explain Donnie Darko to me - spoilers if you haven't seen it

[IDIC]

Personally, I thought the movie was suppose to be a different commentary on mental illness. So, I think one of the themes that the movie tries to touch on is that those who we perceive to be mentally insane might not actually be. That perhaps their "insanity" is really a deeper understanding of something than we sane people have. Really, how do we decide if something is to be considered sane or insane? As far as I can see, it is done by consensus. Nearly 99% of the population of the world believes that there is an all knowing all seeing higher power that is responsible for creation. We do not label these individuals as insane but we do label the person who sees monsters in their refrigator insane.

The airplane engine that was suppose to kill Donnie actually came from the future. He avoided his death the first time due to his sleep walking/schizophrenia which creates the parallel universe where the engine falls from the airplane. We would call someone who avoided such a death as lucky but luck had nothing to do with it. Donnie avoided it because of his mental "illness".

 

[Trent Roman]

The airplane engine that was suppose to kill Donnie actually came from the future. He avoided his death the first time due to his sleep walking/schizophrenia which creates the parallel universe where the engine falls from the airplane.

To me, it's because of that irreconcillable paradox that the events of the film can't be summed up by an internalist approach, i.e. that it was all in Donnie's head. To create the paradox in the first place, there has to have been some form of Other at work, personal or otherwise.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[anais]

the other explanation I like is that Donnie is just insane. Fight Club, A Beautiful Mind and Donnie Darko make up my "peek into batshit insanity" trilogy.

That's my pet theory. Donnie is mentally ill, everything we see in the movie has been filtered through his crazy-glasses.

 

[T'Baio]

Because I doubt the commentary would include any variation of the words "I did all that shit because it was cool, the movie has no logic to it. Suckers."

Actually, at one point he does, in fact, pretty much say the first part of that quote! Just remove "all" and "shit".

I don't know why you think I have an animosity towards the picture? I quite enjoyed it in a hollow, entertaining way.