Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko was an interesting film about a young bright high-school student, but no one really seems to understand him. He is different from everyone one else and some people like to take the micky out of him, while others are attracted to his uniqueness. He loves to challenge authority figures, or people that are higher up than he is, whether it is at home, at school or Jim Cunnigham played by Patrick Swayze. I like the fact that the film had many different pockets of genre. Donnie Darko had romance, mystery and suspense, fiction, fantasy and even little sections of comedy that I found quite amusing at certain times, because Donnie Darko is visited by Frank, a six-foot rabbit, he urges him to commit dark and sinister acts of evil. The film at times had a very malicious tone, so it was good that the tone could be lightened.
          My understanding of the film as a whole, was that in the begining Donnie was woken up by Frank- the rabbit and saves him from the jet engine falling in his room. At the end of the film my initial idea was that Donnie the protagonist character travelled back in time, before the jet engine landed in his room and sacrificed himself, in order to save Gretchen. I think that Gretchen is really the only person who Donnie opened upto, without being in a hypnotic state and was one of the only characters to understand him and accept him for who he was; Gretchen "your weird" Donnie "sorry" Gretchen "no thats a compliment". I believe that the central reason why he sacrificed himself was to save Gretchen, because she seemed like the only who truly felt feelings for in the films. When we talk about a technical aspect of teh film; I liked the excellent 80's soundstrack and the impressive tracking shoots. I also liked the specail effects which conveyed emotion throughout the film. I think that it was really creative the way that the director used slow motion.