Donnie Darko

[Euphoric Sunrise]

It's not bad. The first time i saw it i was a bit confused, but i think i pretty much get it now. Most people i've talked to have said it's great, but i don't think it's much above average to be perfectly honest. Still, not a bad movie i guess.

[lullabi]

I thought it was good. It seems like everyone is confused the first
time they watch it, and then the second time it makes sense. I've only seen it one and
a half times, so I'm still confused []

[clandestino]

Try watching the director's commentary, and you'll get even more confused !

To be fair, the commentary clears it up somewhat... the next paragraph might spoil it for those who are planning to watch it so beware :

The universe that Donnie Darko is living in is actually a "tangent" universe, an alternate reality that split from the real universe at 12 midnight. Donnie Darko is a superhero who is chosen by the "powers that be" to re-align the jet engine with the aircraft, thereby merging the alternate & true universes back together, and averting catastrophe !

Crazy !! but a great film, with some brilliant music, but you can't get the soundtrack.

[Aries]

I thought it was a great movie.. very wierd but still it was a good one. I like Grandma Death... dunno why but she seemed like a cool character.
I know, I know, all she did was check the mail.. but eh.
-Aries

[volcomstone]

I thought the movie was crazy, it went a little overboard on the psychotic imagery, but it was still crazy good.  He was sort of an anti-hero kinda character, everyone thought he was the devil ,but he sacrificed himself to save the universe, and keep up the whole "image" if happy reality.

The first time I watched It I only saw the last half, then afterwards I wathed the begining and it made more sense.

I thought the cool part was when he could see the "workers" amd he saw where everybody would be going.  

quote:The universe that Donnie Darko is living in is actually a "tangent" universe, an alternate reality that split from the real universe at 12 midnight. Donnie Darko is a superhero who is chosen by the "powers that be" to re-align the jet engine with the aircraft, thereby merging the alternate & true universes back together, and averting catastrophe !

Im wondering, if donnie never did listen to frank, would he had split into an alternate dimension?  It was like donnie was "chosen' to see through the "image" of everyday life, and reveal the "truth' behind everyone else.  IT was like his save to grace, since donnie was known throughout town as being disturbed (and a pyro).

but in the end it was all useless, it was like saying there was no point to "knowing" the truth while living on earth. It was just saying that there is something more than just face value of reality.

[rodentmouse]

i  really enjoyed this movie, i could really relate  to the alienation and isolation he felt from society, alone in his quest to know these higher powers.
It was confusing for me the first time i saw it too,  but the more  you watch it, the more you notice small things which add another piece to the jigsaw.
example:-
the   reccuring idea of fate in the film when he  finds  jim cunninghams wallet on the floor. Remember earlier when he had to read out that love/fear exercise card in class, which asked weather handing in  a lost wallet or keeping it were products of love/fear?
this coincidence is like there is definatly some  higher power watching him, creating tests like the wallet,  and the "cellardore" clue.

and  the plane engine  is from the plane that donnies mother and younger sister were on, returning  from some performance the little  girl did.

I thought that all the events in the film were part of a dream, the dream he was having before the engine crashed through his house.
When  he woke up and realised that all of what hed done and experienced were a dream,  he decided that it would be best to let  himself die, instead of living and having to experience the pains of being psychologically ill.

If he lived,  he would have lost the girl  he loves and would have killed frank,  but since he knew what was about to occur i would have thought hed acted in a way that wouldnt have led up to those events.

I didnt get much of that time travel stuff i couldnt see how it linked into the plane and frank,  i thought rabbit frank was the ghost of human frank telling donnie what he needed to know in order for human frank to live,  and that he travelled back in time to talk to Donnie because  of his "illness" he was able to tune  into the higher realm (astral?) when he went on his psychotic episodes and communicate with the  ghost of frank.

i really loved the way he spoke  his mind, like with the teacher and jim cunning-ham. I wondered why they put that fat chinese girl in too, i didnt see the point of her or how she related to Donnie, she just seemed to be a lonely soul throughout, like when people laughed at her performance.

i  thought the soundtrack was brilliant aswell, one track reminded me of being in a ball, inside a  giant   glass ballroom, in the middle of space.

[Aries]

I dont actually remember the sound track, I dont even remember alot of the movie... I only saw it once or twice and I was drunk and high so...
But from what I do remember it was a awesoem movie.
I thought it was wierd how Frank was talking to him and it ended up that he killed Frank.
I wish I had some "anti-psychotics" that made me go crazy and travel thrue time with some guy in a wierd rabbit suit. Thatd be sweet.
-Aries

[Huwie]

Donnie Darko is the second greatest film ever made.  That's a fact, by the way, not just my opinion. []

"Im wondering, if donnie never did listen to frank, would he had split into an alternate dimension?"

No, he would have died.

[Aries]

Thats not a fact...
Everyone knows the second best Movie ever made is an Anime called Akira.
Pff..
By the way, if donnie had listened to frank he would have went even more insane then he would have travelled thrue time to kill him self befor he met frank, so yes. he would have died.

-Aries

[lateralus897]

I really liked the movie just because it was different. I had never thought about the whole movie being Donnie's dream the night he died, but that's a really cool idea. I got most out of the fate ideas. The whole wormhole things coming out of the center of your body is really cool. There's also probably a lot of us here that can relate to the incredible complexity of strange coincidences we experience. I live my life by "going with the flow." I've learned how to let fate take me where it will, and it has not failed me yet.

About the asian girl, I thought she kinda represented Donnie's internal struggles. She was a part of him, and he did what he could to make her feel better. But when he tells her everything is gonna be ok, she freaks out and runs away. So, that kind of shows his fears about this whole thing. Just my ideas.

The whole time travel thing was just necessary to throw in because it was important to the story line. Not to mention altering time is one of those human fascinations.

[lateralus897]

I'm just starting a discussion on this movie. For those who have seen it, post your opinions, I'll be sure to join in.