...Parjit Sigh Dhaliwal Mr. Mannello ENG3U0-I 2015-12-10 Donnie Darko and The Catcher in the Rye Comparative Essay: The Transition into the Adult World When one’s views contrast with those of society’s, a societal phenomenon of alienation occurs. Both, J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and director Richard Kelly’s film, Donnie Darko, emphasise this estrangement by contextually presenting protagonists who suggest that teen discordance is universal due to their opposing collective perspectives. The book, The Catcher in the Rye, is about a young-adult’s three-day experience living in New York city after being kicked out of his school. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, recounts his experiences and interactions within those three days through thorough analyzation. The film, Donnie Darko, is about a teen, Donnie Darko, who is supernaturally transported to a tangent universe, guided by a ghost, Frank, in which his actions determine the future of the normal universe. In both the book and the novel, the ironic nature of societal seclusion being self-inflicted shown through the rejection of society by the protagonists themselves, both works are able to reinforce the universality of teen discord. Although there is trust to be found in adults, superficiality is present in the mass majority of the adult society. This phoniness amongst adults is present in both the book and the movie ultimately which contributes to the prevalence of distrust amongst the adolescent protagonists...
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...Donnie Darko In this essay I’m going to tell about the story with a summery and after that i’ll tell about the settings in the story. Settings = time, place, cultural enviroment, social enviroment, historical enviroment and atmosphere. The purpose with this description is that it will give other an insight into this story and a good analysis. In our english lessons we saw a movie called ’’Donnie Darko.’’ It was a really good movie. Time: The storys time is in 1988 during the elections to America's new president. I can’t say precisely if the is in the real world or in an imaginary world, because he’s paranoid schizophrenic. So he sees things who aren’t real. Like a big bunny named Frank and some ’’ghost-snakes’’ coming aout of people and lead him somewhere. Place: The story takes place in Middlesex, Virginia where he lives with his family. Also at his school where he gets a book from one of the teachers, and when he looks at the writers name he founds out that it’s his grandmother who has written the book about ’’time travel.’’ At the golf curse, where he writes ’’28064212’’ down at his arm. In the cinema he sees Fransk talk to him and after that he walks home to Jim Cunningham's house and stars a fire in his living room. After the fire the police founds a secret room with many picture of small, naked kids. The last time at the psychologist, when he tells her about Frank and the number he wrote down at his arm. Atmosphere: The 2. October 1988 (the fall) ...
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...Living Future Final Essay Assignment Thao Nguyen Waking up to Frank’s disturbances and being lead on out of his bedroom, Donnie has a purpose to serve in the tangent universe, which he has no idea of. The happenings in the movie Donnie Darko built up a purpose for him as well as an understanding as to why he was in the tangent universe in the first place. However, the realization that he was not in the primary universe, Donnie does not have a clear purpose to serve in the tangent universe and various elements of his journey seem unclear. For example, in the tangent universe, Donnie does not seem to have met Gretchen and neither does he connect well with Frank. However, following the fact that Gretchen and Frank have a purpose to accomplish in the favor of saving the universe before it collapses into a black hole, Donnie realizes that there is instability in the tangent universe and it is his responsibility as the chosen one to hand over the jet engine artifact back to the primary universe before things escalate out of proportion. Bundled with supernatural powers such as gaining some sort of powers, such as the capabilities to conjure fire, water, and telekinesis, Donnie, firstly did not have an idea as to what these powers entailed and why he had to have them. However with provocation from other characters in the tangent universe, Donnie is able to understand that time is not in his or the primary universe’s side. The artifact, jet engine, was in tangent...
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...Review of Donnie Darko By Ruby Redmond Professor Heck English 1010-122 9 September 2013 Outline Thesis statement: Donnie Darko (2001) is an excellent must-see film because of the conflict between Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhall) and Frank the Bunny (James Duval) and the underlying theme of sacrifice. I. Conflict A. Donnie Darko B. Frank the Bunny II. Theme A. Sacrifice to save loved ones B. Sacrifice to change others Fear, Love, and Sacrifice: Film Review of Donnie Darko Weird, attention-grabbing, different, and back to the future explains Donnie Darko perfectly. It is all about sacrifice and caring for loved ones more than you care for yourself. The characters are definably cut out, and their attitudes are astonishing. I guarantee this movie will draw you in more than any other movie you have ever seen. Donnie Darko (2001) is an excellent must see film because of the conflict between Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhall) and Frank the Bunny (James Duval) and the underlying theme of sacrifice. In Donnie Darko there is this weird, but agreeable, conflict between Donnie Darko and a bunny only he can see in his head, Frank the Bunny. Since Frank tells Donnie to commit crimes some viewers may not agree with these “crimes” because, they may think that any crime is bad, even if they are good. However, these “crimes” help Donnie and others as well. In one incidence he burns down a house of a man who speaks on letting go of your problems and helping little kids. After Donnie burns down...
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...Donnie Darko Donnie Darko is schizophrenic teenager who has the ability to change the future in 28 days. Donnie is dragged out of his sleep by his imaginary friend, Frank, who saves him from a jet engine that fell in his room. From that day he has the ability to choose if he wants to save himself or the people around him. Donnie Darko faces significant internal and external conflicts. He must decide whether to follow the path that is set out for him by unknown forces, or make his own choice and face the consequences. Darko witnesses all the concluding results in things if he decided to survive the situation. The film Donnie Darko is far more than just a space traveling movie, it’s about choosing from life and death, fear and love, and most importantly, right from wrong. From the beginning of the movie we see that Donnie is given medication by his psychiatrist for his mental illness. One night, Donnie is called out of bed by a mysterious voice. He follows the voice, where he meets a big talking rabbit named Frank, who is responsible for the voice that Donnie hears and the crimes that he will ultimately commit. Gretchen is a new girl who eventually becomes Donnie’s girlfriend. Donnie is influenced to commit crimes such as set fire to a suspected sex offender’s home and vandalizing his high school. After the 28 days pass Donnie meets Frank’s physical living body, not the manipulated dead one, on Halloween, in his bunny suit. Frank makes the accident of running over Gretchen...
