Analysis of Scenes, Themes and Motifs in The Film Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly’s 2001 drama/fantasy film entitled Donnie Darko entails realism with the story revolving around the main character, Donnie who lives in suburban Middlesex, Virginia. During the time of the Presidential Elections in 1988 during one evening, a sleepwalking Donnie encounters a massive, demonic rabbit that tells him the world will end in “28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds.” When Donnie wakes up on a golf course and eventually returns home the next morning, he discovers that a jet engine crash-landed into his bedroom. Throughout the movie, the director uses mise en scene to aid in defining characters such as Donnie and in addition, utilizing cinematography to draw the audience to him. In the film entitled Donnie Darko, character and mood are both revealed through the use of sound and editing going hand in hand through the connection of shots and scenes and therefore, drawing the audience into the world of the characters.

A pair of scenes from the first half of the film offer an outstanding example of how the theme and motifs of the film relating to the contrast between the protagonist, Donnie and antagonist, Frank. These scenes juxtapose each other and therefore, provide emphasis to a parallel. These two scenes create an ambience of emotions such as panic and creepiness and in that, complement each other to create a display of struggle to shake it off.

Theme and Motifs in Contrasts to Film Characters

In the second scene of the film, where the demonic rabbit, Frank tells Donnie to “Wake up.” The scene begins with a ghostly yet ominous pitched voice that encourages Donnie to wake up and get out of bed and to follow the voice; the sounds of this voice completely suggests that Frank is an otherworldly entity, perhaps from another realm of the universe. The voice of Frank that Donnie is hearing is subjective, as he is the only one who can hear the voice of this entity. In the first shot of this scene, there is very minimal lighting being nearly pitch black, giving the effect that Donnie is hardly visible, this makes him appear threatening as he sleepwalks out of his room and follows the voice of Frank. The sound and music choices in the background of this scene are non diegetic, intimidating yet dull at the same time, the climax then built more tension and left the viewer not knowing what would happen at all as well as a feeling of apprehension. When the audience sees Frank for the first time, he is essentially a life-sized demonic-looking rabbit figure. His purpose as the “manipulated dead” is to guide Donnie to attempting in correcting the chronology of the “primary universe” by reinstating the jet engine to its original universe. Although Frank has honorable goals, he corrupts and torments Donnie by telling him to commit crimes so he will save the universe; he makes Donnie commit crimes such as arson to Jim Cunningham’s home during his sister’s dance group’s performance at his school talent show. When Donnie and Frank see each other for the first time, the camera transitions between the two characters by the utilization of the fade technique; the camera foreshadows that Donnie and Frank will have a deep connection, it is like Frank is a part of Donnie and his soul. The recurring theme and motifs of the supernatural continue and have the audience believe in the inhuman qualities that the demonic rabbit being possesses. Both Donnie and Frank represent the imagery of Donnie’s mental instability, as he is schizophrenic, he takes medication and goes to therapy frequently; Frank is a metaphor for Donnie’s peculiarity. When Frank tells Donnie when the world will end, the close-up framework shows Donnie grinning showing amusement that the world will end rather than the shock and fear anyone else would have. He is sleepwalking while Frank reveals the world will end, however this reaction appears genuine and abnormal, as he is in an unstable piece of mind.

After Donnie and Frank’s interaction, the jet engine abruptly crashes into Donnie’s room, causing the house to shake and scare the Darko family, this may be considered a “jump scare” to some, as this occurrence happens out of nowhere. The way the event is portrayed makes the audience be pessimistic, that the worst of the worst happened. The slow motion shots in this scene emphasizes the sheer destruction and horror the plane engine has caused, we can see that when Donnie’s father runs to check if his family is safe and unharmed; time seems to slow down, as the unthinkable could have potentially happened. The sound of the jet engine crashing into Donnie’s room and the shaking of the house caused by it is exactly the same noise heard during the opening scene of the film. This tells the audience that the events in the film do not follow a particular order, establishing the idea of time travel, representing the parallel world Donnie is in as he becomes increasingly unstable and becoming more dependent on Frank. This is the first time an audience member would realize that Frank is not a figment of his imagination, he is in fact real. He essentially prevented Donnie’s death from happening and Donnie begins to establish trust in him, as he is not necessarily one hundred percent evil despite his unsettling introduction and life-sized and ominous looking rabbit suit. The camera work of the fading out may be symbolism of life’s inevitable end, Donnie’s sister’s heavy breathing is the only audible sound that is heard by the audience over the never ending blackness that happens as a result of the chaos around the Darko family household. Once the chaos ends, the darkness remains for only a second, suggesting death, which is something that happens to some characters later towards the end of the film.

When the Subconscious Takes Over Consciousness

Something that people take for granted in life is the minds that they possess, people forget how different each and every individual is different from one another. A psychological diagnosis would describe Donnie as being incredibly intelligent as well as being a paranoid schizophrenic, a disorder where one has perplexing and disconnected thoughts, emotions, and overall perception of life. There are quite a few scenes in the film that support Donnie’s diagnosis, such as him being able to see Frank and seeing the world’s wormholes that are seen in the sky later in the film. Donnie claims he can see other people’s paths; when him and his sister organized a party at their house, he began to see these transparent paths that traced people’s movements through time which he saw as being an aspect of time travel. Donnie only shows his aggressive side only when Frank is manipulating him to commit crimes, such as arson towards a motivational speaker named Jim Cunningham’s home, the audience is shown Donnie’s dislike of Cunningham and his philosophies in the values and meaning of life. Frank also had Donnie vandalize his school by breaking a water pipe which causes the school to flood, throwing the ax into their school mascot and essentially trashing his school, he also spray paints “They made me do it” around the school’s statue. When someone’s subconscious trumps the conscious, it is deemed to be a detachment and dissociation from reality.

Conclusion

These scenes were chosen in order to establish how they connect and parallel one another. They relate to one another, reason being these scenes together cause a sense of uneasiness in the audience members’ minds. These scenes complement one another in the aspect that the audience does not want to take their eyes off of the screen, the scenes are difficult to brush off. Donnie has no control over Frank’s manipulation of him in committing crimes such as arson and vandalism. In this movie, time means everything, time travel and how time is manipulated. With coming-of-age themes in the film as well, Donnie Darko is a narrative that speaks regarding the human condition, each and every human being experiences pubescence, love, fear of things such as the world ending and loss at some point or another in their lifetime.

Works Cited

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