by Ted the dog » Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:37 pm
"Here's a question for all: Are we just stretching and makin' a bunch of shit up on interpreting this show? Or is it real art with all kinds of real meaning? That was the starting point of the thread, and think at this point it is interesting to reflect upon it."<br><br><br>Good point. I don't see this as any of us stating that "Yes, this movie IS about these things..." I view it as we're all just seeing where some analysis takes us.<br><br>It's been said a few times in the thread that the director/writer purposely left the movie kind of open-ended...open to multiple interpretations.<br><br>I dunno...I do think that he's hinting at a lot of what's been discussed. He was probably a kid during the time the movie takes place (198<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START 8) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> and I'm sure he had heard about the pedophilia "discoveries" of that time period. <br><br><br>He could have seen a copy of a true crime book or something that delved into this subject matter. Hell, I remember being a pre-teenager and seeing a story about a young boy that was kidnapped, raped and then castrated and it haunted me for a decade. The boy ended up being OK, they re-attached his organ and everything, but it was horrifically traumatic just reading about it.<br><br>I think these things do stick with you and they do color the way you view the world later in life...even to the point of affecting your artwork. IMHO, Donnie Darko is real art with a lot of different avenues to travel down. More movies should be like this...kind of non-linear in terms of interpretation. The movie itself takes on a multi-dimensional quality, even while analyzing it after the fact. <br><br><br><br><br><br>"It could also be seen as Pommeroy 'guiding' her to Donnie, a savior of sorts."<br><br>After reading your post, I realized that Donnie is pretty much the only male character of any worth in the entire film, with the exception of Noah Wiley. <br><br>Donnie's two friends are a couple of moronic putzes...the other two prominent male students are bullies, coke heads and they like to intimidate women....Donnie's dad SEEMS like he's an OK guy, but there's just something lurking under the skin with him....something just not quite right. He seems like a representation of the "Shit, I dunno! I figured George Bush would do a good job! How was I to know the country would end up in the toilet?!! Aw hell, let's get a burger and some beers!" mentality of people in the US that voted for Bush because they were told that John Kerry was a "flip-flopper".....people that are decent people, even politically aware and involved, but just got fooled way too easily. Now they don't feel like dealing with it so they shrug it off and figure "maybe next time".<br><br><br>Noah Wiley's character is the only other male in the film aside from Donnie that doesn't seem like he's some kind of monster, about to reveal his true self by ripping off his human skin. He's the only one that isn't hiding something horrible...and he still might have been, given what we learned on the website. <br><br>Every other character on screen for any significant amount of time is a woman and their ranks are made up of weirdoes, bitches, mom-types, kid sisters, freaky teachers with (possibly) good intentions, etc...the whole nine yards. <p></p><i></i>
