Donnie Darko, ili sta je dobar savremeni film

[taurus-jor]

DUPLIRANI POST

[taurus-jor]

Nisam ocekivao da je taj film naisao na tako masovno dopadanje kod nas. Naime, Amerikancima se jako dopao. Ali, Amerikanci su idioti...

Čak i da jeste istina da se Amerikancima jako dopao (a nije), ostaje ključno pitanje - zašto bi neko kome se DD dopada bio idiot, samo zato što se tebi taj film ne dopada?

Iščitaj malo ovaj topic. Iza pohvala se kriju argumenti. Niko od nas nije hvalio taj film bez veze. Najinteresantnije je to što su vizije bile dosta različite i nimalo pretenciozne.  

Obrati pažnju na post Sama Lowrya, gde se govori o vezama DD sa nekim klasičnim, holivudskim ostvarenjima (It's A Wonderful World). Možda dobiješ odgovore na pitanja zbog kojih te ovaj film - sa krajnje ljudskom pričom i prorukom - toliko vuče za nos.

[Ivan Bevc]

Reviewed by Lawrence Person
 

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Donnie Darko's theatrical release came and went so quickly I was barely aware of its existence. That made it all the more surprising when I glanced at the Internet Movie Database list of the highest user-rated SF films (http://us.imdb.com/Charts/Votes/sci-fi) to find it ranked ninth overall. Is it that good? No. Nor is it better than Blade Runner, Aliens, Forbidden Planet, or Brazil, some of the films below it on the IMDB list. But it is one of the most original, complex, and interesting SF films to come out of Hollywood in a long time, and it may very well be the most overlooked SF film of the last decade.

That Donnie Darko was made at all is a credit to the clout of Drew Barrymore, who acted as Executive Producer and "Fairy Godmother" for the film in addition to playing a supporting role as sympathetic teacher Karen Pomeroy. (I can just imagine the close of the pitch session: "OK, Drew, we'll help you make this weirdo art thing, but for your next film you're gonna have to get naked again...") It's simply anathema to Hollywood's pigeonhole-driven marketing. It's not just a science fiction film, or a teen drama, or a "classic psychological thriller" as the idiot blurb on the back of the DVD suggests. It's a weird dark science fiction prophetic teen angst black comedy romantic time travel thriller religious parable, which is too long a description for a category sign at Blockbuster. That was the first strike against it at the box office; the second was featuring a falling airplane engine and being scheduled for an October 2001 release. All this makes it an ideal candidate for a second life on DVD. (And, as you'll see further on, second chances are one of the film's primary themes.) And it's only on DVD that you can figure out what first-time writer-director Richard Kelly was actually trying to achieve.

Donnie Darko isn't a great film, but it is a film that aspires to greatness. It has more ambition in any single scene than most big, stupid, special-effects-laden Hollywood SF extravaganzas manage for an entire film. Despite that, it's still seriously flawed. Describing what those flaws are, and explicating what the film is about, will require more than the average amount of plot summary, and more than the usual number of spoilers. I strongly recommend anyone with a taste for ambitious SF to stop reading now, watch it, and then think about it for a day or two before coming back. Many of the film's rewards come from surprises in the unfolding narrative, of mentally knitting together the many diverse plot strands, and even working through some of the film's frustrating ambiguities. Go ahead, go see it. Unlike Donnie, I'll still be here when you get back.

The movie's titular protagonist, played winningly by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a smart but troubled teenager, the middle child between sisters. Despite loving parents and "intimidating" test scores, he's sleepwalking, on medication, has the occasional bit of arson in his past, and is seeing a $200-a-session psychiatrist to try and figure out what's wrong. But despite authority problems, some anger issues, and being a horndog potty mouth (in short, your average teenage boy), Donnie is actually a pretty good kid, neither callow nor cruel. But at midnight on October 2, 1988, things take a decidedly weird turn. A strange voice wakes Donnie and lures him out to the local golf course, where it belongs to an evil-looking, 6' tall metal rabbit (on closer inspection, it's someone in a rabbit suit with a metal mask), who tells Donnie that the world is going to end. Moreover, this is not a vague prophecy. "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds," says the rabbit. "That is when the world will end." (We later learn that the entity in the rabbit suit has a name: Frank.) From this point on, the movie presents inter-titles giving the date and how much time is left. Though creepy, Donnie's midnight rendezvous meant his life was spared when a jet airplane engine crashed into his room — though the next day the FAA tells Donnie's family no planes were in the area that night.

And that's just the start of the weirdness. Donnie's dad almost runs over Roberta Sparrow, the seemingly senile centenarian Donnie and friends nickname "Grandma Death," who's perpetually crossing and re-crossing the street to check her mailbox for a letter that never seems to come. After this near-fatal encounter, she whispers something into Donnie's ear, which he later reveals to his psychiatrist, Dr. Lilian Thurman (Katherine Ross): "Every living creature on earth dies alone." Moreover, half of his school's faculty seems in the grip of a simplistic self-help guru (a smoothly oily Patrick Swayze) who's reduced everything to a single axis of Fear and Love.

Which is not to say that Donnie's life is all bad. He attends a fairly Toney private school (given the cross and uniforms, most probably Catholic, though that's never made explicit). Gretchen, a pretty new girl (Jena Malone), shows up in his English class. The teacher (Barrymore) tells her to sit next to who she thinks is the cutest boy. (Oh boy! A hot, sympathetic teacher that plays mind games with her students! Must be some class...). She sits next to Donnie. Later, when Gretchen is being hassled by the school bullies after the school floods (an important plot point, explained a little further down), she asks Donnie to walk her home, which results in one of the greatest teenage boy-meets-girl talks in all of cinema. Donnie asked why she moved there.

Gretchen: "My parents got divorced. My mom had to get a restraining order against my step dad. He has emotional problems."

Donnie (excitedly): "Oh, I have those too!"
Donnie mentions his little run-ins with the law, and how he's over all that.
Gretchen: "Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It's like some sort of superhero or something."

Donnie: "What makes you think I'm not?"
After discussing of a class assignment on the most important invention in history ("That's easy, antiseptics... the whole sanitation thing..."), Donnie says he's glad the school was flooded, because otherwise they would never have had this talk.
Gretchen: "You're weird."

Donnie: "Sorry."

Gretchen: "No, that was a compliment."
Damnit! Where were all the beautiful girls who liked weird guys in my high school? Next Donnie screws his courage to the sticking place and asks Gretchen to be his girlfriend in a scene of perfect awkward realism, and she accepts.
The love story, and Donnie's otherwise reasonably normal teenage life, is counter-pointed by his increasingly disturbing interactions with Frank. It's Frank that tells him to get an ax and break open the school's water main. Not only that, but Donnie leaves the ax embedded in the head of the school's mascot statue — which is a neat trick, since it's made of solid bronze — along with a message on the ground: "They Made Me Do It." He gets away with it, but not without raising the suspicions and ire of the school bully, upon whom the school administrators' own suspicions naturally fall. Next, interspersed with scenes of an emergency PTA meeting over the vandalism, Donnie has another intriguingly enigmatic conversation with Frank.

"Don't worry," says Frank, from the other side of a strange, transparent barrier that seems to have appeared in Donnie's bathroom while he was taking his medication. "You got away with it."

"How can you do that?" asks Donnie.

"I can do anything I want," says Frank. "And so can you."

"Why did you make me flood the school?"

"They are in great danger."

"Where do you come from?"

"Do you believe in time travel?"
At this point, Donnie's younger sister Samantha interrupts their little tête-à-tête. (Needless to say, Frank is suddenly nowhere to be seen.)
It's difficult to convey just how cunningly crafted each of these scenes is, and how skillfully each builds upon the last, deepening the mystery of just exactly what the hell is going on. The way Donnie Darko has been constructed is oddly reminiscent of Gene Wolfe's work, not only for the themes (about which more anon), but for the way in which Kelly gives the audience each tidbit of information exactly once, and leaves them to fit the pieces together on their own.

Meanwhile, Donnie's authority problems continue to get him in trouble. Gym teacher Kitty Farmer (played with just the perfect touch of earnest, clueless, self-righteous smarm by Beth Grant) is a firm believer in Cunningham's Fear/Love axis, and insists that Donnie complete one of the exercises or fail the assignment. Donnie tells her where she can stick it. Later he tells off Cunningham himself, but only after finding Cunningham's wallet in front of his mansion.

Though well-marbled with both true weirdness and ample humor, Donnie Darko is not a post-modern winkfest. It's a very earnest film, offering a clear-eyed and unsentimental look at American teenage life. Moreover, it's one that's nearly cliché-free. Instead of a dysfunctional family, Donnie's parents are good-natured, sympathetic and understanding. His father Eddie, a genial, easy-going businessman and Republican stalwart, is very well played by Holmes Osborne. In the inevitable talk in the principle's office after Donnie's run-in with Farmer, he can't hide the fact he's a whole lot more amused than angered over the whole thing. His mother Rose, excellently assayed by Mary McDonnell, is the emotional heart of the family, one whose touch of ironic detachment and a slightly excessive fondness for red wine can't mask her true love and concern for her son. At one point Donnie asks her how it feels to have a wacko for a son. "It feels wonderful," she says. I had friends in high school who would have killed for parents this loving and supportive. And his older sister Elizabeth (played by real-life older sister Maggie Gyllenhaal) is just bratty enough to make their sibling love/hate relationship believable.

But his family can't save Donnie from the strange, menacing forces massing around him. Nor can his teachers, neither Pomeroy nor science professor Kenneth Monnitoff (skillfully underplayed by Noah Wyle), to whom Donnie goes for information on time travel. Monnitoff talks about Einstein-Rosen bridges, wormholes, and transversing same in "anything made of metal," then hands him a book called The Philosophy of Time Travel, by a woman who used to be a nun before becoming a science teacher at that very school. Her name? Roberta Sparrow. Soon Donnie is seeing strange liquid spheres issuing out of people's chests, displaying their future path of motion, including his own. (This provides one of Kelly's few obvious missteps, where Donnie's own liquid sphere forms into a beckoning finger before leading him to the gun hidden in his parent's room. It's a bit too obvious and jokey for the movie's tone.) Later he and Monnitoff discuss the issue of predestination and free will, and whether seeing your destiny made manifest would allow you to change it, and thus thwart God's will. At this point Monnitoff tells Donnie that he can't continue the conversation because he could lose his job.

The issue of God and predestination gets brought up again and again, but only with the very lightest of touches. In a scene with Dr. Thurman discussing Roberta Sparrow and her book, Donnie says he's gone over the question of the existence of God too many times.

Donnie: "I could spend my whole life debating over and over again, weighing the pros and cons, and in the end I still wouldn't have any proof, so I just don't debate it any more. (laughs) It's absurd."

Dr. Thurman: "The search for God is absurd?"

Donnie: "It is if everyone dies alone."
Soon comes perhaps the most crucial scene in the entire film, one that ties together numerous plot strands, that clarifies (sometimes only in retrospect) some of the more mysterious aspects of the film, but deepens others. Donnie takes Gretchen out to a "Halloween Frightmare Double Feature," where they're the only ones in the theatre. Soon Gretchen falls asleep and Frank appears in the seat next to her.
Donnie: "Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?"

Frank: "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"

Donnie: "Take it off." Frank takes off the rabbit mask to reveal a young man with a gaping wound where his left eye should have been.

Donnie: "What happened to your eye?"

Frank: "I'm so sorry."

Donnie: "Why do they call you Frank?"

Frank: "It is the name of my father. And his father before me."

Donnie: "Frank, when's this going to stop?"

