View Single Post
Old 11-28-2003, 07:00 AM   #53 (permalink)
Xiangsu
Addict
 
Xiangsu's Avatar
 
Location: Illinois
Quote:
Originally posted by Moskie
I think the best idea is to ignore any paradox problems. Don't worry about where/when exactly the jet engine came from, but just think about how the chain of events of the movie are affected by Donnie dying or surviving.

Something that struck me about this movie, is that I really see it as an anti-"It's a Wonderful Life" story, in a sense. In "It's a Wonderful Life", Jimmy Stewart gets to see what the world is like if he is never born. In Donnie Darko, Donnie gets to see what the world is like if he doesn't die. The end result, is that Donnie appreciates what fate has planned for him (similar to Jimmy Stewart's lesson). He dies for a reason. I think the main reason is to save Gretchen, although he is also witness to many other effects.... every time I see DD, I want there to be some direct reference to It's a Wonderful Life... but the best I can come up with is It's a Wonderful Life->Jimmy Stewart->Harvey->Giant Rabbit->Frank, but I think that's a stretch

Also, I have a question I'd like to pose: Were Donnie's visions (Frank, the streams coming out of people's bodies) internal hallucinations/visions, or were they messages from an external source? My theory is that Donnie had some latent ability to see the future, but he couldn't consciously control it, though his subconcsious was able to use it to a certain extent and create the things he saw. Frank and the streams were manifestations of his ability to see the future, and also allowed him to see the wormholes that he and jet engine travel through at the end of the movie. At first, his subconscious uses his ability to protect him from his fate: he avoids getting crushed by the jet engine. Then, by the end of the movie, he realizes that it was a mistake to break from that fate.

And finally, it can be assumed that Grandma Death had the same abilities as Donnie, right? She was following her own stream to the mailbox all those times, but was never sure at what point in "space-time" or whatever that she was actually supposed to be there. Which is why she kept going back and forth. I think this acts as further evidence that seeing those streams is an ability that people are born with, and not some message from an external source.

p.s. I've read/heard most the extra info on the DVD, but I don't take that stuff to be the ultimate explanation to things.... I'd just like to hear other people's interpretations, or where my ideas go wrong.

How the hell did he get through the worm hole? Even his teacher said you would need a vehicle of some sort, and I dont think he was talking about a car seeing as how the portal was in the air.
Xiangsu is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360