Author Topic: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS  (Read 34538 times)

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Donnie Darko
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2006, 02:37:51 pm »
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.


Offline Mikaela

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2006, 02:58:41 pm »
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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.

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


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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 do agree with that.

OTOH, I think Patrick Swayze is pitch-perfect as that smarmy self-help guy. (I normally run to avoid PS, but here he really delivers the goods!) And I love how Donnie takes him on and challenges him, revealing the hollow stupidity of his self-improvement scheme. Who among us haven't sat through just that kind of inane lecture and wished we could do what Donnie does? Go DD!  :-*
« Last Edit: August 09, 2006, 03:00:20 pm by Mikaela »

Offline ednbarby

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Re: Donnie Darko
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2006, 04:34:41 pm »
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.

Our chief weapons are two: ...

;)

Sorry about the spoilers, y'all.  Thanks for rectifying that potential for us with your moderator Powers, Elle.  And I will wait on pins and needles to hear what you think of it.

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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Donnie Darko
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2006, 04:55:04 pm »
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.

Aww, I'm so sorry. It was me who spoiled it  :( I apologize for that.

Go and see it. It's worth it. And don't read more on this thread and especially from my post, there may be more spoilers (don't know yet).

Edit: There ARE definately spoilers in my post. So stop reading when you haven't seen the movie.



***From here possible SPOILERS***

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

Thank you, Mikaela, for these links. I checked out the FAQs of the first link and will look at the other one tomorrow.
Gosh! There are some people out there who try to analize this movie really, really seriously. Seems somehow freaky to me. But maybe those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones  ::)
 
I've another idea: the logic behind this movie and the whole time-travel-thing is not important at all, because it is non-existent. It's all in Donnies schizophrenic mind. No Bunny except for the evening of the party, when Frank disguises as Bunny. No strange bubbles that grow out of people's bodies, no "hole" (or whatever) in time and in the sky, and so on.
Nothing really happens, it's just the weird illusions of a schizophrenic mind. Donnie hallucinates for a while, then dies because the engine hits his bed. End of story.

I don't believe this option myself, but will keep it in mind at my next viewing.


Offline delalluvia

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2006, 07:21:05 pm »
Love this movie.  My sister hated it because it made no sense to her.

I found it profound.  Incredibly so.  So much so, I still haven't figured it out and don't think I ever will.  I know there's a lot of websites out there about it, lots of commentary on the DVD from the director, but I also like how you can just come up with your own theories and it still fit.

The 'Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit' exchange was indeed chilling.

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.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2006, 07:24:24 pm by delalluvia »

Offline Sashca1007

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2006, 10:19:38 pm »
I think Elle has accomplished 'A' and 'B' now--  she just called me from the video store and asked if she should rent the original or the director's cut and what's the difference?  I hope my answer was adequate.  I did tell her that the director's cut not only has things added to it, but it has things taken away!  I've heard people talking about it who are happy to see some of the additional elements, but very disturbed about certain things being removed and songs replaced with other songs.  Do any of you feel this way?  Elle said she figures that she should see both, and I agreed, but I told her she should definitely see the original theatrical release first, then see the director's cut afterwards.  But that is just MY opinion, so hope I didn't steer her wrong.


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).



Ha!  Barb, If I were that doctor, I don't think I'd have the fortitude to let go of Jake Donnie during that hug  ::) .  And I certainly would have watched whatever was about to take place in that other hypnosis scene, but that's because I'm a lecherous old woman who would like to see whatever Donnie/Jake has to offer!


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!

Elle--  don't forget to come back and report!
"From the vibration of the floorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was shaking."

Offline ednbarby

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #16 on: August 10, 2006, 07:03:00 am »
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.

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.
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Offline ednbarby

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #17 on: August 10, 2006, 07:12:29 am »
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!

I love the interplay between them when he says to her something like, "Yeah, and you'll still be working at the Yarn Barn" - that look she shoots him, and the little sideways grin he gives her back.  I love how of course it's so real - they're antagonizing each other, but there's a lot of love there, too.

I also thought Mary McConnell was perfect as his mother.  First of all, she actually looks like him.  But much more than that, I just loved again the interplay between them.  That one line - "Where did my son go?  What happened to him?"  I find myself wanting to say that to my own son sometimes, and he's only four.  When you've seen the sweet side of your boy for so long and now see all that anger - I thought she just nailed that.  I loved how she talked to the Bible thumper, too.
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Offline Kd5000

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #18 on: August 10, 2006, 11:44:30 am »
Well in the director's cut commentary, the director speculates that scientist from the future have caused an accident which results in a corruption of  the space/time contium.  They then proceed to fix the corruption in time space by reaching out to someone living in that time period.

Personally, I prefer to think it was a natural occurance and that divine intervention summoned Donnie Darko to correct the problem.  Sometimes the director can say too much.

Wikipedia has the most concise information about this film.  The GROUND HOG analogy is used, that this scenario will keep repeating itself.     

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_darko

I'd still like to know where the director got all this stuff.  The famous science fiction writer Phillip Dickey someone told me.  Maybe I'm misspelling his name. Anybody know if he wrote this sort of sciene fiction.

Offline Mikaela

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Re: Donnie Darko - SPOILERS
« Reply #19 on: August 10, 2006, 02:29:13 pm »
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Devilishly handsome and disturbed young man.

Here represented by the both of them:  ;)




Isn't this just the cutest picture?  :)