Frank: "You should already know that."
Frank then shows Donnie a "portal," which looks very much like you might imagine a wormhole would. It appears in the middle of the movie screen, eventually widening to replace it with an image of Jim Cunningham's house. "Burn it to the ground" Frank orders. Donnie moves to comply, and as he's leaving the theatre the marquee shows what has to be one of the oddest double-bills ever screened: The Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ.
Scenes of Donnie burning down Cunningham's house are interspersed with those of a talent search competition at Donnie's school emceed by Cunningham, which includes Glitter Motion, a troop of dancers (including Samantha) choreographed by Farmer. Kelly skillfully and subtly exposes just how creepy it is to watch preteen girls in form-fitting spandex vogueing dance moves to Duran Duran, a vibe that's only reinforced when firefighters discover a "kiddy porn dungeon" in Cunningham's gutted home the next day.

Though the kiddy porn connection seems a bit like piling on, it actually serves an important plot function. Because Farmer takes it upon herself to clear Cunningham's name, she won't be able to chaperon Glitter Motion to their appearance on Star Search, and asks Samantha's mom to take over for her because she's the only parent available. Rose hesitates because her husband is off in New York, but finally agrees. Thus the entire Darko clan except Donnie and Elizabeth will be gone, which inspires Donnie to suggest a celebratory Halloween party when his older sister finds out she's been accepted into Harvard.

But before the party, Donnie has his final session with Dr. Thurman, where he confesses under hypnosis to the crimes Frank ordered. "I have to obey him, he saved my life. I have to obey him or I'll be left all alone and then... I won't be able to figure out what this is all about. I won't be able to know his master plan."

Dr. Thurman: "Do you mean God's master plan? Do you now believe in God?"

Donnie: "I have the power to build a time machine."

Dr. Thurman: "How is that possible? How is time travel possible, Donnie?"

Donnie: "Time's up, Frank said."

Dr. Thurman: "When is this going to happen?"

Donnie: "Soon."

Dr. Thurman: "What is going to happen?"

Donnie: "Frank is going to kill."

Dr. Thurman: "Who is he going to kill?"

Then Frank appears to Donnie. "The skies are going to open up," says Donnie.

Dr. Thurman: "If the sky were to suddenly open up, there would be no law, there would be no rule. It would only be you and your memories, the choices you made, and the people you touched. If this world were to end, there would only be you, and him, and no one else."
The party itself, taking place the night before Frank's doomsday deadline, is an appropriately surreal affair. Donnie wears a skeleton costume with his usual gray sweat top. An upset Gretchen shows up, saying her mother's gone and the house has been ransacked. Donnie's comforting her quickly leads to the consummation of their relationship. Afterward, Donnie once again sees liquid spheres delineating the future paths of costumed revelers. And he, Gretchen, and two friends decide to pay a midnight visit to Roberta Sparrow, riding their bikes through the night in an obvious homage to E. T. (another Barrymore film). And that's where all of the impending doom hanging over Donnie's head comes crashing down.
The two school bullies were trying to burglarize Sparrow's house before Donnie and friends arrive, and don't take kindly to the interruption. They hold Donnie and Gretchen at knifepoint as his other friends run. However, an approaching car causes them to fling down their charges and run off. Once again, Sparrow is standing in the middle of the road, this time holding Donnie's letter in her hands, and the car swerves to miss her — running over Gretchen instead. Out of the car steps a man in a clown suit and... Frank, in the bunny suit, carrying the mask, shocked and horrified by what he's done. An enraged Donnie shoots him through the eye, then tells his clown companion: "Go home and tell your parents that everything is going to be OK!"

And then the film falls apart.

Donnie carries Gretchen's body home in his arms. In the sky a strange funnel forms. Donnie drives out to the ridge he woke up on at the beginning of the film. His mother and younger sister are flying home when an engine gets ripped off, which we see falling down into the wormhole funnel. Then we see time rewinding thanks to the sophisticated special effect technique known as "running the film backwards," until we're back to October 2. This is accompanied by Donnie's voiceover of the letter he wrote Roberta Sparrow. "I've reached the end of your book, and there are so many things I need to ask you. Sometimes I'm afraid of what you might tell me. Sometimes I'm afraid you'll tell me that this is not a work of fiction. I can only hope that the answers will come to me in my sleep. I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breath a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to." Our last view of Donnie is of him lying in bed, laughing in pure delight just before the airplane engine comes down.

There follows one very strong denouement, then a much weaker one. First we see a montage of Donnie's acquaintances sitting up in their beds, a range of emotions playing on their faces: Cunningham weeping, Farmer in shocked horror, Frank stunned and touching his intact left eye, his newly crafted rabbit mask lying off to the side. This is accompanied by Gary Jules' beautiful, melancholy rendition of the song "Mad World" (originally by Tears for Fears) that's both haunting and perfectly appropriate. This is followed by shots of Donnie's shrouded body being wheeled away, of his weeping family, and finally by Gretchen riding by on her bike and stopping to ask what happened, where a small boy tells her that Donnie Darko was killed. "Did you know him?" he asks. "No," says Gretchen, who nonetheless waves to Donnie's stricken mom. She waves back. Credits.

Despite what some might consider an excessive summary above, there are several plot strands it ignores or gives short shrift to, such as the conflict between Farmer and Pomeroy over the latter's choice in "inappropriate" reading material, or the subplot involving overweight Asian girl Charita Chin. There's a lot going on here, much of it only caught on repeated viewings. Like life, and much of Wolfe's work, Donnie Darko can only be seen forward, but only understood looking backwards.

Ignoring, for the moment, the question of how everything happened, the broad gist of what has happened seems clear, if a bit disappointing. It's a tragic time loop story, a replay of Harlan Ellison's Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever," where the saving of a life must be undone to avoid greater tragedy from the unintended consequences. On this level, Donnie's tragic time loop is both more and less effective than the one Ellison constructed. It's less effective because both the scale, and our anticipation of the scale, have shrunk. The world ending in Frank's prophecy seems not to be the world, but only Donnie's world. Frank goes from a scary Cassandra to a tragic teenaged "foreghost." And yet, it's more effective and poignant because we care much more about Donnie than about Joan Collins as guest star of the week, and because Donnie has to chose to sacrifice himself. (Remember the second movie in the double-bill.)

Upon first viewing, the film Donnie Darko most reminded me of was Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder. Both were extremely personal "dream projects" their directors made from long-contemplated scripts (though Kelly had the fortune of debuting with his). Both featured weird, menacing visions which could be interpreted as either supernatural beings or the products of a deranged/drugged mind, intruding into its protagonist's life. Both end tragically. However, the more closely I examined Donnie Darko, the less apt that comparison became. For all grotesqueries, Jacob's Ladder is ultimately, and unambiguously, a recapitulation of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Donnie Darko is not so easily pigeonholed. There are too many loose threads, too many remaining ambiguities, for the tragic time loop angle alone to resolve.

Even if you could adequately explain the time-reversal mechanisms in the movie's climax, you're still left with at least one irreducible mystery: Why does Frank engineer his own death?

If Frank hadn't lured Donnie out of the house, the engine would have hit him the first time. If Frank hadn't had him flood the school, Donnie would neither have been such a particular target of the bully's ire, nor would he have had that walk home with Gretchen that lead, ultimately, to her demise, and thus Donnie shooting Frank. What possible motivation could Frank, dead or alive, have to engineer his own doom, only to ultimately force Donnie to undo it? It's a causal loop even more mysterious than the time loop.

And of all the things Frank tells Donnie, perhaps none is as gravid with hidden meaning than this: Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

The pieces just don't fit.

The DVD finally allows the director to resolve these ambiguities. Almost. Here too, some central mysteries remain unanswered, and the communication of those that don't has been badly bungled. Before going into detail about what doesn't work, and why, let's cover the many things that do. Despite the flaws, Kelly, as both a first-time director and screenwriter, has done a remarkably nuanced and skilled job on almost all aspects of the film. If there's any justice in the world he'll have a long and productive career.

The performances are almost uniformly excellent, and none more impressive than Jake Gyllenhaal's turn in the title role. Since he's on-screen roughly 80% of the time, the movie stands or falls on his performance, and he comes through with flying colors. His Donnie is smart, sympathetic, vulnerable, confused, horny, clueless, very human and utterly believable. Unlike so many portraits of modern teenagers, he's neither an unthinking menace, nor a walking laugh track, nor a plastic saint. If there's been a more fully-rounded, dead-level portrait of an average American teenager, in all his warts and glory, I can't recall it. Gyllenhaal could have portrayed a touch more menace when he's out on Frank's missions, but that's a minor quibble, and one I lay at Kelly's feet. All the other performances are just about pitch-perfect as well, with the partial exception of Barrymore, who's merely good, coming in just a touch over the mark in a couple of her scenes. You get the impression she seldom has the opportunity to play smart, confident women, but that she could get the hang of it if given more chances.

The technical aspects are equally impressive, especially given the film's relatively modest (at least by Hollywood standards) budget of $4.5-6 million. The film's cinematic signature, one which will probably be studied in film schools for years to come, is a long tracking shot following Donnie through the school's hallway, featuring speeded-up and slowed down segments, accompanied by yet another Tears for Fears song, "Head Over Heels." Though showy, it also provides a remarkably compact introduction to many of the movie's characters: the school bully, Gretchen, Farmer, the principle. By and large the film is very tightly edited, providing just enough information before moving on to the next scene.

Despite its dark nature, much of the movie is very funny, but frequently the humor masks Kelly's exquisite foreshadowing. For example, in a scene where Donnie's friends discuss the sex life of the Smurfs while Donnie is plinking bottles, the laughs distract you from noticing that Donnie is a very good shot. Likewise, the amusing shock of having a double-bill of The Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ makes you miss the fact that Kelly has just tipped his hand as to the film's real theme...

Also excellent is Michael Andrews' bass and analog synth-heavy score, which manages to seem both jolly and sinister at the same time. The film's period music, by 80s pop notables like Tears for Fears, Echo and the Bunnymen (very clever, Mr. Kelly) and The Church help firmly anchor the film in its time and place, even for those who might prefer slightly less frothy musical fare. (And the omission of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It" seems rather inexplicable.) Indeed, save for the soundtrack, and a few references to the 1988 election, the only obvious reason for this film to be set in 1988 is that that would have been around the time, or just before, Kelly would have entered high school.

The DVD itself has a number of interesting extras; an astonishing number, really, for a film that did so poorly at the box office: A mediocre but economical music video for Jules' version of "Mad World." One theatrical trailer and five TV spots, all suitably enigmatic. Art galleries for production stills, concept art, and pieces from the enigmatic (and sometimes unavailable) www.donniedarko.com website. A "Cunning Visions" infomercial with mock directory commentary, which is moderately amusing in a very broad and silly sort of way, but goes on waaaay too long. There's cast and crew credits, etc. The film itself has an excellent 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (i.e. letterbox) format, while the 20 deleted and extended scenes are in a very raw, square format with timecode running outside the window. The extra scenes show that Kelly is, or worked with, a very good editor. There was a reason they didn't make it into the final film (though a few of Barrymore's better lines should have been spliced back in).

There are also three features that are absolutely essential for figuring out what Kelly was trying to achieve: A track of commentary featuring Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal, those deleted/extended scenes, and pages from The Philosophy of Time Travel. Even the scene selection headers offer information not actually included in the movie itself.

