Gender: Unspecified Location: Lost in a Roman Wilderness of Pain
Loved the movie, it's so dark and twisted... The acting was great too, I loved Drew Barrymoore's charcter and Maggie Gyllenhaal's.
Didn't get all of it though... I'm gonna see it again today, I hope I'll fully understand it by the time it's over.
__________________ "Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity." — Thor Heyerdahl
The time travel theory doesnt explain why he dies.
I dont think Donnie Darko is about time travel or saving lives. I think its about some guy that dies, then gets to see life if he had continued to live. An sees that by him dying others survived so could be content in dying, like that question does your life/every life have meaning/purpose, even if you die tragically/at a young age? It was just shown in a different way than your normal movie of "die 1st then see life if you had continued to live movie". They just showed it in reverse. Saying he has special powers seems silly, he gets killed by a plane engine, theres nothing magically about that. Nothing ever eluded to the fact that he had to do anything to "save" anything. 28 days could of just been how long he was being told he had till it was over. If he knew the future an had time travel powers he could have still avoided the plane engine, but he couldnt which simply means that event had already happened, I. E. unavoidable an his 28 days where like a vision after already dying.
Many ways to interpret this movie.
__________________ As the EM field becomes more and more unstable, we'll start seeing isolated incidents - one plane will fall from the sky, then two, then, in a few month, anything, everything electronic will be fried.
I bought the directors cut on DVD and thought it was much easier to understand but still it is open to interpretation, even when you listen to the commentary the director says much the same.
Gender: Unspecified Location: Somewhere in the Far East, training
I'm glad to see others felt the same way I did. I just didn't get this movie at all. And by saying that, I'm not saying that I didn't understand the concepts behind the movie or it just didn't make sense to me etc. because that would be a very ignorant reason IMO for not liking it. Case in point when I first saw Memento, I didn't get every single detail of the movie but that didn't make me think it was stupid and I didn't like it. It made me watch it again a second time, in normal mode, it made me also want to check out the website and see what other info. there was available although at that point I understood pretty much everything and even then it still becomes a mater of personal perception and interpretation. Not necessarily a right or wrong but what you believe to be the truth, the flawed narrators version or the con mans version. These type of movies purposely leave you with open ended events that lead to healthy discussion and debate leter on and force you to come up with your own conclusions. The only reason why I mention this is to make it clear that I love movies that challenge your intellect and leave it up to you to fill in the holes and decide what you believe to be the ultimate truth.
Anyway, having said all this Donnie Darko really disappointed me in a lot of ways, especially since it was an indie film that many have liked and hyped up quite a bit. As someone mentioned this movie is just filled with all around pretentious artsy crap that tries to pass for a serious film but in the end it's just a futile effort from the director in a vain attempt of make something even relevant to having the distinction of being called a film. (As I'm writing this I'm reminded of another crap film, Irreversible). The plot is just a bunch of meandering pointless crap just strung together without any direction or purpose whatsoever with no real outcome or resolution in the end. Where this movie really failed for me was in it's attempt or lack there of of actually making you care or sympathize with any one of these characters, especially the main character. At no point in this movie did I feel any type of emotional connection to any of them. In the end I really didn't give a rats ass whether Donnie died or not, I just wanted the damn thing to be over with one way or another. I thought Berrymore's character was particularly pointless.
This film had the potential for so much more. I've always been intrigued by ideas of time travel and the existence of parallel universes, cause and effect, etc. I'm somewhat of a sci-fi nut so these type of films really appeal to me, unfortunately again I was really let down by this film. I hope there's another film out there that might be better at tackling these ideas and presenting in a more well thought out and articulated way.
Finally, just out of curiosity what is it that makes people like this film so much and what age of movie goer does this film mostly appeal to? If you like the movie because Donnie is young and cool and he's in school and he gets to tell his teachers off and talk back to authority figures and get away with making fun of that guy during his speech and trashing the school or you just simply like the dude in the rad bunny suit. Ok, I guess those are good enuff reasons. Or maybe you're just a big fan of Tears for Fears? I am but that still didn't make me like this movie. Btw, Gary Jules remake of 'Mad World' was very good indeed.
One last note, I asked a friend of mine who's very knowledgeable about movies to check it out and see whether he like it or not. He also didn't get it and it didn't appeal to him at all.
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‘Sorry but I just can’t trust anything that bleeds for about a week and doesn’t die’ My poetry and stuff
Although, it does get a lot of love on this board, it's hated nearly everywhere else. Thus, those who are pretentious usually dislike it. A pretty ignorant post on your part.
RZA, could you please define a "point" for me?
I find many of your posts tasteless, please start validating your opinions. I'm saying this to everyone that's posting "i understand the plot, but it's pointless". Firstly, that doesn't even makle sense. To have a plot, it'd have to have a general "point", yes?
If "Donnie Darko" doesn't have a point, I don't know what film does.
KMC Community Forums
Jan 14th, 2006 08:27 PM
