Just saw 'Donnie Darko'...

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-24 03:06pm

...what an incredibly depressing movie. I loved "He told me to vertically insert the emotion line up anus!"

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-01-24 08:20pm

Yeah.

Go watch it again soon. I highly doubt you understood it all the first time.

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2004-01-24 09:10pm

Indeed.

A fine movie, and a good way to check how smart your friends, date, etc actually are.

Symmetry · Post by **Symmetry** » 2004-01-25 08:44pm

LSC....

Anyways, I though the same thing, and also left before "The Fly." Gotta watch that movie again.

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-25 08:53pm

Symmetry wrote:LSC....

?

Symmetry · Post by **Symmetry** » 2004-01-26 01:47am

justifier wrote:
Symmetry wrote:LSC....
?

Sorry, you posted 2 hours after the showing I was at finished, so I assumed we had seen it at the same place. I mean, how many places can have been showing Donnie Darko late last Saturday?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-01-26 01:16pm

Some people do have the DVD.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2004-01-26 08:52pm

neoolong wrote:Some people do have the DVD.

Including myself, it was a 17th birthday present and I couldn't stop watching it.

Sraid wrote:A fine movie, and a good way to check how smart your friends, date, etc actually are.

This is true, I remeber watching it the first time on my birthday when I got it, nearly everyone was going "huh?" "What the fuck?" and so on and then there was one or two who just said nothing including me, the vote was to watch it again (we ended up seeing it 4 times that night while getting drunker and drunker). In the end, it turned out everyone had a different idea to what had gone on, just the different ways we see things I guess.

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-26 11:49pm

I think I have a grip on what happened, but I want to hear your thoughts and see if I'm even close

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-01-27 09:33pm

justifier wrote:I think I have a grip on what happened, but I want to hear your thoughts and see if I'm even close

Here's my take. It's in tiny font because I intend to spoil the entire movie.

Time is not completely linear in the Donnie Darko universe. Causality still applies, but an event that happens in the future can cause an event that happened in the past if there's a wormhole. However, because time is partially linear, an event that happens before its cause violates causality, threatening the existance of the space-time continum until the cause happens.

The jet engine falling out of the sky is just such an uncaused event--a glitch in the universe. The Powers That Be select Donnie to fix the universe. Frank is their direct conduit to Donnie. As we'll see later, Gretchen is their indirect conduit.

Everything in the movie is designed to move Donnie into position to fix the continum. Luring Donnie out of his bedroom just before the engine falls gets him to trust Frank. Breaking the water main causes Gretchen and Donnie to get to know each other. Getting with Gretchen gives Donnie confidence he didn't have before--contrast his voice and body language in Miss Pomeroy's class to that in Miss Farmer's. Mouthing off to Miss Farmer gets him suspended. Seeing Jim Cunningham in action and confronting him confirms that JC is a fraud and gives Donnie a motive to burn down his house. Finding the JC's wallet shows Donnie where his house is. Being suspended from school means that he can't attend the talent show, leaving him free to burn down JC's house. Burning down the house reveals the "kiddie porn dungeon" and gets JC arrested. JC being arrested forced Miss Farmer to stay behind and Rose Darko to take Sparkle Motion to LA. Rose (and Eddie) being out of town lets Donnie and Elizabeth throw a party, where Frank gets drunk and goes on a beer run while Donnie fucks Gretchen, cementing their relationship.

The Powers That Be directly intervene twice, once leading Donnie to the gun, the second time to Roberta Sparrow's cellar. Because Gretchen was at the party where he had the vision (in fact, it was her "spear" that formed the portal that led him to Sparrow's house), she rode with Donnie. Her being with Donnie caused her to get thrown out into the road at the same time drunken Frank came speeding up the road. Gretchen is killed when she's run over, and in a rage, Donnie kills Frank.

All of this, including falling in love with Gretchen and later having her killed, was to make sure that Donnie did his job the morning the wormhole opened. Somehow, the presense of his mother and sister on the plane coming back from LA gave him the ability to project a force to tear it off and drop it in the wormhole which led to his house, 28 days before. Doing so would rewind the universe to before when Gretchen was killed, so whatever "Hey, maybe the universe is better off destroyed" notions he might have had were overridden by "Must save Gretchen". So the engine falls, time rewinds, and we find ourselves back on October 2, minutes before the engine fell, with Donnie in his bed laughing his head off.

Why did Donnie have to die? Well, in-universe, I suspect it was to ensure the tangent universe stayed sealed. Whatever powers Donnie had awakened apparently still existed, and it's possible Donnie could have caused another paradox with them. So he had to die. Thematically, Donnie had to die to atone for killing Frank, and because in order to restore Gretchen to life, he had to give up his own. The universe is willing to overturn one death, but the books have to stay balanced, so to speak. The final montage of all the characters waking up in the middle of the night (or simply staring off into space, looking very weirded out), is simply them in the single moment they remember the tangent universe (it's curious that Karen Pomeroy doesn't wake up--I don't know the significance of that, if there is any). One gets the impression that even though they don't remember the tangent universe per se, they now know certain things that they learned there--Miss Farmer realizes Jim Cunningham is a monster, Cherita Chen believes everything will be better for her one day, just like Donnie said.

The final shot is interesting. Gretchen and a grieving Rose Darko make eye contact and wave at each other like they know each other, but they never met in the tangent universe (in the deleted scenes, Donnie tells Elizabeth about Gretchen, and Elizabeth sees them going upstairs together at the party, but Rose never met Gretchen and may not have even known he had a girlfriend). This is Gretchen and Rose's moment of remembering the tangent universe, and understanding why what happened needed to happen. Notice that while the rest of the Darkos are visibly mourning and crying for Donnie, Rose is sad but seems calmer. I think she remembers the reconciliation she had with Donnie in the tangent universe and that's comforting her--otherwise you'd expect she'd be in hysterics, since from a linear perspective, the last time they spoke, he called her a bitch.