Here's the metaphysical framework the DVD extras reveal. The moment Frank wakes Donnie at midnight, October 2, is when Donnie, et al, have entered a tangent universe. This tangent universe arises the moment the aircraft engine ("the Artifact") enters the universe via a wormhole. (Sparrow's book amplifies Monnitoff's conjecture that such a wormhole could only be created as an "act of God.") Tangent universes are inherently unstable, lasting only "a matter of weeks," eventually collapsing in upon themselves, each one "forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence." (This is also a real, glaring scientific boner. This sentence is contained in Sparrow's Philosophy of Time Travel, supposedly published in 1944, but the term "black hole" did not exist until 1968.)

Here's all the remaining important bits from The Philosophy of Time Travel, all capitalization of Really Important Nouns sic.

"The Living Receiver is chosen to guide the artifact into position for the journey back to the Primary Universe." (Uh-huh.) "No one knows how or why a Receiver will be chosen. 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." (The last two are almost clever.) "The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams, visions, and auditory hallucinations during his time within the Tangent Universe." (Check, check, and check.) "Those surrounding the Living Receiver, known as the Manipulated, will fear him and try to destroy him... The Manipulated Living are often close friends and neighbors of the Living Receiver. They are prone to irrational, bizarre and often violent behavior. This is the unfortunate result of their task, which is to assist the Living Receiver to return the Artifact to the Primary Universe. The Manipulated Living will do anything to save themselves from Oblivion. The Manipulated Dead are more powerful than the Living Receiver. If a person dies within the Tangent Universe, they are able to contact... [and] manipulate the Living Receiver using the Fourth Dimensional Construct." (Referring to the index it's apparent this refers to those "liquid spheres.") "The Manipulated Dead will often act as an Ensurance Trap for the Living Receiver to ensure that the Artifact is returned safely to the Primary Universe. If the Ensurance Trap is successful, the Living Receiver is left with no choice but to use his Fourth Dimensional Power to send the Artifact back in time into the primary Universe before the black hole collapses in upon itself."
Let's face it: this is some truly wacky shit. (And I don't mean that in a good way.) It's not the worst metaphysical construct I've chanced across (for example, it makes a lot more sense than Scientology), but it's also far from the best. But that's not the central problem. The main problem, the huge problem, the rotting-elephant-carcass-in-the-middle-of-the-dining-room problem is that there is no conceivable way for even the most astute viewer to deduce Kelly's metaphysical construct from the film itself. The phrases "Tangent Universe," "Living Receiver," "Manipulated Dead," etc., never appear in the film. Kelly's version of reality isn't ambiguous, which would suggest that it could be one of several competing explanations for the movie's mysteries. It's not even obscure, something that could only be gleaned from watching the film over and over again. Rather, it is impenetrable. It is opaque. You can't get there from here.
For all the talk of Hawking, wormholes, and Einstein-Rosen bridges, Kelly has failed to grasp the conceptual constraints that gives science fiction much of its unique power. It isn't just about nifty skiffy concepts, it's also about the science, mechanisms and rules governing them. You can break the rules only if you've provided a logical, internally consistent framework by which your exceptions work. You can take a taxi cab to Mars via a warp gate, but if you fail to mention said gate, even by inference, you've broken the unwritten social contract that underlies science fiction. By contrast, Kelly's metaphysics is like the house dealing poker cards from the bottom of the deck, never showing you the cards, announcing you've lost, and then burning them. It's like reaching the end of an Agatha Christie novel and finding out that the wildebeest did it, except there was no wildebeest in the book. It's a cheat.

The other huge flaw, obvious even upon first viewing, is that Kelly bungles the climax. When time reverses, you can sort of tell what is going on, but not really how or why. There is nothing to indicate that Donnie is the creator of the wormhole rather than a mere observer of it. A single shot of Donnie closing his eyes and reaching toward the sky would have been enough.

Donnie Darko has been compared to the novels of Philip K. Dick, but that comparison, and Kelly's commentary, reveal another flaw. In all but the muddled climax, the disturbing elements of Donnie's world seem very personalized. Strange things happen to him, and because of him, but that is as far as it goes. Despite Frank's prophecies, we never see external signs that the world is really going to end. By contrast, in a Philip K. Dick novel, the sense of wrongness (to use John Clute's handy term) begins in the character's immediate world (a magazine dated in the future, a coin suddenly bearing the profile of your dead boss), but then at some point the wider scope of the wrongness, the true nature of the false or bubble universe, is revealed. That never happens in Donnie's tangent universe. Early on this carefully circumscribed sense of wrongness is essential for keeping open the false alternative that all the weirdness is in Donnie's head. However, it becomes apparent very early on that it's not madness; the coincidence of Frank and the airplane engine is pretty convincing in and of itself, but embedding an ax in a solid bronze statue eliminates the "mere insanity" theory. Likewise, we never see any sign beyond Donnie's immediate vicinity that the wrongness infects the greater universe. In a Dick novel, the wrongness would be made manifest. The stars winking out, a plague of glossolalia, dogs and cats sleeping together, something.

It's easy to theorize that, had Kelly been a more experienced screenwriter and director, he could have corrected the climax's flaws. However, this has to be weighed against the possibility that an older director might be too far removed from the slings and arrows of outrageous adolescence to have remembered teenage life in such sharp and telling detail. As in Stephen King's last great (if flawed) novel It, Donnie's mother is seen reading in the background of one scene, Kelly seems to have a crystal clear memory of what growing up was really like, unclouded by bogus sentiment and untainted by adult cynicism. Likewise, a more experienced director might have lacked the perfect combination of naïveté and chutzpah to drive such an audacious film to completion. (An important lesson for aspiring artists everywhere: Sometimes the only way to achieve the impossible is to be too young and stupid to know it's impossible. Better to act while you're still foolish enough to think you know everything than to be slowly frozen by the creeping uncertainty of bitter wisdom...)

Kelly's explanation increases the intelligibility of the movie ("so that's why all that weird shit happens"), and once again escalates the scale (i.e., it's not just Gretchen and Frank, but The Whole Universe at stake), but at the cost of credibility ("man, that explanation sucks"). And yet, even with all the Living Receiver and Manipulated Dead frame, there's still something missing. The pieces still don't quite fit.

We've got the what, we've got (however disappointingly) the how. Now it's time, at last, to turn to the why. If Gretchen and Frank are both "Manipulated Dead," how come we get 100% Frank and 0% Gretchen in the Ominous Visions department? Why is Frank so damn mysterious? Why does the Living Frank speak like just another confused 20-something, while the Dead Frank is the frigging Delphic Oracle? If the loop/tangent/bubble universe is going to collapse anyway, why can't Frank just tell Donnie "Hey, kid, you've got magic powers, and here's how to send that darn aircraft engine back"? Why does Donnie have to die? (And "because then there wouldn't be a film" doesn't cut it.) Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

I have a theory, one that works with or without Kelly's metaphysical framework. Ultimately, the central mystery of the film is only soluble if Frank isn't Frank.

After all, Kelly has been dropping hints, both subtle and otherwise, throughout the entire movie. Like Poe's purloined letter, the key is hidden in plain view. What is an airplane engine falling from the sky except the ultimate literal Deus Ex Machina?

The Frank that appears to Donnie is not really the same Frank in the car. It's a form chosen to provide a shock of recognition at the appropriate time. He's a Divine Messenger. The Metatron. The Voice of God.

(Disclaimer: My religious beliefs, or lack thereof, are probably best described as "sympathetic agnosticism." Now back to our regularly scheduled wacky theological exegesis.)

Rabbit gods seem rare in mythology, but the few extant seemed to have functioned, like the Metatron, as scribes. However, I have a hunch that the mask's form, besides being a nod to Harvey, may be less significant than its mere existence. After all, G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is nothing if not a masque of masks, one whose protagonist and his compatriots are put through frightening ordeals as the world seems to crumble around them, before coming face to face with the with the fearsome splendor of the divine.

At last year's World Fantasy Convention, Gene Wolfe noted that "God's love can be a terribly frightening thing, because God knows all your dirtiest thoughts and darkest secrets, and loves you anyway." Anyone who reads the Bible (or, for that matter, R.A. Lafferty) knows that the hardness of God's love can be a painful thing to endure. But it is in this light that Donnie's life up to this point — the sleepwalking, the emotional problems — begins to make sense. Donnie has been Chosen. His entire life has been shaped by his coming ordeal.

Here in the 21st century, divine intervention is a damned risky narrative strategy. If God can create and smite at will, all human struggles are rather puny and futile by comparison. (It's what ruins the climax of The Stand.) For divine intervention to work, it has to operate under the tightest of constraints so as not to overwhelm the story. I'm reminded of two separate sections from K.W. Jeter's vastly underrated The Glass Hammer. One of the opening epigrams is from St. Bernard of Clairvaux: "As the glorious sun penetrates glass without breaking it... so the Word of God, the light of the Father, passes through the body of the Virgin, and then leaves it without undergoing any change." Throughout the novel, the protagonist's friend is trying to digitally reconstruct a stained glass window from the shards, using a computer program to examine various configurations. As time goes on, his reconstructions use fewer and fewer shards. Then he dies of a stroke, and his friend comes to view the last thing he saw before he died. "All the spaces in the framework were blank now. Nothing but pure white light poured across the floor." Only with the lightest and most ambiguous of touches can God's hand be used without derailing the plot.

However, even assuming that Donnie is chosen by God, it still doesn't quite explain why. Let me climb all the way out on this limb to suggest an answer.

Remember the second half of that double-bill. I haven't read the Nikos Kazantzakis novel upon which it is based, but in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, the title refers to Christ's temptation to lead a normal life, to step down from the cross, to lay aside the terrible burden of being The Messiah and simply live as an ordinary man. Ultimately, Christ's mortal life is a false reality, a bubble universe all its own, only closed when Christ willingly returns to his crucifixion.

Without Frank's intervention, Donnie would have died anyway. With it, Donnie gets an additional 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds of life in the bubble universe. And during that interregnum, he gets to tell off idiot authorities, flood his school, unmask an evil hypocrite, gain a beautiful girlfriend and finally make love to her. In short, he gets to experience something pretty close to the ultimate realistic adolescent male fantasy of how you would live your last month. It's his earthly reward for laying down his life.

In Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos, one character offers a novel interpretation of the biblical tale of Abraham and Isaac. The true meaning of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac was not as a test of Abraham, but of God. It was only once proof that He was a God of mercy as well as wrath was established that He could be deemed worthy of worship. (Interestingly enough, some traditions hold that it was in fact the Metatron who stayed Abraham 's hand.) The existence of God's love for Donnie is the central philosophical question of his life. Without the bubble universe, his death is horrible, random, meaningless. With it, he's The Redeemer. He lays down his life so that others might live. Like Father Karras' possession at the end of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, his ordeal leads him to a belief in the divine. Ultimately Donnie can laugh, because he knows that, in the end, he doesn't die alone. It's what Neil Gaiman famously called "a life-affirming tragedy."

Is all this theological speculation a bit much for a single Hollywood movie to bear? Probably. The more blank places in the narrative, the more baroque the explanation conjured to fill them. Yet theological concerns are very much evident in Kelly's film, even without the additional material. The words "Living Receiver" are never uttered there, but "God" certainly is. But Kelly, sly dog that he is, never gets preachy, and never makes his views explicit. He's quite content to just dip his toes into those very deep waters and let viewers do the swimming themselves.

So how good is Donnie Darko? It's not a great film, and in fact is deeply flawed. The science fiction doesn't hold up. Having Donnie wait so long to visit Sparrow is a pure Idiot Plot device. Given the additional materials on the DVD, some of the movie's intellectual underpinnings seem positively goofy. If I had actually seen it in 2001, it would have ranked lower than The Fellowship of the Ring on my Hugo and Nebula ballots. I could easily name a dozen films from the last decade that were better. And yet... and yet... and yet...

