|
|
Post by WarrenPeace on Dec 4, 2018 8:15:43 GMT
How did he go back in time?
What was with those Abyss looking alien things that came out of people's guts?
By him going back in time and letting himself be killed by the falling jet engine, Gretchen is still alive and will remain so since she won't meet him.
But how does him getting killed save the rest of the world or from the sky opening up?
How is Frank able to show up in the present when he hasn't been shot and killed yet?
So what happened to the airplane the engine fell off of?
Was the first one like some weird time warp?
I'm sure that if a jet engine really did crash into a house like that it would go through all the floors down into the basement leaving big holes in its wake.
Feel free to answer and share any other thoughts and opinions you have on this weird and complex movie.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marv on Dec 4, 2018 10:01:08 GMT
I’m due for a rewatch.
|
|
|
|
Post by WarrenPeace on Dec 4, 2018 16:07:45 GMT
Bump
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 16:10:59 GMT
I think I read that the reason Donnie had to die is because he was an anomaly due to his time traveling.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 19:00:08 GMT
How did he go back in time? It's not important. The story isn't actually about time travel just like Kafka's Metamorphosis isn't actually about a man turned into an insect. Donnie Darko is an existential story concerned mostly with reality and fatalism with a heavy dose of religious themes and the time travel isn't meant to be taken literally. The movie points this out, to a degree, when Donnie comments on the teacher's binary "Fear or Love" scale and says it's more complex than that. Replace "Fear or Love" with "Past or Present" and it's a clue on how time should be interpreted in this film. They're representative of fate, predetermination, God's plan; whatever you want to call it. Donnie is destined to die and he cannot avoid his fate, just as the tunnels represent that the fates of others are already decided. A central theme of the film is that Donnie wants to defy fate. When he's asked about the short story in class, he says the kids burned the money ultimately because they wanted to "change things"-- or go against God's plan, as the film later frames it. This is what Donnie wants to do but ultimately, he can't. Donnie doesn't literally save the rest of the world. He just comes to accept his fate and the way reality is rather than ignoring or fighting it, which in a sense, saves it for him. Because Frank was already dead even while he was living. Again, the central theme of fate is at play here. This is also why Donnie is wearing a skeleton costume later in the film-- he's already dead too. It doesn't really matter. If you want to take the time travel elements literally, I guess they made an emergency landing since the plane only lost one engine and the turbine hit him this time because he broke out of the time loop when he finally accepted death and was freed from the mortal coil. Though, again, it's not literally about time travel or the like and the movie puts in great effort to make that clear. Probably. I'm sure CinemaSins has mentioned it as it's completely unimportant. I think it's overall a great film. Tonally, it's a lot like Heathers, so it's highly entertaining despite the themes being a bit heavy in spots and I do think it's a great film to debate in terms of what it means. I don't mean to be rude in my interpretation as you can have quite a few-- especially in regards to religious elements-- but I do think it's mistake to take certain aspects of it literally. |
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Dec 4, 2018 21:00:44 GMT
I think its a film where all of the questions are left up to the viewer.
|
|
|
|
Post by WarrenPeace on Dec 4, 2018 23:52:37 GMT
I think its a film where all of the questions are left up to the viewer. Yeah, it's very surreal and there is no linear passage of past and future. |
|
|
|
Post by WarrenPeace on Dec 5, 2018 0:16:41 GMT
How did he go back in time? It's not important. The story isn't actually about time travel just like Kafka's Metamorphosis isn't actually about a man turned into an insect. Donnie Darko is an existential story concerned mostly with reality and fatalism with a heavy dose of religious themes and the time travel isn't meant to be taken literally. The movie points this out, to a degree, when Donnie comments on the teacher's binary "Fear or Love" scale and says it's more complex than that. Replace "Fear or Love" with "Past or Present" and it's a clue on how time should be interpreted in this film. They're representative of fate, predetermination, God's plan; whatever you want to call it. Donnie is destined to die and he cannot avoid his fate, just as the tunnels represent that the fates of others are already decided. A central theme of the film is that Donnie wants to defy fate. When he's asked about the short story in class, he says the kids burned the money ultimately because they wanted to "change things"-- or go against God's plan, as the film later frames it. This is what Donnie wants to do but ultimately, he can't. Donnie doesn't literally save the rest of the world. He just comes to accept his fate and the way reality is rather than ignoring or fighting it, which in a sense, saves it for him. Because Frank was already dead even while he was living. Again, the central theme of fate is at play here. This is also why Donnie is wearing a skeleton costume later in the film-- he's already dead too. It doesn't really matter. If you want to take the time travel elements literally, I guess they made