone else says, "I think he went on a beer run" or something like that.
And Frank really did design and wear that bunny suit for Halloween. I think it's more that Frank came through the portal wearing it than that the bunny was some other creature entirely.
I read a really cool sexual intepretation of DD once.I've only seen it 3 times so have to look again...but i remember the shrinks office where Donnie is saying that sex with anyone in his family is gross,and no way, all while under hypnosis. that makes me hesitate to agree with the theory. But is is fascinating!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!!!!!! POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!!!!!! POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!!!!!! POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!
Frank was the guy Donnie's sister was dating and probably having sex with as well. His is the car that passes Donnie the morning he's biking home. When she comes in from her date at the beginning of the movie, you hear the car honking - that's why she's smiling. The article talks about the sexual tension between brother and sister. Brother still struggling to express his sexuality while his sister is well into it; drawing the brother's attention, so much so, his strange apparition, the guy who saves his life, Donnie's 'god' figure is the guy who's fucking his sister.
I've only seen it 3 times so have to look again...but i remember the shrinks office where Donnie is saying that sex with anyone in his family is gross,and no way, all while under hypnosis.
that makes me hesitate to agree with the theory. But is is fascinating!
Cool. I always figured his sister was dating Frank, too - from the honking and her asking at the party "Has anyone seen Frank?" (why would she want to know otherwise?). I never made that interpretation that that's why he was the one who came through the portal, but it's kind of an interesting one, and one I don't think is beneath/above the writer/director to be making.
I'm going to watch it again, today, it's a good Easter movie.
How did frank find the portal?
He found it at the Aero movie theater while watching "Dawn of the Dead."
I just ordered 2 DD t shirts for me and juniour; they have the countdown on them
and i want the "why are you wearing that stupid mansuit" Tshirt lol
One of my very favorites, too (obviously - look who started this thread).
And I agree that he summed it all up quite nicely.
What is your theory on why Donnie was chosen to go through the wormhole (or looking glass) and live in the parallel universe (Wonderland?) for a while before he dies, Susie?
Maybe it's saying that we all do that right before we die, in a way? Kind of like "Jacob's Ladder" (ever see that one with Tim Robbins?).
My English teacher would have given me an “F” if my story ended “…… and it was all a dream”.
Yes, the "it was all just a dream" theory is my least-favorite, too. :)
That's a good call, Del, on both counts.
I'm liking that theory a bit more, now... As much as it creeps me out.
And yes, I found Jacob's Ladder disturbing, too.
I think the most disturbing such film I ever saw was one my English teacher showed us in the 8th grade. I forget what it was called, but it was based on a classic short story about a Civil War veteran who is about to be hanged for desertion, but who somehow slips the noose, gets away from the Executioner and his captors, and makes it back home to see his wife and baby. Then, just as he's about to embrace them, he is snapped out of his reverie by the trap door opening and actually being hanged by the noose.
*shiver*
But your version of DD is actually way more disturbing.
And makes me want to watch it again tonight with a leaning towards that angle...
I loved the trampoline shots, too. I'm with you - something about it made my heart stop. And I'm with you about Jake in this one. Just perfect.
Elle, I think Melinda is right. Watch the theatrical release first, then the Director's Cut. I really loved the added Watership Down scene in the DC. But having watched that my second time and then buying the original and watching that my third, I did notice that things were cut from the original that I had really loved, too. Either way, though, it's all good.