And yet, of those dozen better films, none since Peter Jackson's superb Heavenly Creatures has haunted me as strangely and deeply as Donnie Darko has. Despite the flaws, the portions that do work are fiercely ambitious, nearly perfect and deeply compelling. As King Crimson once put it, "The more I look at it, the more I like it." Kelly may have missed the final pitch, but he went down swinging for the fences.

Nor am I alone in my esteem. Donnie Darko seems to have become that rarest of creatures, a cult film entirely free of camp. As of this writing, there are over 100 Donnie Darko items on sale on eBay, and the film's fans have a very active listserve running at http://www.thedecemberplan.org/darko/. I think you would have to go back to Terry Gilliam's Brazil to find an SF film with such tremendous underground buzz. Donnie Darko isn't as good as Brazil. But it's good enough.



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[Ivan Bevc]

Reviewed by Lawrence Person
 

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Donnie Darko's theatrical release came and went so quickly I was barely aware of its existence. That made it all the more surprising when I glanced at the Internet Movie Database list of the highest user-rated SF films (http://us.imdb.com/Charts/Votes/sci-fi) to find it ranked ninth overall. Is it that good? No. Nor is it better than Blade Runner, Aliens, Forbidden Planet, or Brazil, some of the films below it on the IMDB list. But it is one of the most original, complex, and interesting SF films to come out of Hollywood in a long time, and it may very well be the most overlooked SF film of the last decade.

That Donnie Darko was made at all is a credit to the clout of Drew Barrymore, who acted as Executive Producer and "Fairy Godmother" for the film in addition to playing a supporting role as sympathetic teacher Karen Pomeroy. (I can just imagine the close of the pitch session: "OK, Drew, we'll help you make this weirdo art thing, but for your next film you're gonna have to get naked again...") It's simply anathema to Hollywood's pigeonhole-driven marketing. It's not just a science fiction film, or a teen drama, or a "classic psychological thriller" as the idiot blurb on the back of the DVD suggests. It's a weird dark science fiction prophetic teen angst black comedy romantic time travel thriller religious parable, which is too long a description for a category sign at Blockbuster. That was the first strike against it at the box office; the second was featuring a falling airplane engine and being scheduled for an October 2001 release. All this makes it an ideal candidate for a second life on DVD. (And, as you'll see further on, second chances are one of the film's primary themes.) And it's only on DVD that you can figure out what first-time writer-director Richard Kelly was actually trying to achieve.

Donnie Darko isn't a great film, but it is a film that aspires to greatness. It has more ambition in any single scene than most big, stupid, special-effects-laden Hollywood SF extravaganzas manage for an entire film. Despite that, it's still seriously flawed. Describing what those flaws are, and explicating what the film is about, will require more than the average amount of plot summary, and more than the usual number of spoilers. I strongly recommend anyone with a taste for ambitious SF to stop reading now, watch it, and then think about it for a day or two before coming back. Many of the film's rewards come from surprises in the unfolding narrative, of mentally knitting together the many diverse plot strands, and even working through some of the film's frustrating ambiguities. Go ahead, go see it. Unlike Donnie, I'll still be here when you get back.

The movie's titular protagonist, played winningly by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a smart but troubled teenager, the middle child between sisters. Despite loving parents and "intimidating" test scores, he's sleepwalking, on medication, has the occasional bit of arson in his past, and is seeing a $200-a-session psychiatrist to try and figure out what's wrong. But despite authority problems, some anger issues, and being a horndog potty mouth (in short, your average teenage boy), Donnie is actually a pretty good kid, neither callow nor cruel. But at midnight on October 2, 1988, things take a decidedly weird turn. A strange voice wakes Donnie and lures him out to the local golf course, where it belongs to an evil-looking, 6' tall metal rabbit (on closer inspection, it's someone in a rabbit suit with a metal mask), who tells Donnie that the world is going to end. Moreover, this is not a vague prophecy. "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds," says the rabbit. "That is when the world will end." (We later learn that the entity in the rabbit suit has a name: Frank.) From this point on, the movie presents inter-titles giving the date and how much time is left. Though creepy, Donnie's midnight rendezvous meant his life was spared when a jet airplane engine crashed into his room — though the next day the FAA tells Donnie's family no planes were in the area that night.

And that's just the start of the weirdness. Donnie's dad almost runs over Roberta Sparrow, the seemingly senile centenarian Donnie and friends nickname "Grandma Death," who's perpetually crossing and re-crossing the street to check her mailbox for a letter that never seems to come. After this near-fatal encounter, she whispers something into Donnie's ear, which he later reveals to his psychiatrist, Dr. Lilian Thurman (Katherine Ross): "Every living creature on earth dies alone." Moreover, half of his school's faculty seems in the grip of a simplistic self-help guru (a smoothly oily Patrick Swayze) who's reduced everything to a single axis of Fear and Love.

The issue of God and predestination gets brought up again and again, but only with the very lightest of touches. In a scene with Dr. Thurman discussing Roberta Sparrow and her book, Donnie says he's gone over the question of the existence of God too many times.

Donnie: "I could spend my whole life debating over and over again, weighing the pros and cons, and in the end I still wouldn't have any proof, so I just don't debate it any more. (laughs) It's absurd."

Dr. Thurman: "The search for God is absurd?"

Donnie: "It is if everyone dies alone."
Soon comes perhaps the most crucial scene in the entire film, one that ties together numerous plot strands, that clarifies (sometimes only in retrospect) some of the more mysterious aspects of the film, but deepens others. Donnie takes Gretchen out to a "Halloween Frightmare Double Feature," where they're the only ones in the theatre. Soon Gretchen falls asleep and Frank appears in the seat next to her.
Donnie: "Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?"

Frank: "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"

Donnie: "Take it off." Frank takes off the rabbit mask to reveal a young man with a gaping wound where his left eye should have been.

Donnie: "What happened to your eye?"

Frank: "I'm so sorry."

Donnie: "Why do they call you Frank?"

Frank: "It is the name of my father. And his father before me."

Donnie: "Frank, when's this going to stop?"

Frank: "You should already know that."
Frank then shows Donnie a "portal," which looks very much like you might imagine a wormhole would. It appears in the middle of the movie screen, eventually widening to replace it with an image of Jim Cunningham's house. "Burn it to the ground" Frank orders. Donnie moves to comply, and as he's leaving the theatre the marquee shows what has to be one of the oddest double-bills ever screened: The Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ.

The DVD finally allows the director to resolve these ambiguities. Almost. Here too, some central mysteries remain unanswered, and the communication of those that don't has been badly bungled. Before going into detail about what doesn't work, and why, let's cover the many things that do. Despite the flaws, Kelly, as both a first-time director and screenwriter, has done a remarkably nuanced and skilled job on almost all aspects of the film. If there's any justice in the world he'll have a long and productive career.

The performances are almost uniformly excellent, and none more impressive than Jake Gyllenhaal's turn in the title role. Since he's on-screen roughly 80% of the time, the movie stands or falls on his performance, and he comes through with flying colors. His Donnie is smart, sympathetic, vulnerable, confused, horny, clueless, very human and utterly believable. Unlike so many portraits of modern teenagers, he's neither an unthinking menace, nor a walking laugh track, nor a plastic saint. If there's been a more fully-rounded, dead-level portrait of an average American teenager, in all his warts and glory, I can't recall it. Gyllenhaal could have portrayed a touch more menace when he's out on Frank's missions, but that's a minor quibble, and one I lay at Kelly's feet. All the other performances are just about pitch-perfect as well, with the partial exception of Barrymore, who's merely good, coming in just a touch over the mark in a couple of her scenes. You get the impression she seldom has the opportunity to play smart, confident women, but that she could get the hang of it if given more chances.

The technical aspects are equally impressive, especially given the film's relatively modest (at least by Hollywood standards) budget of $4.5-6 million. The film's cinematic signature, one which will probably be studied in film schools for years to come, is a long tracking shot following Donnie through the school's hallway, featuring speeded-up and slowed down segments, accompanied by yet another Tears for Fears song, "Head Over Heels." Though showy, it also provides a remarkably compact introduction to many of the movie's characters: the school bully, Gretchen, Farmer, the principle. By and large the film is very tightly edited, providing just enough information before moving on to the next scene.

Despite its dark nature, much of the movie is very funny, but frequently the humor masks Kelly's exquisite foreshadowing. For example, in a scene where Donnie's friends discuss the sex life of the Smurfs while Donnie is plinking bottles, the laughs distract you from noticing that Donnie is a very good shot. Likewise, the amusing shock of having a double-bill of The Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ makes you miss the fact that Kelly has just tipped his hand as to the film's real theme...

Also excellent is Michael Andrews' bass and analog synth-heavy score, which manages to seem both jolly and sinister at the same time. The film's period music, by 80s pop notables like Tears for Fears, Echo and the Bunnymen (very clever, Mr. Kelly) and The Church help firmly anchor the film in its time and place, even for those who might prefer slightly less frothy musical fare. (And the omission of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It" seems rather inexplicable.) Indeed, save for the soundtrack, and a few references to the 1988 election, the only obvious reason for this film to be set in 1988 is that that would have been around the time, or just before, Kelly would have entered high school.

The DVD itself has a number of interesting extras; an astonishing number, really, for a film that did so poorly at the box office: A mediocre but economical music video for Jules' version of "Mad World." One theatrical trailer and five TV spots, all suitably enigmatic. Art galleries for production stills, concept art, and pieces from the enigmatic (and sometimes unavailable) www.donniedarko.com website. A "Cunning Visions" infomercial with mock directory commentary, which is moderately amusing in a very broad and silly sort of way, but goes on waaaay too long. There's cast and crew credits, etc. The film itself has an excellent 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (i.e. letterbox) format, while the 20 deleted and extended scenes are in a very raw, square format with timecode running outside the window. The extra scenes show that Kelly is, or worked with, a very good editor. There was a reason they didn't make it into the final film (though a few of Barrymore's better lines should have been spliced back in).

There are also three features that are absolutely essential for figuring out what Kelly was trying to achieve: A track of commentary featuring Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal, those deleted/extended scenes, and pages from The Philosophy of Time Travel. Even the scene selection headers offer information not actually included in the movie itself.

Here's the metaphysical framework the DVD extras reveal. The moment Frank wakes Donnie at midnight, October 2, is when Donnie, et al, have entered a tangent universe. This tangent universe arises the moment the aircraft engine ("the Artifact") enters the universe via a wormhole. (Sparrow's book amplifies Monnitoff's conjecture that such a wormhole could only be created as an "act of God.") Tangent universes are inherently unstable, lasting only "a matter of weeks," eventually collapsing in upon themselves, each one "forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence." (This is also a real, glaring scientific boner. This sentence is contained in Sparrow's Philosophy of Time Travel, supposedly published in 1944, but the term "black hole" did not exist until 1968.)

The other huge flaw, obvious even upon first viewing, is that Kelly bungles the climax. When time reverses, you can sort of tell what is going on, but not really how or why. There is nothing to indicate that Donnie is the creator of the wormhole rather than a mere observer of it. A single shot of Donnie closing his eyes and reaching toward the sky would have been enough.