an emergency landing since the plane only lost one engine and the turbine hit him this time because he broke out of the time loop when he finally accepted death and was freed from the mortal coil. Though, again, it's not literally about time travel or the like and the movie puts in great effort to make that clear. Probably. I'm sure CinemaSins has mentioned it as it's completely unimportant. I think it's overall a great film. Tonally, it's a lot like Heathers, so it's highly entertaining despite the themes being a bit heavy in spots and I do think it's a great film to debate in terms of what it means. I don't mean to be rude in my interpretation as you can have quite a few-- especially in regards to religious elements-- but I do think it's mistake to take certain aspects of it literally. I appreciate you answering each of my questions. Some of it is helpful and yet it also leads to more questions. If his fate was to be crushed by the plane engine and destined to die that way then why was it avoided the first time? So is the world still going to end on Oct 30th? Is time travel really not supposed to be a focus of the movie, as you suggest? Like when he brings up the movie Back to the Future with the teacher, the teacher ignores that and moves on until the teacher stops the conversation. And yet there is a lot of talk about time travel in the movie and he even does it. Plus a shot and killed Frank comes from the future to be in the present. So I doubt your claim and still see this as a very creative and weird twist of a time travel movie. We can add it to other ones such as the Future and Terminator trilogies where they mess around with it so much it gets complicated. But then on the night when Donnie is going to die we see a still alive Frank at home asleep. Which we are doing? True. And I don't see you as being rude. LIke you wrote, we can each have our own interpretations and there is no right and wrong which is how it should be for every movie. I also meant to ask earlier what Donnie seeing Frank in the rabbit costume is all about. Only Donnie could see that. Were they hallucinations or was it some kind of spirit thing? My take is that somehow the future ghost of Frank comes to see him. |
|
|
|
Post by WarrenPeace on Dec 5, 2018 3:12:06 GMT
|
|
Gary
New Member
@gary
Posts: 37
Likes: 22
 
|
Post by Gary on Dec 7, 2018 3:12:34 GMT
'Donnie Darko' is certainly a favorite movie. I like the mulitple dimension theme, sort of like David Lynch portrayed at times. Frank is a ghost in one dimension, haunts his killer Donnie and gets him to avoid being killed by the jet engine. He also helps Donnie see how he can save Gretchen although it will cost him his life. Poor guy, damned if he does damned if he doesn't. I also thought the drugs he had taken opened him up to the timelines. No wonder he didn't want to take them anymore. Another good thing was exposing Mr. Cunningham. Maybe that helped in causing Frank to guide Donnie. Clever story. I poked around the internet about it and found a website, among others that attempts to explain some of it. I have to say Roberta Sparrow is quite the enigmatic character. Interesting that Drew Barrymore was one of the producers and I liked her teacher portrayal. I don't remember it real well but I read Graham Greene's 'The Destructors' about youth purposely destroying a house as a more or less demonstration. Interesting. Donnie sure took it seriously. :/ A while ago a part of a satellite, they say from a Chinese satellite, fell in Myanmar and it reminded me of the movie. ******************************* Yes, quite the interesting movie. I found a couple of links for Roberta Sparrow's actual book, 'The Philosophy of Time Travel'. It is a companion to the movie. And it sure explains some of the enigmas. I think it is interesting as philosophy as well. On IMDb there are extensive notes about the movie in the trivia and quotes sections. I need to see it again. I actually gave my DVD to a friend who hadn't seen it. I want to see the director's cut altough Richard Kelly say he likes the theatrical version just fine. But they wanted him to incorporate some unused footage into a special edition. One of the perennial questions, free will. I like David Lynch's theory that humans are like spiders, we build a web with our thoughts and then travel along it. I thought, if you ever found whether or not you had free will you it would affect your motivation, so the knowledge of that by nature is occult. From imdb.com trivia for 'Donnie Darko': EASTER EGG: The DVD contains several Easter Eggs, or hidden items. Two are visible in the "Philosophy of Time Travel" book in the Special Features. On each of the appendix pages, press the up arrow on your remote and press enter. For Appendix A, the viewer gets a deleted scene about the flooding of the school, and Appendix B, the viewer gets a different trailer for the movie. Another can be found after selecting the "Cunning Visions" menu screen. At the bottom of the screen, highlight the Special Features menu entry, press the right arrow on your remote to highlight the icon, and press enter. This will allow you to enter a website gallery. giama.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/the-philosophy-of-time-travel.pdfwww.donniedarko.org.uk/philosphy-of-time-travel/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLFmdlztN9s jet engine falls |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2018 3:53:34 GMT
I feel like this film needs to be seen in the director's cut.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rey Kahuka on Dec 7, 2018 13:01:06 GMT
No, you can't have those 2 hours and 14 minutes of your life back. Sorry.
|
|
