Donnie Darko Paper for Eng. 1100
Marie Burrell
Hasty
English 1100 11:00 AM
November 1, 2008
The film Donnie Darko has quickly turned into a cult classic for many. The film’s underlying meanings of a troubled teenager hallucinating doom draws the audiences attention. There are many prevalent themes found in the film such as an underlying God complex, the theory of time travel, and mental illness on reality.
As the film open’s we find our main character, Donnie, waking up outside on a in the middle of the road. As he makes his way back home his family notices his arrival as nothing of great importance. His being gone throughout the night did not appear to be much of a topic in the family. The Darko family is seen as dysfunctional. The parents are almost always seen with alcohol at their hands. The family is not knit tightly together in a picture perfect way. As the family goes through their daily motions and winds down, Donnie is asleep in his room. “Wake Up,” a mysterious voice calls out to Donnie, who is led out of the house in a trance like state. Here, the audience meets Frank. Frank is a six foot tall man in a demonic bunny costume. Frank is seen as an angel of death of sorts. As Donnie is led from the house he is told that the world will come to an end “28:06:14:42“. A mysterious jet engine then falls from the sky into Donnie’s room where he would have been if Frank hadn‘t intervened.
The family see’s this as a freak accident while Donnie thinks that there is more than meets the eye to the situation. As the movie progresses Donnie has an encounter with an elderly woman named Roberta Sparrow, better known by the kids around town as “Grandma Death.” Sparrow whispers something into Donnie’s ear one day that brings about his conscious searching for God. Frank intervenes in Donnie’s life by telling him he should do things such as vandalize the school by breaking the water mane. These actions can be seen as omens of things to come. No one seems to heed these warnings. Donnie sees everyone’s dependence on some fixed view of life. The school gym teacher, Mrs. Farmer, was completely engulfed in motivational speaker Jim Cunningham’s “Love and Fear” views of life. Donnie argues with her that life is not as easy to split everything into two categories. Everyone seems so consumed with other aspects in life than pay attention to what was happening around them. Donnie becomes an overseer or God of sorts. As Frank intervenes in the world, Donnie can watch what is happening before hand and sees the after math of how people around him react. What is to come is at his feet.
With time, the viewer soon finds out that Roberta Sparrow was once a nun. She gave up her former life to become a teacher. Another character that fits in with the view on God is Cherita, a classmate of Donnie’s who is seen as angelic, both in the fact that she played an angel in the school’s talent show and that she is seen a the good girl. Cherita seems to fall in place whenever something bad happens, but is a reminder of the good side of the world. When Donnie leaves his English teacher’s room he runs into Cherita and says “Everything will be different for you.” Donnie knows that her life will be better one day even though she is teased for who she is. The God complex comes into play again when Donnie sets fire to Jim Cunningham’s house during the school talent show, another omen. Donnie was the only one who sees the man for what he is and as Donnie calls him the antichrist, Cunningham is exposed for child pornography. Donnie has to power to make things happen with his actions. Gretchen, Donnie’s girlfriend dies when the two are attacked. Donnie avenges her death by killing the very real and live Frank. The world begins to fall apart then as Donnie takes Gretchen’s lifeless body with him. In the end, Donnie sits atop the hill looking over the area the town is in as the world comes to an end. As Donnie lived, everyone else dies. Then the movie goes back to the original disaster scene. The only way for the others to live is if Donnie dies.
As for the theme of time travel, the whole movie is set around how Donnie Darko knows the world will end 28 days 6 hours 42 minutes and 16 seconds. Frank guides Donnie through what will happen. The name Frank appears throughout the movie from different characters. Donnie’s parents speak of Frank from high school who died on prom night and who thought the world was doomed. Jim Cunningham speaks of Frank as a young man who took the path of destruction in his life. Donnie’s oldest sister, Elizabeth, is dating Frank, who turns out to be Donnie’s guide from the future. Donnie sees Frank in the bunny costume with a shot out eye, which is how Donnie kills Frank. From the time after the engine disaster, Donnie begins to look into how time travel works.