Anyway, that's my take on the movie. It's a shame I saw Thirteen Ghosts in the theater rather than this (they came out on the same weekend), but this movie got absolutely no promotion whatsoever. I never even heard of it until I stumbled upon it on HBO.

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2004-01-27 10:10pm

On a side note, the Donnie Darko website is a great way to waste an hour.

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-27 10:40pm

RedImperator wrote:
justifier wrote:I think I have a grip on what happened, but I want to hear your thoughts and see if I'm even close
Here's my take. It's in tiny font because I intend to spoil the entire movie.

Time is not completely linear in the Donnie Darko universe. Causality still applies, but an event that happens in the future can cause an event that happened in the past if there's a wormhole. However, because time is partially linear, an event that happens before its cause violates causality, threatening the existance of the space-time continum until the cause happens.

The jet engine falling out of the sky is just such an uncaused event--a glitch in the universe. The Powers That Be select Donnie to fix the universe. Frank is their direct conduit to Donnie. As we'll see later, Gretchen is their indirect conduit.

Everything in the movie is designed to move Donnie into position to fix the continum. Luring Donnie out of his bedroom just before the engine falls gets him to trust Frank. Breaking the water main causes Gretchen and Donnie to get to know each other. Getting with Gretchen gives Donnie confidence he didn't have before--contrast his voice and body language in Miss Pomeroy's class to that in Miss Farmer's. Mouthing off to Miss Farmer gets him suspended. Seeing Jim Cunningham in action and confronting him confirms that JC is a fraud and gives Donnie a motive to burn down his house. Finding the JC's wallet shows Donnie where his house is. Being suspended from school means that he can't attend the talent show, leaving him free to burn down JC's house. Burning down the house reveals the "kiddie porn dungeon" and gets JC arrested. JC being arrested forced Miss Farmer to stay behind and Rose Darko to take Sparkle Motion to LA. Rose (and Eddie) being out of town lets Donnie and Elizabeth throw a party, where Frank gets drunk and goes on a beer run while Donnie fucks Gretchen, cementing their relationship.

The Powers That Be directly intervene twice, once leading Donnie to the gun, the second time to Roberta Sparrow's cellar. Because Gretchen was at the party where he had the vision (in fact, it was her "spear" that formed the portal that led him to Sparrow's house), she rode with Donnie. Her being with Donnie caused her to get thrown out into the road at the same time drunken Frank came speeding up the road. Gretchen is killed when she's run over, and in a rage, Donnie kills Frank.

All of this, including falling in love with Gretchen and later having her killed, was to make sure that Donnie did his job the morning the wormhole opened. Somehow, the presense of his mother and sister on the plane coming back from LA gave him the ability to project a force to tear it off and drop it in the wormhole which led to his house, 28 days before. Doing so would rewind the universe to before when Gretchen was killed, so whatever "Hey, maybe the universe is better off destroyed" notions he might have had were overridden by "Must save Gretchen". So the engine falls, time rewinds, and we find ourselves back on October 2, minutes before the engine fell, with Donnie in his bed laughing his head off.

Why did Donnie have to die? Well, in-universe, I suspect it was to ensure the tangent universe stayed sealed. Whatever powers Donnie had awakened apparently still existed, and it's possible Donnie could have caused another paradox with them. So he had to die. Thematically, Donnie had to die to atone for killing Frank, and because in order to restore Gretchen to life, he had to give up his own. The universe is willing to overturn one death, but the books have to stay balanced, so to speak. The final montage of all the characters waking up in the middle of the night (or simply staring off into space, looking very weirded out), is simply them in the single moment they remember the tangent universe (it's curious that Karen Pomeroy doesn't wake up--I don't know the significance of that, if there is any). One gets the impression that even though they don't remember the tangent universe per se, they now know certain things that they learned there--Miss Farmer realizes Jim Cunningham is a monster, Cherita Chen believes everything will be better for her one day, just like Donnie said.

The final shot is interesting. Gretchen and a grieving Rose Darko make eye contact and wave at each other like they know each other, but they never met in the tangent universe (in the deleted scenes, Donnie tells Elizabeth about Gretchen, and Elizabeth sees them going upstairs together at the party, but Rose never met Gretchen and may not have even known he had a girlfriend). This is Gretchen and Rose's moment of remembering the tangent universe, and understanding why what happened needed to happen. Notice that while the rest of the Darkos are visibly mourning and crying for Donnie, Rose is sad but seems calmer. I think she remembers the reconciliation she had with Donnie in the tangent universe and that's comforting her--otherwise you'd expect she'd be in hysterics, since from a linear perspective, the last time they spoke, he called her a bitch.

Anyway, that's my take on the movie. It's a shame I saw Thirteen Ghosts in the theater rather than this (they came out on the same weekend), but this movie got absolutely no promotion whatsoever. I never even heard of it until I stumbled upon it on HBO.

Interesting

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2004-01-28 05:21pm

Sorry, i hated the movie. I saw it long before BBC Radio 1 started wanking over it. I hated it before and i hate it even more for the wanking done over it. It was a shit story, it served no purpose, it told no story, the only good outcome of the movie was that it keept me off the street for an hour or two.

Posbi · Post by **Posbi** » 2004-02-01 04:22pm

It's a really sad and depressing movie...and well done, too.

FaxModem1 · Post by **FaxModem1** » 2004-02-04 08:31pm

I just finished watching this film for the first time.

All I can say is 'huh?'

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2004-02-05 01:59am

I liked it and sort of understood it the first time I saw it. The character development was fair to gooood.