Donnie Darko has been compared to the novels of Philip K. Dick, but that comparison, and Kelly's commentary, reveal another flaw. In all but the muddled climax, the disturbing elements of Donnie's world seem very personalized. Strange things happen to him, and because of him, but that is as far as it goes. Despite Frank's prophecies, we never see external signs that the world is really going to end. By contrast, in a Philip K. Dick novel, the sense of wrongness (to use John Clute's handy term) begins in the character's immediate world (a magazine dated in the future, a coin suddenly bearing the profile of your dead boss), but then at some point the wider scope of the wrongness, the true nature of the false or bubble universe, is revealed. That never happens in Donnie's tangent universe. Early on this carefully circumscribed sense of wrongness is essential for keeping open the false alternative that all the weirdness is in Donnie's head. However, it becomes apparent very early on that it's not madness; the coincidence of Frank and the airplane engine is pretty convincing in and of itself, but embedding an ax in a solid bronze statue eliminates the "mere insanity" theory. Likewise, we never see any sign beyond Donnie's immediate vicinity that the wrongness infects the greater universe. In a Dick novel, the wrongness would be made manifest. The stars winking out, a plague of glossolalia, dogs and cats sleeping together, something.

It's easy to theorize that, had Kelly been a more experienced screenwriter and director, he could have corrected the climax's flaws. However, this has to be weighed against the possibility that an older director might be too far removed from the slings and arrows of outrageous adolescence to have remembered teenage life in such sharp and telling detail. As in Stephen King's last great (if flawed) novel It, Donnie's mother is seen reading in the background of one scene, Kelly seems to have a crystal clear memory of what growing up was really like, unclouded by bogus sentiment and untainted by adult cynicism. Likewise, a more experienced director might have lacked the perfect combination of naïveté and chutzpah to drive such an audacious film to completion. (An important lesson for aspiring artists everywhere: Sometimes the only way to achieve the impossible is to be too young and stupid to know it's impossible. Better to act while you're still foolish enough to think you know everything than to be slowly frozen by the creeping uncertainty of bitter wisdom...)

Kelly's explanation increases the intelligibility of the movie ("so that's why all that weird shit happens"), and once again escalates the scale (i.e., it's not just Gretchen and Frank, but The Whole Universe at stake), but at the cost of credibility ("man, that explanation sucks"). And yet, even with all the Living Receiver and Manipulated Dead frame, there's still something missing. The pieces still don't quite fit.

We've got the what, we've got (however disappointingly) the how. Now it's time, at last, to turn to the why. If Gretchen and Frank are both "Manipulated Dead," how come we get 100% Frank and 0% Gretchen in the Ominous Visions department? Why is Frank so damn mysterious? Why does the Living Frank speak like just another confused 20-something, while the Dead Frank is the frigging Delphic Oracle? If the loop/tangent/bubble universe is going to collapse anyway, why can't Frank just tell Donnie "Hey, kid, you've got magic powers, and here's how to send that darn aircraft engine back"? Why does Donnie have to die? (And "because then there wouldn't be a film" doesn't cut it.) Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

I have a theory, one that works with or without Kelly's metaphysical framework. Ultimately, the central mystery of the film is only soluble if Frank isn't Frank.

After all, Kelly has been dropping hints, both subtle and otherwise, throughout the entire movie. Like Poe's purloined letter, the key is hidden in plain view. What is an airplane engine falling from the sky except the ultimate literal Deus Ex Machina?

The Frank that appears to Donnie is not really the same Frank in the car. It's a form chosen to provide a shock of recognition at the appropriate time. He's a Divine Messenger. The Metatron. The Voice of God.

(Disclaimer: My religious beliefs, or lack thereof, are probably best described as "sympathetic agnosticism." Now back to our regularly scheduled wacky theological exegesis.)

Rabbit gods seem rare in mythology, but the few extant seemed to have functioned, like the Metatron, as scribes. However, I have a hunch that the mask's form, besides being a nod to Harvey, may be less significant than its mere existence. After all, G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is nothing if not a masque of masks, one whose protagonist and his compatriots are put through frightening ordeals as the world seems to crumble around them, before coming face to face with the with the fearsome splendor of the divine.

At last year's World Fantasy Convention, Gene Wolfe noted that "God's love can be a terribly frightening thing, because God knows all your dirtiest thoughts and darkest secrets, and loves you anyway." Anyone who reads the Bible (or, for that matter, R.A. Lafferty) knows that the hardness of God's love can be a painful thing to endure. But it is in this light that Donnie's life up to this point — the sleepwalking, the emotional problems — begins to make sense. Donnie has been Chosen. His entire life has been shaped by his coming ordeal.

Here in the 21st century, divine intervention is a damned risky narrative strategy. If God can create and smite at will, all human struggles are rather puny and futile by comparison. (It's what ruins the climax of The Stand.) For divine intervention to work, it has to operate under the tightest of constraints so as not to overwhelm the story. I'm reminded of two separate sections from K.W. Jeter's vastly underrated The Glass Hammer. One of the opening epigrams is from St. Bernard of Clairvaux: "As the glorious sun penetrates glass without breaking it... so the Word of God, the light of the Father, passes through the body of the Virgin, and then leaves it without undergoing any change." Throughout the novel, the protagonist's friend is trying to digitally reconstruct a stained glass window from the shards, using a computer program to examine various configurations. As time goes on, his reconstructions use fewer and fewer shards. Then he dies of a stroke, and his friend comes to view the last thing he saw before he died. "All the spaces in the framework were blank now. Nothing but pure white light poured across the floor." Only with the lightest and most ambiguous of touches can God's hand be used without derailing the plot.

However, even assuming that Donnie is chosen by God, it still doesn't quite explain why. Let me climb all the way out on this limb to suggest an answer.

Remember the second half of that double-bill. I haven't read the Nikos Kazantzakis novel upon which it is based, but in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, the title refers to Christ's temptation to lead a normal life, to step down from the cross, to lay aside the terrible burden of being The Messiah and simply live as an ordinary man. Ultimately, Christ's mortal life is a false reality, a bubble universe all its own, only closed when Christ willingly returns to his crucifixion.

Without Frank's intervention, Donnie would have died anyway. With it, Donnie gets an additional 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds of life in the bubble universe. And during that interregnum, he gets to tell off idiot authorities, flood his school, unmask an evil hypocrite, gain a beautiful girlfriend and finally make love to her. In short, he gets to experience something pretty close to the ultimate realistic adolescent male fantasy of how you would live your last month. It's his earthly reward for laying down his life.

In Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos, one character offers a novel interpretation of the biblical tale of Abraham and Isaac. The true meaning of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac was not as a test of Abraham, but of God. It was only once proof that He was a God of mercy as well as wrath was established that He could be deemed worthy of worship. (Interestingly enough, some traditions hold that it was in fact the Metatron who stayed Abraham 's hand.) The existence of God's love for Donnie is the central philosophical question of his life. Without the bubble universe, his death is horrible, random, meaningless. With it, he's The Redeemer. He lays down his life so that others might live. Like Father Karras' possession at the end of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, his ordeal leads him to a belief in the divine. Ultimately Donnie can laugh, because he knows that, in the end, he doesn't die alone. It's what Neil Gaiman famously called "a life-affirming tragedy."

Is all this theological speculation a bit much for a single Hollywood movie to bear? Probably. The more blank places in the narrative, the more baroque the explanation conjured to fill them. Yet theological concerns are very much evident in Kelly's film, even without the additional material. The words "Living Receiver" are never uttered there, but "God" certainly is. But Kelly, sly dog that he is, never gets preachy, and never makes his views explicit. He's quite content to just dip his toes into those very deep waters and let viewers do the swimming themselves.

So how good is Donnie Darko? It's not a great film, and in fact is deeply flawed. The science fiction doesn't hold up. Having Donnie wait so long to visit Sparrow is a pure Idiot Plot device. Given the additional materials on the DVD, some of the movie's intellectual underpinnings seem positively goofy. If I had actually seen it in 2001, it would have ranked lower than The Fellowship of the Ring on my Hugo and Nebula ballots. I could easily name a dozen films from the last decade that were better. And yet... and yet... and yet...

And yet, of those dozen better films, none since Peter Jackson's superb Heavenly Creatures has haunted me as strangely and deeply as Donnie Darko has. Despite the flaws, the portions that do work are fiercely ambitious, nearly perfect and deeply compelling. As King Crimson once put it, "The more I look at it, the more I like it." Kelly may have missed the final pitch, but he went down swinging for the fences.

Nor am I alone in my esteem. Donnie Darko seems to have become that rarest of creatures, a cult film entirely free of camp. As of this writing, there are over 100 Donnie Darko items on sale on eBay, and the film's fans have a very active listserve running at http://www.thedecemberplan.org/darko/. I think you would have to go back to Terry Gilliam's Brazil to find an SF film with such tremendous underground buzz. Donnie Darko isn't as good as Brazil. But it's good enough.



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[taurus-jor]

Zanimljiv tekst. Jedino mi se cini da je tip isuvise doslovno shvatio neke stvari. Ono sto je njemu razocaravajuche, meni je odushevljavajuche.

I uopste mi se ne cini da je Frenk "iscenirao svoju smrt". Ovde se, ako mene pitate, govori o razlicitim vremenskim tokovima. I ponavljam, mesto "pogibije" vrlo je indikativno.

[Truba]

smrt jednog čovjeka jeste smrt cijelog čovječanstva

mislim da je u filmu riječ o zakrivljenim vremenskim linijama

u jednoj liniji je Doni poginuo ali nekim čudom dobiva mogućnost da živi još 28 dana i ta druga vremenska linija se spaja u onu prvu normalnu liniju

[Ghoul]

ko procita sve ovo ispod, dobija napolitanku...
...od komija.

Richard Kelly, writer-director of Donnie Darko, attended a special screening in San Diego where he announced an upcoming book and Todd McFarlane figurine based on the 2001 cult classic, as well as a potential theatrical re-release in March of 2004.  

The Q&A session, following a4:00showing on Sunday the 19th at Madstone Theaters onFrazee Road, was arranged by the San Diego Film Critics Society, who awarded Kelly Best Screenplay in 2002 while he was inEurope. The casual crowd filled three-fourths of the theater, an excellent turnout for an otherwise poorly advertised event. As much as 1/4 of the audience had never seen the film.  

Immediately following the credits, Kelly, in jeans and grey T-shirt, made his way to the stool in front - he had intended to present the film, but his car had broken down and he had to borrow another. Following a brief introduction he immediately began taking audience questions.  

* When asked how he marketed the unusual script, Kelly thanked his producing partner Scott McKittrick, who had shopped it to an assistant at a major agency, which led to him being signed with Creative Artists (CAA). Initially only the screenwriter, Kelly got his chance to direct when Jason Schwartzman of Rushmore fame showed interest and became attached to the project. He passed it to Drew Barrymore, who approached Kelly's agent at ShoWest and met with him on the set of Charlie's Angels. He offered her a part; she offered to produce.  

* Kelly compared Darko's cul-de-sac ending to "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the Twilight Zone episode based on the Ambrose Bierce short story about a man about to be hanged who, in his final moments, imagines himself surviving and escaping.  

* He sites Steven King, Philip K. Dick, Camus, Kafka, Graham Greene, and Dostoevsky as literary influences. He admitted not having read any of them since high school English and not knowing which way to pronounce Camus.

* Heís a big fan of Kill Bill and Quentin Tarantino, who he met at the premier. Also a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman. Apparently, when Kaufman turned in his draft of Adaptation, everyone inHollywoodwanted to kill him. Kelly tells another story about a screening of Being John Malcovitch: a producer who passed on it walked out claiming sheíd ìdodged a bullet,î and, later, at the Oscars, talked about how it was one of her favorite films of the year.

* The concept of the screenplay began with the jet engine. It was inspired by the urban legend of the block of frozen urine that falls from a plane and strikes a man dead - an idea, Kelly pointed out, that was also used in an episode of Six Feet Under.

