Movie Discussion: Donnie Darko

Wiggle Piggy

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Jun 7, 2022
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I watched this flick last night for the first time and here are my thoughts, I'm eager to hear yours.

- This movie flirts with sci-fi themes, but to me it screamed the conflict and turmoil of a young, confused, troubled youth and his struggle with prescription drugs and certain themes in life in general.
- Prescription drugs are featured throughout the film, and they are viewed in a troublesome, bad light. This movie came out in 2001, and this was still in the time when saying you were on anti-depressants was much more something to be ashamed of, and a semi-freakish characteristic.
- A faith-healer type guru and local Christian mom are made to be hollow, hypocrital, evil people, so obviously there's a beef by the producer with those who profess the cross.
- Donnie partakes in multiple horrifically evil acts and yet is portrayed in a simpethetic light at the end of the film. He causes a major flood at his school, he burns down somebody's house to attack them, and he shoots someone and kills them. Yet, the powerful ending soothed by Gary Jules' "Mad World" is meant to portray a tragic death of Donnie. He's no hero, and nobody to view as a loss to humanity.
- His willingness to be in his bedroom at the moment he knows an airplane engine will drop into it and kill him is no act of sacrifice... despite his laughter, I think his laughter is because he knows his depressive episodes and frustration with life on medication will end.
- I thought there was an odd lack of reaction to Donnie's death in the ending scenes.. It seems like they weren't grieving as much as they probably should hav3, it struck me as odd. His dad was half crying, his mom was by a tree smoking a cigarette, nowhere near emotionally crushed.

If you've seen the movie, what are your thoughts? What do you think the main themes and issues were in the movie? From some of the people who have reviewed the movie, it seems they took it in a much more sci-fi theme, but while I admit it exists, it wasn't in the foreground of the movie.
 
There are 10,000 opinions about this.
The one with the most credence is the writer, who has always been careful not to be too revealing about "what it means".
Only said that it was his interpretation of where society was going for the past 12 years. (1988-2000)
 

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