Just saw Donnie Darko for the first time last night, only saw it once, but heres my 2 cents… SPOILER ALERT
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I agree with much of what Six said, but I don’t think the time travel is all that important, just there so the movie can be interpreted by both religious folks and athiests…maybe… Anyway, the double feature that Donnie and Gretchen went to was some horror film and “The Last Temptation of Christ” "The Last Temptaion of Christ"deals with the idea of Jesus being both man and God, thus being man, has to endure all the trials and temptations that every living person endures. However(this is where I think it STRONGLY pertains to Donnie Darko), one of the most important and controversial scenes in the film occurs as Jesus is being crucified.
During the crucifixion, the devil comes to Jesus with one final temptation(movie religion, not in the bible, ever). He shows Jesus what his life could be like if he were to continue living; marry Mary Magdellin, have kids, live a long prosperous life. During this vision, he also reveals many of the evils of the world to Jesus adding to the temptation the notion that humans are inherently evil and not worth sacrificing his life for. Knowing this story makes it much easier to draw parallels to the movie.
So, I think that Frank is actually an evil incarnation(the rabbit head is semi-similiar to a devil with horns…) tempting Donnie to take the selfish route; live, fall in love, get laid, expose the ridiculousness of the world, etc… at the expense of those he loved. Since he choses to die, he is a hero…
I think that the way I would describe this movie to a friend so that they would understand it would be to call it a “disturbingly disillusioned generations Last Temptation of its a wonderful life”. Anyway, I’m going to try and get back to work now…
Does anyone know the symbolism of the fat guy in the running suit?
Oh wow, joerosz–that’s a really cool way to look at it (and worth bumping this thread for; I’m sure not too many people have thought of it that way!)
I read somewhere that the fat guy in the running suit was from the FAA or something–I’m not sure if that’s true, though.
According to the DVD commentary, it is an FAA guy.
They don’t. And I can’t see how they were ever in any danger of doing so, which is just one little problem with the time-travel thing. how could a jet engine from a oct 31st flight kill some one in the beginning of October the same year? There’s time travel all over the place by the end, not just Donnie and Frank. grrr