* When asked about his struggles filming Donnie Darko and whether he expects his struggles to get worse, Kelly clarified that filmmaking is always a struggle. "There's always 20 bozos who'll screw it up," he complained. "They're not in it for the art at all; to them it's just a business." He discussed his next film, Knowing, which has been caught in legal entanglements; principal photography won't begin until early next year, due in part to the film's $15 million budget. (Darko, which was made for more that a third less, failed to earn back production costs.)

* On the scripts he is writing for other directors in the meantime, Kelly claimed he considers it work-for-hire, though he emphasized the importance of owning and protecting one's material until it is set to go into production. "They can cast Carrot Top," he warned. "You're fucked."

* When asked if he intended the faculty in Darko to be so blatantly incompetent, Kelly reiterated that the characters are supposed to be archetypes, but, yes, Kitty and the principal are "clearly nitwits," while the teachers played by Barrymore and Noah Wyle are the liberal progressive types he admired growing up in Virginia. If Darko has any message, he concedes it would be that public schools and suburban life in general can be so pointlessly damaging that it's no wonder kids are shooting up their schools.

* Most of the throwaway details in the film were written in the script - right down to the "God Is Awesome!" T-Shirt. Kelly admitted admiration for directors like Ridley Scott and Terry Gilliam who emphasize details, and pointed out that technicians appreciate it when you're real specific.

* Patrick Swayze is the nicest man in the world. The infomercial was shot on his ranch; his wife showed them his recording studio and brought out his "80's clothes." Swayze was very enthusiastic about the project: ìHe wanted to take a blowtorch to his image."

* Kelly got to USC on an art scholarship, and changed his major almost immediately. He got into the film department on the strength of his writing samples, and intended to continue as a screenwriter until his peers told him he was most defiantly a director. His dad was a scientist at NASA, and his whole family has a background in architecture and engineering, and after all, ìa director is an architect.î

* The Donnie Darko book - not a novel, more like a production book, like the Matrix coffee table book - is already available inLondonand contains the screenplay, including unproduced scenes. It will be available in theUSshortly.

* When asked, he defended Cherita, the plump Chinese girl, by comparing her to the Mike Yanagita character inFargo. All he does it hit on Marge and lie about his marriage - the studio should have cut the scene, Kelly claims. But when Marge discovers that he lied, it makes her wonder if sheís easily lied to - prompting her to question Jerry Lundegaard a second time. Yanagita was secretly crucial. Kelly failed to explain why putting on Cheritaís earmuffs was an important stage in the development of Donnieís character, but claimed it was anyhow.

As he got up to leave, the SDFCS representative reminded him of his special announcement: he is in negotiations with Newmarket Film Group to re-release Donnie Darko next March, including more pop music removed since it was shown at Sundance, and, more importantly - it will be a Directorís Cut. He claimed it may include stuff not available on the DVD. He did not specify how wide it will be distributed.

The SDFCS rep also reminded him to tell us that McFarlane Toys is working on a Frank the Bunny doll.

Kelly, though appearing tired, was willing to sign DVD covers and chatted with fans as they left the theater.

[Truba]

smrt jednog čovjeka jeste smrt cijelog čovječanstva

mislim da je u filmu riječ o zakrivljenim vremenskim linijama

u jednoj liniji je Doni poginuo ali nekim čudom dobiva mogućnost da živi još 28 dana i ta druga vremenska linija se spaja u onu prvu normalnu liniju

uh
nisam ni znao da mogu vako lupetarat

čovječe sam sam sebe iznenadio

[Plavi Skaut]

Jutros se, nichim izazvano, setih Doni Darka, pa se onda setih i da nisam javio rezultate svog malog eksperimenta. quote]

uf, a ja sam mislila da je Unicorn jedna od malobrojnih zena na ZS

[Lurd]

Jutros se, nichim izazvano, setih Doni Darka, pa se onda setih i da nisam javio rezultate svog malog eksperimenta. quote]

uf, a ja sam mislila da je Unicorn jedna od malobrojnih zena na ZS

Dobro si mislila, ali taj post je postavljen pre razotkrivanja i padanja maski i opšte pucnjave, koja je bogami trajala. I trajala.

[taurus-jor]

Dakle, Birsov "Dogadjaj na mostu preko Sovine reke", i jedna urbana legenda su krivi za sve. Hehehehe.

[Unicorn]

Eh, đubre zagurano pod tepih biva otkriveno kad-tad.  

[Lurd]

Dakle, Birsov "Dogadjaj na mostu preko Sovine reke", i jedna urbana legenda su krivi za sve. Hehehehe.

Malo pojašnjenje za nas sa, jelte, jeftinijim ulaznicama?

[Melkor]

Potrazite odmah u lokalnim knjizarama!!!

Stvarno bi bilo besmisleno otkrivati ti sadrzaj price koja se, btw, pojavila kao naslovna u zbirci njegovih prica negde sredinom '90-ih. Ja sam je imao na policama i radi bih ti je uzajmio ali naglasicu imao. Mislim da bi mogao da je nadjes u nekoj antikvarnoj knjizarici (ne mislim na prave antikvitete).

I jos nesto - Birs bi trebalo da ti upadne u "obavezno" kategoriju [/b]

[Lurd]

Potrazite odmah u lokalnim knjizarama!!!

Stvarno bi bilo besmisleno otkrivati ti sadrzaj price koja se, btw, pojavila kao naslovna u zbirci njegovih prica negde sredinom '90-ih. Ja sam je imao na policama i radi bih ti je uzajmio ali naglasicu imao. Mislim da bi mogao da je nadjes u nekoj antikvarnoj knjizarici (ne mislim na prave antikvitete).

I jos nesto - Birs bi trebalo da ti upadne u "obavezno" kategoriju [/b]

Da, ja sam sa jeftinijom kartom, ali ti nisi gledao početak. Elem, znam priču, naravno, samo mi nije jasno kakve veze ta priča i neka nepoznata urbana legenda imaju sa tim što se Unicorn predstavljala kao muško ovde.

Beše neko objašnjenje, koje i nije bitno, ali kada sam se upoznao sa Unicorn ceo dogadjaj mi je postao još bizarniji, a samim tim i mnogo simpoatičniji, a sada kada vidim da Dogadjaj i neka urbana legenda imaju veze sa tim, prosto treperim od znatiželje...

[Unicorn]

Nisam, nažalost, čitala tu Birsovu priču (mada je Birs jedan od mojih omiljenih pisaca, valjda zbog vrhunskog cinizma kojim odiše ono što napiše). Jore, može li neko malo objašnjenje - i ja sam radoznala?
A kad ste me već izvukli iz naftalina, em čačkali mečku, bio bi red i da to obrazložite.  
Što se pucanja tiče, ah, pa tu su se svi leeepo pridružili, pa je sve praštalo, združenim, balkanskim snagama. Ojhaaaa!

[Ghoul]

Nisam, nažalost, čitala tu Birsovu priču (mada je Birs jedan od mojih omiljenih pisaca,

Ni ja nisam citao Pad kuce Aser, iako je Po 1 od mojih omiljenih pisaca.    



salim se.

usput, ni ja ne shvatam na sta je jor hteo da aludira svojim mutnim nagovestajima

[Melkor]

Pa valjda da se ceo film desava u njegovoj svesti u onoj milisekundi (ili koliko vec njegovog umiranja), poput "mosta' gde se sve dogadja izmedju pustanja konopca i krckanja njegovog vrata. Znaci ne rew zivota vec neki potencijalni fast forward.

[Melkor]

...Mada, onda to postaje film sa preokretom, a nisam siguran koliko mi se to dopada...

[Lurd]

Pa valjda da se ceo film desava u njegovoj svesti u onoj milisekundi (ili koliko vec njegovog umiranja), poput "mosta' gde se sve dogadja izmedju pustanja konopca i krckanja njegovog vrata. Znaci ne rew zivota vec neki potencijalni fast forward.

...i sad to i neka "urbana legenda" imaju veze sa Unicorn i njenim predstavljanjem na ovom forumu...for chrissake!

Kakve?

[taurus-jor]

   
   
i jopet:


Ok.
Za one s jeftinijom ulaznicom:

Nekog petokolonaša besili konfederalci o prečku mosta na Sovinoj reci (il' Sovinom potoku - tuna se prevodioci mnogo džapaju, a imamo čak tri prevoda iste priče), pa mu izmakli stolicu, sve kako valja i trebuje. Al' konfederalcima se potkrade uvek budni Marfi, bajato kanapče pukne, pa se obešeni strmoglavi u reku (potok), sve sa kravatu, a da nije čuknuo glavom o džombe na brzacima (sumnjivo, al' nema veze - navijamo dalje). I ispliva obešeni iz brzaka (mislim da je bio u suvoj košulji, al' nema veze - navijamo i dalje), i ni pet ni šest nego pregazi brda i doline do svoje farme, da vidi svoju dragu farmerku i farmerče. I baš kad 'teo da ih zagrli, pokaže se da je Marfi đubre jedno prevarantsko, i eto ti sada obešenog kako visi o prečki mosta na Sovinoj $#%/##, sve sa novim novcatim kanapčetom oko šije. Narodski rečeno: što je babi milo...

Za one kojima je to bitno, kritičari smatraju da je ova priča "anticipirala tehniku toka svesti u književnosti".

E, da:

The concept of the screenplay began with the jet engine. It was inspired by the urban legend of the block of frozen urine that falls from a plane and strikes a man dead - an idea, Kelly pointed out, that was also used in an episode of Six Feet Under.

A kakve ovo veze ima sa otkrivanjem pola Unicorn - ja ne umem kazati.

[Lurd]

A kakve ovo veze ima sa otkrivanjem pola Unicorn - ja ne umem kazati.

A pa nećeš ti više ništa govoriti kada te propustim kroz šake, bitango!

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

PA ZAŠTO SI ONDA SPOMINJAO AKO NE ZNAŠ DA KAŽEŠ, BARABO?!?!?!

[BladeRunner]

Hm. Malo cu skrenuti sa teme i napisati rijec-dvije o filmu "Doni Darko"  

   Uglavnom, nekako mi je promakao ovaj topic, jer sam htio da procitam sve od pocetka do kraja, kako se ne bi ponavljao. To sam uradio tek danas, pa zato ovako kasno postujem.

   Ono sto meni nije jasno kod filma "Doni Darko" je kako se desilo to da ovaj film bude komercijalni promasaj? Posto sam ga odgledao i totalno se odusevio, pozajmljivao sam ga drugim ljudima i od svih dobijao samo superlative. Nema ama bas nijedne osobe kojoj sam pozajmio ovaj film, a da je rekla da je los. Dakle, na slucajnom uzorku ljudi koji gledaju akcije, komedije, SF i bilo sta drugo, on je dobio jako dobru prodju.

   Neko je pomenuo ponovnu bioskopsku distribuciju ovog filma, ima li novih informacija o tome?

   Sta sam preskocio? Mozda samo opasku da je ovo najbolji film koji sam odgledao u zadnjih par godina, a kad bi pravio neki svoj top 10 ikad, usudjujem se da kazem da bi tu negdje bio i film "Doni Darko". Da, ima mana (cini mi se da su vec sve apsolvirane), da ima i prednosti i svega, ali ono zbog cega je ovaj film meni odlican je neka sveprozimajuca nostalgija kojom je natopljen i koja prosto izbija iz svake scene. Muzika je perfektno uklopljena (Love will tear us apart, kad Doni otvara vrata u pozadini), citav stil 80-etih je ispostovan do kraja, 'spotovska' rezija je efektna i meni se jako dopada (kao laiku, naravno, narocito scena u skoli), ... sve u svemu jako lican film, ili sam ga ja barem tako dozivio. Dijalozi su sjajni, pogotovo "Smurf", duhovito - direktan. Tu je i "Love - fear" dijalog, sa skrivenom religioznom dobro/zlo paralelom. Neke logicke nedorecenosti sigurno postoje, ali kod filma "Doni Darko" akcenat i tako nije na njima. To je jedan duboko slojevit, lican i plemenit film. Zbog toga je naslov ovog topica pun pogodak. Pozdrav.

