Anyone else here like Donnie Darko?

I know it's sad that i am replying to my own post....but I just wanted to add for any of those who do ...a small question. For those of you who haven't seen it...and don't want the ending spoiled...don't read on!

 

I am reading Crime and Punishment for school and there are obviously some definite parrallels. My question is, what do you think would happen if it turned out that Donnie was not one of Nietzche's super heros? In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov takes on the same sort of role as superhero, but then it turns out that he is not one, and he has to live life knowing that he did a bunch of horrible stuff and it didn't benefit anyone. Would we consider Donnie insane? Do you even think Donnie is insane? (I don't!)

*thinking*

 

i shall return :cool:

i watch this film for the 6th time last night and no i don't think donnie is insane!! :P the film is amazing and anyone who hasn't seen it rent it out!!! :smug:

I need to see it :(

yeah definately check it out!!! ;) :P

I loooove one song on the soundtrack though; Gary Jules' Mad World. *loves*

omg that's one of my new fav songs!!!! ;)

it was remixed a while ago and sounded all techno like and was used in an ad!! :lol:

I think I'm grateful I've not heard that.

yeah but it wasn't too bad!! :lol: :P

If it "sounded all techno" it probably was.

well it wasn't techno techno!! it's hard to explain what it was like! :stunned: :confused:

wake up Donnie!

 

that part freaked me out! hahahah

I love DONNIE DARKO! I want the DVD!!!

I've probably watched this movie over 5 times. when i get the dvd itll probably be over 20 times. i just cant get enough of it!

yeah i think im gonna get the dvd too and then i can look at jake all the time too!!!! :lol: :lol: j/k :P

I want the soundtrack too! the music was great in the movie!

donnie darko is one of my favorite films EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love frank. why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

yeah frank is cool and he is quite hot too apart from the eye!! :P ;)

haaaaaaha...my sister drew a picture of frank on my desk. hahaha

 

donnie: your such a fuckass!

elisabeth: did you just call me a fuckass...well you can suck a fuck!

donnie: tell me elisabeth, how does one suck a fuck?

 

samantha: whats a fuckass?

 

HAAAAAHA i love that part.

 

Gretchen: Donnie Darko? what kind of name is that? is sounds like you're some superhero

Donnie: what makes you think im not?

Gretchen: You're weird.

Donnie: sorry.

Gretchen: no, thats a good thing..(cant remember, its compliment?)

Donnie: Hey, Do you want to go with me?

G: Go where?

D: you know...going together, thats what we call it here.

G: Ok. sure.

walks across the street.

D: Hey! where are you going?

G: I'm going home.

 

 

haaaaaaaaa. i like doing this stuff..its fun.

yeah that part is always the only part where i can remember what they say and the part in the cinema with the bunny suit-man suit!!!

i wanna watch it again!!!! :P

why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?

why are you wearing that man suit..MAN SUIT! HA

 

i want to show you something...

(donnie looks at screeen)

burn it, burn it to the ground....

I know it's sad that i am replying to my own post....but I just wanted to add for any of those who do ...a small question. For those of you who haven't seen it...and don't want the ending spoiled...don't read on!

 

I am reading Crime and Punishment for school and there are obviously some definite parrallels. My question is, what do you think would happen if it turned out that Donnie was not one of Nietzche's super heros? In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov takes on the same sort of role as superhero, but then it turns out that he is not one, and he has to live life knowing that he did a bunch of horrible stuff and it didn't benefit anyone. Would we consider Donnie insane? Do you even think Donnie is insane? (I don't!)

 

Do you have the DVD with the commentary and deleted/extra scenes, there's a lot there that goes some length into discussing the ideas and inspiration for the film..You could dig around in people like Nietzche, Kierkagaard, Sartre all day, not that there's anything wrong with that, Donnie's insanity/sanity question isnt really the main issue, it's more to do with his search for God, his struggle of the aethiest/agnostic issue and his increasing isolation in a world he seperates himself from with the aid of Frank and his tangent universe. Well, at least that's what i get from it having watched all the dvd stuff. It's fascinating i think, DD is one of the most original films in quite a while.

Yes I've watched all the commentaries!

 

But I was thinking more along the lines of Crime and Punishment...Crime and Punishment has the same sort of ideas and symbols- except that in the end...all of the signs that Raskolnikov received...after doing what he was chosen to do (as Donnie was chosen to connect to the parallel universe and make everything ok) this Raskolnikov finds out...that he wasn't really chosen to do all of the stuff. All of the coincidences and stuff that he mistook to be fate...turned out to be false...and then he had to live with it, in terms of religion...Raskolnikov didn't know what to do. He was inherently good, he used to be religious...but in his quest to do his chosen task he lost that...he wasn't sure if he could go back to God. I'd like to think of Donnie in that context. What if he had done everything he had done...flooding the school...lighting Jim Cunningham's house on fire, etc. taken all of the signs (and there's a lot as the commentaries suggest) to be fate- when it wasn't really his fate? What would he do then? I agree he is not insane...I have seen the commentaries and so forth...but would our opinions of him change if we found out that he wasn't really chosen to do all of that?

i'll get back to you on this, this is interesting to say the least, i'm glad there's someone here to have such a exchange, there's hope yet ;)

Yes I've watched all the commentaries!

