Donnie Darko-A Personal Apocalypse
This movie is Richard Kelley’s debut film as a writer-director.Before the making of this film,Kelly had directed a couple of short films.Donnie Darko can be easily termed as a surrealist/sci –fi/psychological thriller.
This movie is based on a book called’The philosophy of time travel” written by Roberta Sparrow(portrayed as ‘grandma Death’in the movie).If I were to explain the movie in two lines,I’d say it is about a highly intelligent teenager diagnosed with borderline schizophrenia who seemingly survives a tragic accident,who is in the quest for ending the temporal paradox cycle.
But there is much more to itthan that, which would on one level suggest that all the events that occur are psychological,but in a deeper sense it also talks about the possibility of time-travel .Donnie Darko (played by Jake Gyllenhal) is the protagonist who is experiencing several strange and surreal events, not the least of which is a jet engine crashing through the roof of his house,the jet engine which has not been reported missing from any plane.The strange events began to occur from October 1st,1988. The jet-engine is actually from October 30th(the future), disappearing through a time corruption 28 days into the past. This catastrophic event distorts spacetime ,creating a Tangential universe (TU).The movie as well as the book describes the concept of the Primary Universe(PU), which we inhabit, the Fourth Dimension of Time, and the highly unstable Tangent Universe. The formation of a Tangent Universe is an extremely dangerous event, which can cause the collapse and destruction of the Primary Universe.The two essential elements for time travel being water and metal.The metal being the Artifact, The Artifact is a metallic object which signals the formation of a Tangential Universe, and appear under mysterious and inexplicable circumstances.Hence the jet engine was the Artifact which the Living Receiver(Donnie, as the artifact falls in his room) had to bring back into the Primary Universe, thus closing the Tangent Universe before it can fatally collapse.The Living Receiver is often blessed with Fourth Dimensional Powers. These include increased strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water. And so in the movie, Donnie floods the school and burns down a house,.conjuring fire and water.According to the book,the Living Receiver is often tormented with terrifying dreams,visions and auditory hallucinations which are linked with the tangential universe. but one ,would be prone to confusing his psychological ability as a disability as one would perceive him to be delusional and schizophrenic.Two important characters which had the ability to completely turn the plot around were the ‘Manipulated dead’(Frank,theBunny/the person Donnie had previously shot in the eye,before the time-loop began, for running the car over his girlfriend Gretchen and ‘Manipulated Living’(Gretchen ,who’s death provokes Donnie to put an end to the time-loop).
The whole concept of time travel and the various portals that help in manipulating the past and future were quite intriguing.Since the movie was timed in the 1980’s period,the play of light and shadow came across very well even though the film was shot in the year 2001.Jake Gyllenhal’s performance was exceptional since throughout he appeared to be mentally ill but ironically he was the one who ultimately saves the world. Another interesting observation I made was that each of the characters were like the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. Each of them played an important role in helping Donnie in returning the artefact.We witness this in various instances like Donnie’s science teacher who introduces him to the book called ‘philosophy of time travel’,then the English teacher(played by Drew Barrymore) talks about a literary work called ‘The Cellar Door’ literally guiding Donnie, since each of these characters(including Grandma Death) seem to have some kind of inside knowledge and a sense of what's going on as though they are all merely acting their lives as in a well rehearsed play, especially Grandma Death and her endless trips back and forth to the mailbox looking for Donnie's letter.To a certain extent,the movie also plays with the subconscious mind since Frank, whom Donnie had already shot in the eye in the primary universe was perceived by Donnie as theBunny with a bleeding eye(since Frank dressed as the Bunny for Halloween)when the Bunny from the tangential universe haunted him.The camera shots were also well taken as in many instances,the camera zoomed in to capture Donnie’s expressions which kept changing whenever he had epiphanies of the repetition of events.The background scores were also very interesting.The movie includes songs like "The Killing Moon" by Echo & the Bunnymen,Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Proud to Be Loud" by the Pantera,creating a whole atmosphere of the 80’s rebelious,teenage angst.The most interesting number,was at the song at the end of the movie”Mad World’ which is originally by the band Tears For Fears but the one included in the movie was covered by Gary Jules on the piano.I found this track particularly fascinating since the lyrics with the piano backdrop creates the feeling of surrealism.While the song is played in the background,the shot reveals the changes that overcome each person,the never ending time-loop had affected.Each of them have a certain memory of what had happened time and again.I think overall Donnie Darko,the movie has maintained the essence of the book without directly revealing the subject.Even though the concept appears to be convuluted,the series of events take place in a very logical way and are all connected,though one has to look out for the minor details which help in understanding the plot better with ofcourse the help of the guide’philosophy of time-travel’.
Donnie Darko got pretty extreme reviews.Though some believe the movie to be a cult film which many could not decipher and hence liked,others suggest that it is a coming of age,romantic black comedy about time travel,teen angst,dysfunctional suburban family (which is very evident from the kind of house they lived in).
Another movie that caught my attention ,as it deals with the similar subject of time travel and alternate endings is “The Butterfly Effect”.It deals with the idea of ‘what if’ scenarios which,in a way compels the main character(played by Ashton Kutcher) to remain in a time loop of sorts.Though in the movie,the tools used for time travel does not involve portals like water or metal,instead it was vaguely based on the butterfly effect which in turn is based on the scientific theory called the Chaos theory.Even though I enjoyed this movie as much as I enjoyed Donnie Darko,I think the concept of time travel was dealt more strongly in Donnie Darko than in The Butterfly Effect.Actingwise,both the movies had actors who performed exceptionally well.The Butterfly Effect stressed more on the alternate endings(what if scenarios) rather than the process while in Donnie Darko the alternate ending appears only at the climax of the movie.If I were to compare the special effectsin both the movies,The Butterfly effect being a more recent movie(2004)had better effects.Also,as a sci/fi,psychological thriller,Donnie Darko has a stronger concept.In the Butterfly Effect,the element of thrill lies more in the alternate endings rather than a problem the main character is dealing with,while in Donnie Darko the element of suspense remains till the end as the audience is perplexed whether the apocalypse is for real or in his head.
---- Sreya