[Plavi Skaut]

Jutros se, nichim izazvano, setih Doni Darka, pa se onda setih i da nisam javio rezultate svog malog eksperimenta. quote]

uf, a ja sam mislila da je Unicorn jedna od malobrojnih zena na ZS

Dobro si mislila, ali taj post je postavljen pre razotkrivanja i padanja maski i opšte pucnjave, koja je bogami trajala. I trajala.

hehehehe

[taurus-jor]

Doni Darko je bio komercijalni promashaj u SAD, shto za Evropu ne vazi. U Britaniji je u 2002. godini bio jedan od 10 najgledanijih filmova.

Rechi, pak, da je Doni bio komercijalni promashaj u SAD takodje je pogreshno. Prosto, uskrachena mu je vecha reklama i vecha distribucija, jer nije bio trkacki konj velikih studija. Tako mu je to.

[Ghoul]

ali zato za iduce leto ameri spremaju re-relase director's cut [20-ak minuta duze verzije, sa malo izmenjenim soundtrackom]

[taurus-jor]

Dakle, ovaj topic che dobiti josh pokoju hrpicu virtuelnih stranica.
Ura! Ura!


Nego, nabavih na DiVX-u It's A Wonderful Life, a odranije posedujem Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Sad chu natenane da proverim paralele sa Donijem.

[taurus-jor]

ali zato za iduce leto ameri spremaju re-relase director's cut [20-ak minuta duze verzije, sa malo izmenjenim soundtrackom]

Je l' taj Directors Cut ide u bioskope (onako, pokajnicki) ili samo na DVD?

[Ghoul]

kako je za sad receno, izgleda da ce u bioskope [mada, daleko je leto, moze svasta do tad da ispadne].

vidim da ima cult status ovde= cak 2put sam -dok sam obilazio police sa horror & cult naslovima u najboljem dvd klubu ovde- nacuo ljude koji traze donnita [kao: 'sta, nisi to gledao? mora da ga uzmes', i tako to]

[taurus-jor]

Usput, zaboravio sam da kazem da sam pre nekih mesec dana doradio postojechi Miloshev prevod za Donija. Covek je to uradio vrlo, vrlo dobro, a ja sam neznatno sredio stil i dao mu malo po lekturi. Najvazniji dodaci su, medjutim:
- Prepevi svih pesama (nisu obavezno prevodi, jer sam se trudio da hvatam ritam i rimu)
- Prevodi svih natpisa u filmu

Kako je u Doniju svaki detalj bitan, ovo su takodje elementi slagalice. Molim vas za komentare. Uploadovao sam titl na:
//www.dvd.box.sk

[BladeRunner]

Upravo sam odgledao Donija Darka sa novim prevodom. Za svaku pohvalu
su prevodi songova i vecine bitnih natpisa u filmu (kao i onoga sto se cuje sa
TV-a). Ipak, ima par sitnijih gresaka, koje opisujem :

    Kad vec prevodite sve, mozda ste trebali da prevedete i naslov knjige
koju cita Kiti (sam pocetak filma, knjiga je It, Stiven King). Ovo zbog toga
sto ima veze sa krajem filma (Frenkov drug je maskiran u Penivajza).

    Kod razgovora Rouz i Kiti (1:18:40), jedan dijalog je preveden sa :
"Ali sada... Ja ne mogu da idem...", a treba : "Ali sada... ti ne mozes da
ides" (ili da odes, svejedno). U originalu to je : "But now... you can't go".

Dalje, 1:39:49, red
      "I ZANENIS SVE ONE SATE ISPUNJENE BOLOM I TAMOM..." (treba zamenis). U
stvari, ova recenica je kompletna losa, jer u ovom prevodu glasi : "Sta ako bi
mogao da putujes nazad kroz vreme i zanenis sve one sate ispunjene bolom i
tamom zamenis ih necim boljim?" (nije greska u kucanju, promaklo vam je da ovo
ponavljate dva puta). Dakle, 'zamenis ih' je visak, a 'zanenis' ispravite u
'zamenis'.

      Prevodi songova su vecinom OK, narocito mi se svidja prevod "Mad
world". Ne znam jedino zasto niste preveli "Love will tear us apart" od Joy
Division, koja zaista ima jake veze sa filmom, i sa onim sto se desava dok ta
pjesma svira ("When the routine bites hard, and ambitions are low, and the
resentment rides high, but emotions won't grow, AND WE ARE CHANGING OUR WAYS,
TAKING DIFFERENT ROADS, THEN LOVE, LOVE WILL TEAR US APART, AGAIN"... potpuno
prati scenu). Mislim da je dodavanje ovoga neophodno.

  Sve u svemu, vidi se da ste se zaista posvetili tome da ovo odradite sto je
bolje moguce, a naci ovakvu (iskrenu i nekoristoljubivu) posvecenost danas je,
nazalost, jako rijetko. Ispravite ove sitnice, i prevod ce se iz odlicnog
transformisati u besprekoran. Pozdrav.

[taurus-jor]

Hvala na kritici i podršci, Runneru.
1) Love Will Tear Us Apart nije imala engleski titl u filmu, a mene je stvarno više mrzelo da tragam po sajtovima za rečima. No, pošto si ih priložio, uradiću sve od sebe da pesma dobije prepev.
2) U Mad World se takođe potkrala greška - omašio sam smisao jednog stiha u strofi koja se odnosi na decu. Prepravio sam, i za koji dan ću uploadovati novu verziju na Internet.
3) Ovo za Kinga si apsolutno u pravu. Biće ispravljeno. Zanimljivo kako se u Doniju uvek otkrije neka nova kvaka ili kockica.
4) I zameniš sve one sate... ovo sam stvarno bio ćorav. Ponekad je zbilja potrebno više očiju za ovaj posao.
Pozdrav!

[Unicorn]

Kasno paljenje, al bolje ikad nego nikad.
Kakve veze ima moja mala prevara sa dogadjajem na Sovinom mostu?
Mislim da je Jorova asocijacija bio "trip na brvnu preko reke", tj. moj trip u vezi sa "lažnim predstavljanjem" na brvnu na koje sam chesto izlazila da se sukobim  sa nekim drugim "rogatim" stvorom.   Ono "urbana legenda" mi je potpuno neshvatljivo. No, to je sve nevazhno. Sada. Priznacete da sam sa razotkrivanjem izgubila 90% agresivnosti i drchnosti. Kolateralna shteta. Nadam se da smo sad zavrshili ZA SVA VREMENA sa ovom temom.
Shto se remake-ova i izmena (NE mislim na prevod) Doni Darka tiche, mislim da je film savrshen takav kakav je i da ce svaka sledeca intervencija to pokvariti. Verujem da se najbolja dela stvaraju u jednom dahu i da postoji granica u "lickanju" koja, ako se predje, dovodi do toga da i najgenijalnije delo postane shit zhivi. Osim toga, sitne nesavrshenosti i "asimetrije" chine lepotu josh izrazhenijom. To vam je kao sa Elen Barkin - onaj krivi osmeh chini je upechatljivijom nego shto bi trebalo da bude jedna prosechno lepushkasta plavusha.

[sandman]

Shto se remake-ova i izmena (NE mislim na prevod) Doni Darka tiche, mislim da je film savrshen takav kakav je i da ce svaka sledeca intervencija to pokvariti.

totalno se priklanjam utisku Unicorn. ono sto je najbolje kod Donnitta jeste neobjasnjenost: Kelly je izbegao da tumacenje nekih elemenata plota i pustio nas same da odmastamo film do kraja

vec i sajt donniedarko.com suvise skrece na jednu stranu u objasnjavanju paramagijskog mehanizma vremenskog putovanja u filmu. sajt mi se nije dopao (kao narativno-interaktivni pridodatak, vizuelno je savrsen) a verujem da ce mi se "rimejk" svideti jos manje

[otaku]

Od posebno introspektivnih tinejdzera koje zivot (skola, vrsnjaci...) mnogo ne mazi, jedino me vise nerviraju debele i ruzne devojke koje na kraju ipak nadju mesto pod zvezdama. Film na pocetku obecava jer postavlja sijaset zacudnih elemenata navodeci me na pomisao da ce se stvari odvijati radikalno, kao u ~Keri~ ili ~Noc vestica 1~, ali ispostavlja se da je po sredi jedna malo mastovitija epizoda serije ~My so called Life~ u kojoj je Dzordan uzeo nesto vecu dozu kapi za nos, a Andjela, ili kako se vec zvase crvenokosa riba u kockastoj kosulji, se duze zadrzala ispod drvoreda saburbije, pa je propustila porodicno trovanje pitom od tresanja. Sve u svemu, na kraju, glavni junak, u zamagljenom kadru pokupi sve potencijalne mine koje je zasipao oko sebe tokom filma, kao klikere i ode ispod drvoreda u noc. E, to je, izvinjavam se na asocijaciji, kao seks u kom riba odjednom stane, osloni se glavicom o zid i kaze da je upravo svrsila u sebi i jos ocekuje da vi saosecate sa njom iako ste pod gadnom erekcijom jer vas je, kucka, lozila sve vreme.  

[otaku]

zbog muzike i crnog zeke za malo da budem zavedena, ali, prizvah se pameti. Zaista, jako mi je zao sto ovo sve nije samo muzicki spot ili nesto slicno, mislim da bih ga volela.

[taurus-jor]

A koje klikere?

[otaku]

ovaj film ispod zaumne forme, horor i sf elemenata koji obecavaju radikalnije hvatanje u kostac sa dotaknutim temama (licemerje, strah od smrti, postojanje Boga, slobodan izbor ili predestinacija...) krije zapravo krajnje opstu i sladunjavu, hiljadu puta ispricanu pricu o tinejdzeru iz americkog predgradja koji voli da razmislja o ozbiljnim pitanjima, skacuci sa teme na temu (vrlo je smesno kako on ide kod profesora da se raspituje o vremeplovu, a ovaj mu onda kaze da ne sme dalje da prica, jer ce izgubiti posao, molim vas, bar da je to neki futuristicki film, tipa Ekvilibrijum, Suvisni izvestaj ili Farenhajt 451 pa da postoji neka mentalna policija, sta li vec) i svetu koji ga okruzuje. ne smatram posebnom umetnoscu ni vestinom kada nekom autoru uspe da te ubedi da je rekao vise nego sto je rekao, vec obratno, onog koji se sve vreme postavljao kao da ti zapravo ne govori nista sto ce da ti promeni zivot, a u stvari jeste bitno pomerio neka tvoja vidjenja stvari. U tom smislu su dobra vasa pominjanja Dejvida Linca. Ako covek dramaturskim igrarijama (vracanje na pocetak, na kraju price, pa onda mi kao treba da se prosvetlimo), kao i zacudnim vizuelnim efektima pokusava da prikrije odsustvo fokusa, onda je to los reditelj.

