Donnie Darko-Sarita Madrid

I liked Donnie Darko because it was a somewhat confusing yet very thought provoking movie. It left me with a lot of questions but also a lot of speculations as to what happened and what it meant. My first question about the movie is about why Frank said the "end of the world" is coming on October 30th. Even after watching the events that transpired, I was wondering why it was referred to as the end of the world. I thought maybe because he had finally found someone who made him feel not alone and then he lost her (even though he goes back in time and dies instead). In this case, I could see why Frank was saying the world was going to end but at the same time it was a very dramatic statement to make. It provoked fear within Donnie which was a very apparent theme throughout the movie. I noticed this theme of fear during the first video about "fear survivors" because it seemed like such an absurd concept to make a video about. The teacher was a strong advocate for this program and led an activity with the continuum of fear and love. This reminded me of the Bible verse "perfect love casts out all fear." I thought it was interesting the movie made love the opposite of fear and I wonder where this idea came from. Regardless, fear was a theme as it appeared numerous times throughout the movie. Donnie seemed very triggered by Jim Callahan as he got angry with his ideas about fear. He explained that he felt the ideas were dumb and there are easy solutions to problems involving fear. I feel like this is a defense mechanism because he is very aggressive about this and he obviously exhibits fear in other parts of the movie. He seems to be using anger as a way of covering up his true fear. For example, he does not want to take his pills because he fears the results that come from it and he fears that he will die alone.

In general, I could not make sense of Frank because I thought he was completely a figment of Donnie's but then we see an actual person named Frank dressed up as a bunny. And we see his creations of a scary bunny which could be the inspiration for Donnie’s “friend” Frank. I am curious as to where and when he saw the bunny creations made by Frank that got into his imagination. I also thought it was weird that the bunny took his mask off at the movies and we see Frank with a bloody eye. This could foretell the future when he gets shot by Donnie but at the same time it makes the plot more confusing because we do not know what is going on. Donnie is convinced that he has to listen to Frank because he does not want to be alone. Possibly, Frank is there to keep Donnie company until he finds a real person (Gretchen) to be with him. This could also be why Donnie says that he has to obey Frank because he saved his life. Frank was there for Donnie when he was lonely. One explanation of all of this is the doctor diagnosed him with schizophrenia however the pills to help the schizophrenia actually seemed to make it worse which is ironic.