Troy Stiffler

The movie takes place in October of 1988...

ArchibaldTuttle

I have read dozens of threads on this movie on various forums, and it almost seems like people enjoy talking and arguing about this movie more than any other movie I have encountered

personally I like to think that the movie deals with 2 parallel demensions, and by some divine intervention donnie is guided thru a very specific path through life and is given a choice

the only thing I don't get is why was he chosen, I suppose if the majority of the movie was a dream it would make perfect sense, but then the movie wouldn't be nearly as interesting

as for frank still being alive, I think its fairly obvious this is the case, in the montage near the end of the movie you see everyone sleeping, and patrick swayze's character crying, you see frank sleeping and touching his face where he was shot

Jeraden

I finally watched this movie last night and had the same feeling of confusion as many others did. I think I understand everything well enough now except for one thing. This has been mentioned by others, but I haven't seen any answers or theories on it.

kneijst1

There are plot holes in this movie, yes, but compared to a lot of trash Hollywood has been putting out recently, I'd rather re-watch this over and over again on Friday night then to waste my money on Kangaroo Jack...

custom001

OUCH! Thanks, jeraden, I never thought about it like this! Gotta watch it again right now (thinking about all this thoughts pointed out in this thread)

btw, thanks e1 for raving about this movie!
best blind buy I ever did.
a truly originally scripted movie. (very rare these days)

Shonn

But the theater's sign says "Halloween Frightmare Double Feature" with those two movies being Evil Dead and The Last Temptaion of Christ. I wouldn't have classified The Last Temptation of Christ as a "Halloween Frightmare" film.

ehonauer

People put too much effort in trying to get Donnie Darko to "make sense". Time-travel films will always leave us with endless debates, because they're theoretical. We don't know what happens when you travel in time. To expect a film to lay it out like Dragnet is asking a bit much. There are many well-loved films more rooted in "reality" that contain worse transgressions against logic.

In fact, Donnie Darko does particularly well in managing an intricate series of causes and effects. I never felt during the film that the characters were being manipulated towards an end. How many times have we thrown up our hands when a character does something stupid or out-of-character in order to drive a plot forward? Especially in horror/sci-fi/fantasy films. But the characters in Donnie Darko act out of their nature, making the events plausible and significant.

Still, Donnie doesn't understand where events are taking him, and neither do we. There are forces at work beyond our understanding (beyond Frank and beyond Roberta Sparrow as well - they might be just tools). A movie doesn't have to answer all our questions. Some exist just to contemplate the mysterious or unknowable- e.g. 2001 A Space Odyssey.

At the end of Donnie Darko, I didn't feel cheated, and I didn't think the director lazy. I was glad he made a picture as rich and imaginative as he did. I've seen a lot of movies, and they don't keep me guessing anymore. Between Donnie Darko and Audition, my faith in film's ability to astound and astonish was restored last year.

But reading this thread is like watching a movie with a 6 year old -"Why did this happen?", "Why did that happen?" Just relax and enjoy the movie. It's a journey, not a destination, and "figuring it out" isn't going to add to the enjoyment of it. There's more humility, humor, and general wonderment at the ways of the universe in Donnie Darko than in most films by directors twice the age of Richard Kelly. So give him props and move on. Or read "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat" if you really need to know more about quantum physics and the uncertainty principle...

Anyway, here's my reading of the ending:



By the way, did anyone catch the homage to Kieslowski's Blue at the end? Kieslowski's Blue/White/Red is a great series of films about chance, choice and fate.

chanster

Now wait a minute, I just watched this movie and this is what I took from the movie:



Of course, the talk about spaceships is this:



Of course, the paradox in this (and this isn't reconciled - but it can't be due to time travel problems)

Deftones

I watched it last night. I didn't understand it all that well. Apprently the key is to be on drugs at the time of it's viewing.

Anyone want explain it briefly to me? Was all the stuff he was seeing just in his head? Did it even happen? What was the significance of the airline engine? Help please!

Klotera

I suggest looking at the full text of "The Philosophy of Time Travel". You only get to glance at it in the movie, but on the DVD or on the web, you can find the full text.

It becomes much clearer after reading that.

The Antipodean

A DVD Talk legend should surely know how to search

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=193421

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=188320

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=228428

hope those help

Deftones

I did a search for Donnie Darko, but I used the search at the bottom. I guess I should've used the full search feature.

gutwrencher

man, I still need to pick this up. only saw it on cable.

audrey

After the last price drop, it's cheap too. I picked up mine at BB sometime ago for $10.

Caliking

This is one of my top movies ever. The first time I watched it I didnt get too much. Imediately after my friend and I were on the net for about 3 hours or so reading all kinds of stuff on it. I have seen this movie at least 12 times since then and every time I find a new meaning or event in the movie. Many, many diffferent layers here.

It was fun to see this at the Berkeley theater's midnight showing. The sold out fan base was really into it. One of my best movie going experiences ever...im just glad I had seen it before that showing.

chrisfarrar

Just finished this movie, and i must say it was amazing...

The Antipodean

Welcome to the forum!

This is a fantastic movie, definitely. There's some really interesting discussion threads going on hereabouts that you might want to check into...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=299675
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=193421
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=188320
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=228428

Enjoy!

atari2600

i dont get it.

marty888

Fortunately, you have access to all those threads listed in the posting directly above yours, assuming your reply concerns the movie.

(If your reply is about something else, well, you're on your own. )

rushmore223

Saw this movie long time ago, actually tried to seek it out in the theaters. Got it on DVD first day of release knowing it would be good, still was not prepared for how utterly-frickintastic this movie was.

Just takes a movie like this one every ten years to renew my faith in cinema as an art form.

schizopak

Bought this dvd a month or so ago and this thread reminded me to go and watch it. Like most people, I was pleasantly surprised and reading through the other threads helped me gain more appreciation for the movie.

chrisfarrar

yeah, it was a great movie. I had my own interpretation before reading some of the threads, but reading them gave me several other ways to look at this movie.

DodgingCars

It made absolutely no sense to me. I was really eager to see this movie because so many had praised it. I was incredibly disappointed.

RKillgore

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I would tack onto this already existing one.
Just listened to the one of the commentaries and was surprised to find out that the movie theatre scene was originally evisioned showing C.H.U.D.; Evil Dead was used instead because Sam Raimi let them use it for free.
I thought it was used as more of the indications of what was going on. Pondering the odd choice of movies for a double-feature, Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ, I realized that Evil Dead had the clock-stopping, time distortion bit (the very scene they showed in the theatre) and Last Temptation was about an alternate reality. I thought it was pretty clever of them to do that, then to find out it was supposed to be C.H.U.D.?!?
So, was this fortuitous or intentionally making the best of what they could get?

RyoHazuki

I havent seen this and Im really afraid to. Every non-movie fan person I talk to seems to just love this movie. Im afraid its gonna be one of those J6P indie movies that every person thinks they discovered.