Donnie speaks with his science teacher, Dr. Monnitoff who gives him Roberta Sparrow’s book on time travel. The book explains the paths that Donnie sees emit from people and that they follow. He argues with the teacher that one can decide their own path if the were traveling within the realm of God’s will. Donnie knows the world will end and becomes scared. In a therapy session Donnie reveals that Roberta Sparrow had whispered “everyone dies alone,” to him the day she was almost run over. The jet engine that fell into the house seems to have appeared from no where and was meant for Donnie, to die alone. The book reveals that the strange happenings are all apart of what is known as a Tangent Universe.
A “Tangent Universe” will collapse in on itself. Everyone in the film besides Gretchen , Frank, and Donnie are seen as the” Manipulated Living“, those who will do anything to save themselves from oblivion.. Everyone is so consumed in saving what they feel to be right in their life that they cannot see what is to come. Roberta Sparrow’s book is an “Artifact” of a tangent Universe occurring. Donnie is the “Living Receiver” he is granted with seeing worm holes and following them into the future and he can conjure fire, burning Cunningham’s house, and water, breaking the water mane. The “Manipulated Dead” are Frank and Gretchen. They will ensure that Donnie will use time travel to send the world back into the “Primary Universe” or normal universe. Here, Donnie is forced to go back in time after Gretchen is killed, the plane is caught in a tornado, and all the world is ending. To ensure everyone’s safety, Donnie has to die. The plane engine that falls on Donnie in the end was from the future he traveled to. The manipulated are then awaken from their dreams of what has happened. The ending scene for many of the characters shows them in bed as if they have woken from a nightmare. They remember everything that has happened as a dream. The time travel then stops.
As for the last of the prevalent themes, Donnie Darko is seen to be a paranoid schizophrenic. The therapist believes that Frank is the result of Donnie’s daylight hallucinations. In the family dinner scene in the beginning of the movie, Donnie’s sister Elizabeth tells their parents that Donnie has stopped taking his medication. Every time Donnie takes his medication, something happens. The first night he takes it, Frank appears. The next time, Donnie vandalizes the school, then Jim Cunningham’s home. Donnie believes that he can see into the future, but it is after he takes his medication that this time travel occurs.
When Donnie first meets Gretchen she speaks of her step father’s emotional problems. Donnie tries to relate by saying that he has problems too, making things awkward between the two for a moment. Donnie’s problems get in the way with his schooling as he writes a poem about the end of the world in his English class. The teacher asks him who Frank is and he replies “a six foot tall bunny.” During a later class, the teacher plays a movie with talking bunnies in and asks Donnie what he believes to be going on. Donnie gets aggravated and says that they shouldn’t care, they are just bunnies, almost as if he was angry like she was mocking Frank. Donnie’s hallucinations begin to cloud his judgment. Around the end of the film, Donnie’s therapist tells him that he can stop taking his medication, they were just placebos anyway. Here, it seems that Dr. Thurman, the therapist has given up hope on Donnie. The placebos were there to see if Donnie would improve when he thought he was being medicated, but Donnie only got worse.
Donnie’s mental state affects the whole movie because it never really happened. Everything after the jet engine was not real, but a dream of Donnie’s. Donnie dies in his bed the night the engine falls in his room. There is no Frank and no time travel since Donnie was not there to experience it. The final song used in the movie is a cover of Tears for Fears song “Mad World” which fits in with Donnie’s mental state with the line “Dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.” The line demonstrates that Donnie was dreaming it all up and that his death was meant to occur, a fate of sorts.
Behind the dark undercurrents of Donnie Darko, the film reaches many different views. A sense of the search for God comes out with Donnie’s omniscient presence. Time travel is explored through the mind of a teenage boy and a strange bunny. A mental disorder is discovered in the main character that opens how the film is seen as well.
.