 

But I was thinking more along the lines of Crime and Punishment...Crime and Punishment has the same sort of ideas and symbols- except that in the end...all of the signs that Raskolnikov received...after doing what he was chosen to do (as Donnie was chosen to connect to the parallel universe and make everything ok) this Raskolnikov finds out...that he wasn't really chosen to do all of the stuff. All of the coincidences and stuff that he mistook to be fate...turned out to be false...and then he had to live with it, in terms of religion...Raskolnikov didn't know what to do. He was inherently good, he used to be religious...but in his quest to do his chosen task he lost that...he wasn't sure if he could go back to God. I'd like to think of Donnie in that context. What if he had done everything he had done...flooding the school...lighting Jim Cunningham's house on fire, etc. taken all of the signs (and there's a lot as the commentaries suggest) to be fate- when it wasn't really his fate? What would he do then? I agree he is not insane...I have seen the commentaries and so forth...but would our opinions of him change if we found out that he wasn't really chosen to do all of that?

 

ok i have some spare moments to indulge in this discourse now, i'm glad someone else loves to peruse the machinations of the Darko psyche, the God Machine and the obvious Steven Hawking overtones not to mention, of the idea of tanent universes, time travel et al...a more serious Bill &Ted if you will. lol... The crime and punishement hypothesis is very valid indeed, however with one slight deviation, Donnie never used to be religious, he thought himself aethiest in fact, then later comes to discover through his therapist that he is more the agnostic type. So there is no real loss of god or redemption of divinty/spirituality to speak of, even if Donnie is on such a quest, he is not consciously aware of it. So i'm not so sure for Donnie, that there was this going back to God you speak of, but i see what you're getting at in drawing the parallels between Raskolonikov and Donnie. To reference Sartre, we're all in some way trying to be god. i think there is a little of this in him, he has a sort of savior complex i think, ie the superhero aspect of his character, his overwhelming drive or need/want to change what he can for the good of those he loves.

 

So yes, what if it really wasn't his fate? In fact in a way i think the film poses this question too, was all his effort in vain in a world there is no escaping from anyway..i think there's a suggestion that we make our own fate..through Frank, real or imagined, there became a manifest destiny and Donnie became his own self fufilling prophecy, as hinted by the overt symbolism in certain scenes that hinted at the final outcome (ie the spiral in the jet engine, stabbing frank in the mirror scene, franks right eye in the theater, to name but a few) So herein lies the heart of the film, Donnie as the archetypal existential protagonist, a man forced to deal with the consequences of his own actions. I think in some way his psyche made it his fate..i'm still clinging to notions that Frank is a part of his psyche, but paradoxically i think there was outside force at work in a way, the whole tangent universe idea..what choice do i have? Frank was Elizabeth's boyfriend, he existed, but who or what is Frank the rabbit? A sign from God?, a psychological complex? To tie the movie's sci-fi explorations together for some sort of coherent cohesive finality the viewer is left with little option to believe Frank was some sort of divine intervention and that Donnie did bend the universal time/space continuum to alter the course of events. Take this away and yes, there we have a Donnie who made those choices himself, entering a fatality that perhaps was not his to choose. A person who played a part he shouldnt have played, but yet he felt he needed to. So this is the choice we the viewer are left with, the Donnie as the superhero entering a tangent universe, guided by fate or the misguided isolationist who wants to right some wrongs. So assume we didn't know the former- would our opinions change of him? Well i think it's like anyone else we hear of or no who does something they maybe shouldnt be doing out of a desire to put things right, make ammends, etc...we weigh up their actions and intentions against the consequences and let our heart or mind decide what our opinion is of that person.

Very insightful, just a few comments though.

 

Firstly, something I noticed and that is mentioned in one of the commentaries, is that water is a symbol in both Crime and Punishment and Donnie Darko. Water in C and P was a tool of redemption, I took it to mean the same in Donnie Darko, i.e. the dream about water, and when he tells the psychologist in one of the hypnotic experiements that he regretted flooding the school (or at least I think that was the case...I haven't seen the movie in a while). Even beyond that though, I don't think we know enough about Donnie's history to determine that when he was younger he was not religious. Raskolnikov too was an atheist when he commited the murders, but then he becomes agnostic again- it is only through his mother's letters, etc. that one finds that he was inherently good. Yes we do know about Donnie's criminal history, but we do know about anything before then. Donnie's mother does make an interesting comment however, she says "what happened to my son." Which indicates that perhaps Donnie is not all bad news.

 

As for Frank, I will once again draw a parallel to Crime and Punishment- though it's a bit of a stretch. Raskolnikov's name means schism, and throughout the novel, he is floating in a delerium between two personalities, a morally conscious one. We find that Donnie is suffering from some form of schizophrenia (regardless of whether he is or not), we could thus assume that Frank (as we are led to believe until the end of the movie ) rests only in Donnie's imagination. Perhaps Frank (now we have to keep in mind that according to this scenario- there is no tangent universe) is that other part of Donnie's schism...the one that is morally corrupt.

 

Raskolnikov realizes his mistake in judgement when he begins to think about who the superheros of the world are. He uses the example of Napoleon, he did some pretty outrageous things, but in the end look at the impact on the world. Raskolnikov had this same idea- kill a worthless person then use the money to educate himself and benefit the world. When he really pondered this, however he knew that Napoleon hide or kill an old woman. When he figures out that he was not a super hero, and that he had commited a murder in cold blood, lays on his conscience that he was merely testing a theory. I, however, don't believe that Donnie would be that apathetic to say that. He seems to me passionate, and caring, because of this, I don't think I would have any feelings of malice for him. You are right we would take his actions and lay them against the consequences...