[Ghoul]

otaku, nemoj da se udas do jula, a i ja cu probati da se suzdrzim [od zenidbe!].

to za darka i ja potpisujem, a za lyncha cu ti licno objasniti zasto gresis [bilo bi dosadno kad bi se bas u svemu slagali, ne? ]

[otaku]

Sinoc sam pocela da citam Nzivo, dala sam citavih 300 din. u Platou, da vidim u sta se to upustam, do jula cu procitati

[otaku]

Pogledajte film ICHI, daleko konkretniji film o srednjoskolcima.

[Ghoul]

Pogledajte film ICHI, daleko konkretniji film o srednjoskolcima.

o SREDNJOSKOLCIMA???

sta pricas bre, zenska glavo?

o cemu govoris?

[otaku]

Film se desava u srednjoj skoli, a likovi su srednjoskolci, nemoj mi reci da sam se dodirivala u zabludi.

[Ghoul]

ako to sto govoris ima imalo veze s mozgom [i miikeom], onda verovatno govoris o FUDOHU!

ICHI nema BLAGE veze sa skolom...

[otaku]

Nema, dobro, I am there

[zakk]

a bit ontopic, al koga boli uvo..
gary jules danas bio 7  na mtvEurope top20 sa Mad World-om
spot ... hmm ... čudan

[taurus-jor]

vrlo je smesno kako on ide kod profesora da se raspituje o vremeplovu, a ovaj mu onda kaze da ne sme dalje da prica, jer ce izgubiti posao, molim vas, bar da je to neki futuristicki film, tipa Ekvilibrijum, Suvisni izvestaj ili Farenhajt 451 pa da postoji neka mentalna policija, sta li vec

To zaista nema nikakve veze sa "policijom misli" vech sa necem krajnje savremenim - sa utucanoshchu sredine, "demokratskim" sistemom gde vlada tiranija politicke korektnosti, propisanog jednoumlja i sve ono shto taj film vrlo fino nabija na kolac. Gde se radnja dogadja? U kakvoj shkoli, sa kakvim sistemom? Sa kakvim profesorima? Po cemu se profesor fizike i njegova koleginica Dru Berimor RAZLIKUJU od ostalih profesora? Fizicar, Monitof se plashi otkaza, a njegova devojka Dru Berimor DOBIJA otkaz. Razlog njegovog straha lepo se vidi u onome shto se desilo njoj. Shta Dru Berimor u trenutku dobijanja otkaza govori direktoru shkole, resavskom prepisivacu tudjih recepata, koji, ironicno, nema svoje ja, a umesto njega ga ima fundamentalisticka kokosh od profanke fizickog i prodavac magle Patrik Svejzi? E, odgovor se krije bash tu, i realan je do bola.

Dalje, knjigu koju je Doni dobio od uplashenog Monitofa napisala je najvecha cudakinja u okolini - ex opatica koja je odbacila religiju zarad nauke. I shta se u Donijevoj shkoli deshava kad ucenicima dash da citaju bestseler pisca (dakle ne cudaka) Grejema Grina a ne propisanu lektiru? Lepo se vidi - pobuni se dezurna zashtitnica moralnih vrednosti (profanka fizickog), a na tebe se sruci optuzba koja je u Atini upuchena Sokratu: "Kvarish omladinu".

U drugoj polovini sedamdesetih i tokom dobrog dela osamdesetih, knjige Stivena Kinga ZABRANJIVANE su po mnogim bibliotekama - shkolskim ili javnim - u open minded Americi. Shampioni zabrana: Keri, Salemovo, Isijavanje, Kudzo, Groblje kuchnih ljubimaca. Razlozi: psovanje, seksualna eksplicitnost, "moralno nepodobne" ideje koje bi mogle vaspitno pogreshno uticati na omladinu.

Budi profesor u shkoli, u sredini gde je zabrana na snazi, pa preporuci djacima da takvu knjigu citaju. Budi u istoj sredini bibliotekar, i stavi knjigu u raf za iznajmljivanje.

[Spider Jerusalem]

vrlo je smesno kako on ide kod profesora da se raspituje o vremeplovu, a ovaj mu onda kaze da ne sme dalje da prica, jer ce izgubiti posao, molim vas, bar da je to neki futuristicki film, tipa Ekvilibrijum, Suvisni izvestaj ili Farenhajt 451 pa da postoji neka mentalna policija, sta li vec

Slazem se sa onim sto je Jor rekao. Otkaz tamo dobijes za mnogo manje. I ovde bi zbog iste stvari trebalo da se dobije otkaz. Postoji onaj clan, da li broj 4, u statutu fakulteta (objasnjavao mi ga je i kao patka citirao dekan - uz prisustvo advokata i primerka Statuta Univerziteta Umetnosti i Statuta Beogradskog Univerziteta, jedan od svakog) koji otprilike glasi da na fakultetu (samim tim i u srednjoj skoli - u mnogim skolama u Amerike ovo je jos striktnije i rigoroznije) nije dozvoljeno ikakvo i quote - politicko, ideolosko i religijsko delovanje - unquote. Stvar je puke srece, tadasnjih okolnosti na malo visem nivou i ekstremno dobre volje tadasnjeg dekana sto ovu ludu blanu, zajedno sa par kolega u 'blanovanju', nije momentalno izbacio sa fakulteta, jer je imao svako moralno, eticko, i pre svega - ZAKONSKO pravo da to uradi. Dakle, it's the law, i ne radi se ni o kakvom futurizmu ili naivnim konceptima kakva je policija misli. I to nije (preterano) totalitaristicka ideja jer, ruku na srce i ako cemo iskreno, ni ja ne bih voleo da mi upadne neki pop na fakultet i pokusa da mi servira Velike Istine i da me (pre)vaspitava. Voleo bih ja da mi neko tamo prica o Zen Umetnosti Sviranja Laute ili o Nihilistickom ili Anarhistickom pogledu na muziku i pristupu muzici, ali znam da ima ljudi kojima to ne bi godilo. Kako to znam? Nemaju svi iste poglede na zivot kao ja, iste ideologije (if any), principe (if any), religije (if any), i u funkciji Prosvete ne bi trebalo uopste da bude ukljuceno jedno takvo serviranje zato sto ce biti agresivno, zbog same prirode i FUNKCIJE prosvete. Tu lezi i ona distinkcija koja cini nas, Srbe, izrazito glupim, netolerantnim narodom, a to je razlika izmedju predmeta Komparativne religije koji je BITAN ZA SVE zato sto tu ima svasta da se nauci o misljenju, filozofiji, antropologiji, razlicitim kulturama, pa bogami i umetnosti i to u velikom delu (nije potrebno biti religiozan, a kamoli katolik ili protestant da bi se uzivalo u Bahovoj muzici, ali je radi malo dubljeg razumevanja te muzike potrebno znati nesto o katolicanstvu i protestantizmu i na sirem planu: hriscanstvu i zapadnoj metafizici uopste), i da tu niko ne vrsi pritisak da neko VERUJE u nesto ili PODRZAVA nesto ili da nesto mora da mu PRIJA... za razliku od predmeta Veronauka koji u svojoj sustini podrazumeva da si VERNIK, i nije tu da te Prosveti i da ti da neko sire znanje, vec da te osposobi da PRAKTIKUJES veru za koju se, je li, podrazumeva da je imas, te dakle - prenosi ti 'znanje' o tome, iz cega mogu korist da izvuku samo vernici... za sta, jebem li ga, postoji crkva, pa odes pa se molis pa pitas svog duhovnika kako da se molis i koje obicaje i rituale da upraznjavas i kako, ne? Mozda svi Srbi (pa i sire) treba da znaju dosta toga o Pravoslavlju, iz mnogih objektivnih razloga koje me mrzi sad i da navodim (mada mogu, ako nekog zanima), ali samo Srbi VERNICI treba da slusaju 45 minuta nedeljno da slusaju kako se pravilno krstis, zasto je abortus ubistvo, zasto je Sveto Trojstvo jedini pravi put, koga, sta i kada da slavis, kako da zivis u skladu sa svojom verom.
Amerima mozemo da zamerimo hiljade gluposti, i to sto pokusavaju da uvedu veronauku (i sto postoje skole koje jesu 'veronaucne' prirode u smislu direktne indoktrinacije, ali za koju se, brate, OPREDELIS ti ili tvoji roditelji), to sto su uzdigli onaj idiotluk od kreacionizma do nivoa nekakve 'nauke' (samo zapadnjacki um je spreman da stvori takvu glupost, ali sta ces), to sto su fasisti u medjunarodnom smislu, u globalnom smislu, i u mnogim stvarima kojima 'prava' cine paradoks i u njihovoj drzavi, ali oko ove stvari strogo vode racuna, i zato ce svaki profesor JAAAAAAAKO dobro da pazi da li ce da i u NAJSIROJ, hipotetickoj razini da sa ucenikom prica o pitanjima VERE - upravo ono na sta je Doni Darko navodio, u potrazi za svojim intimnim odgovorima, svoga profesora. Profesor je znao kakvu odgovornost ima prema njemu i da ce, ako se za njihov mali eventualni o-tako-neobavezni razgovor sazna, dobiti sut-kartu iz te skole kao sto, po zakonu (koji je takav kakav je, svidjao se nama/njima u ovoj ili onoj situaciji ili ne) I TREBA da dobije.

Sad gledam ponovo ono sto si rekla, otaku, (da ne bude zabune, od pocetka se u celosti tebi obracam i tebi repliciram ), i jos nesto moram da te ispravim, ili ponudim kako sam ja to video u filmu koji sam gledao 14 puta (sto ne znaci da sam, je l' te, u pravu, niti da naturam svoje misljenje tebi). Nije profesor izbegao pitanje o vremeplovu i nauci, vec o pitanju Boga i vere. Kad je Doni ubacio BOGA u svoju (ne bas svoju) teoriju (teoriju 'bake Smrt'), TAD je profa morao da se distancira, jer o teorijama vremenskog putovanja nije pogresno niti zabranjeno pricati, ali teorisanje o bogu u prakticnim situacijama je dosta sumnjivo i covek se uplasio da se ne procita (ili rastumaci) kao indoktrinacija.

Ima onaj jako lep, iako frustrirajuci do bola, film Dejvida Mameta, Oleana, verovatno si ga uhvatila na Pinku posto su ga tamo jedno vreme vrteli do bola (a ima da se nadje na divxu, mogu ako te zanima da pitam Milosa - hej, a mozes i ti!   - da ti ga posudi ili nareze), igraju samo William H. Macy koji igra profesora na vrlo prestiznom fakultetu i neka riba koja igra njegovu studentkinju, i radi se o prostom pozorisnom komadu koji je prebacen na film bez nekih vecih izmena, i odnosu izmedju njih dvoje. Taj komad pokazuje do koje je mere moguce 'iskriviti' necije reci. Do te mere da je to downright scary. Mislim, covek ispada ni kriv ni duzan, a studentkinja mu bez vecih problema POTPUNO sjebe zivot. Mamet - majstor kakav je - odvede to do nevidjenog absurda. Posle jednog takvog iskustva (makar i iz fiktivne ruke kakav je pozorisni komad), mislim da se stice mnogo bolje razumevanje o tome zasto se tamo - u prosveti - jako pazi sta se prica, kako se prica, sta se uopste pominje. Yes, it can cost you your job, and in the case of Mamet's unfortunate professor, it can cost you much else.

[otaku]

de se povampiriste sad s ovom temom  
ti, Spider, ako si film gledao 14 X onda si sigurno u pravu sta god da kazes, bolje da se ja ne petljam dalje.
citala sam Memetovu dramu, film nisam gledala, dugo nisam imala Pink   .

[Black Mamba]

ovo je mnogo jako ...bre!