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...Some bad movies you slag off gleefully. Their awfulness inspires you to reach high for insults as witty as the film is terrible. Others provoke a certain disappointment at their failure, a kind of mourning at the difference between the film’s ambition and its execution. Richard Kelly’s The Box is such a film. Kelly is a trippy, sometimes loopy filmmaker whose Donnie Darko is one of the great cult films of this century. In that film, his far less successful Southland Tales, and now The Box, Kelly creates mind-twisting tales in which everyday conundrums unravel into conspiracies and plots of cosmic proportions. Picture him as Robert Towne with an overlay of Rod Serling. But Kelly spins paranoid fantasies with so many threads that he can’t quite keep track of them all, or make them connect in a meaningful way. That’s the problem with The Box: a great set-up leading to a muted, unsatisfying conclusion that doesn’t really pay off. His film, taken from a short story by Richard Matheson, is set in 1976, to tie it to the Mars landing program that produced the first photos from that planet’s surface. Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) is a NASA scientist who worked on that program and who is awaiting approval to join the astronaut program. His wife Norma (Cameron Diaz) teaches English at a private school near Richmond, Virginia, which their son attends. Portentously, she is teaching Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. One day before Christmas, a box arrives on their doorstep, a polished wooden object...
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...and it is important for several reasons. Firstly, it can be crucial for the director, because it means that they can use symbols and settings from previous films of the same genre to trigger an emotional response from the audience. Genre also places limit on the director, because each genre has its own conventions and guidelines; it prevents the director from straying too far for the storyline with their themes and therefore losing the intended audience. Genre is also important when it comes to marketing because it is easier to promote a film with a clear genre, as it is usually aimed at a particular audience. So, it can be quite difficult to market a film without any p particular genre, or with multiple genres. An example of this is 'Donnie Darko', which was a huge flop when it was first released, partially due to the fact that audiences didn't understand it, but also partially due to the fact that it contains elements of several genres, which made it difficult to promote. Additionally, genre allows the audience to develop their own personal preferences which means that if a film is of their preferred genre, they are more inclined to go and see it. Along with allowing personal preferences to develop, genre can also give the audience expectations of a film depending on what genre it is and this helps to give an idea of what the film is about, which assists them in deciding whether or not they want to go and see it. On the other hand, there are more reasons nowadays that affect...
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...Film Appreciation Final Exam The film “what dreams may come”(Vincent Ward 1998) can be described as an emotional and dramatic film. This film should be preserved for a variety of reasons. The film is aesthetically significant for its unique special effects and storyline. The reason this is so is because many of the elements produced and the Mise-en-scene of each effect and character is quite stunning. The first aesthetic element shown is the story’s unique storyline, as many twists and turns shift your expectations left and right. The point of view in this story is subjective, and the first establishing shot begins as we follow the pediatrician Chris Nielsen, and we eventually see him meet and marry his wife and have children. The plot twists when the children die in a car crash, and the audience is shocked, and just when everything starts to feel right again, Chris dies in another car crash. The wife commits suicide, and audiences are in awe as the entire family they began to know was diminished. The storyline itself shows unique twists to each expectation the audience has, and proves to be significant because many films followed these plot twists of tragedy to create drama. The special effects in this movie proved to be quite unique. The main character Chris dies and goes to heaven, and the special effects show him inside a painting like world as the environment can be changed around him and is very slushy. The scene shows him dashing across a river of...
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...Donnie Darko: A Review What comes to mind when you think of a modern adolescent coming of age movie? Is it alienation, rebellion, probably first love? In Donnie Darko (2001), writer/director Richard Kelly employs all of these familiar themes; then he adds humor, witty satire, time travel, apocalyptic prophecy, and a bi-pedal, six foot tall nightmare of a rabbit, who instructs the young and confused Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) through haunting visions and an eerie voice that runs through Donnie‘s head. Ok, so maybe this sounds like a plotline lifted straight from the WB's primetime lineup (minus the wit), but Kelly uses these seemingly absurd, unrelated elements to create an amazingly complex and clever story that Buffy could only dream of. Donnie Darko begins with a panoramic, morning shot of a mountain range, setting the stage for a film as wide open as the landscape. The camera pans around, focusing slowly on a distant figure, lying unconscious in the middle of a mountain road. The silence is broken only by soft, sporadic blue notes, echoing from a piano. As the camera draws closer, the figure rises, giving the audience their first glimpse of Donnie Darko. With a chuckling smirk, he picks up his bicycle and heads back home. Immediately, Kelly forces the question, “Why the hell is this kid lying in the middle of road?” This is the first question that the viewer is forced to ponder and it is definitely not the last. Kelly wastes no time establishing the film’s dark...
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...years ago, with classical narrative emerging in Hollywood around the nineteen thirties. The classical narrative period had a strong emphasis on linearity and coherence, where characters where goal centred and consistent in personality and action. In the nineteen sixties a change began to emerge in Hollywood, with Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) breaking the editing rules, and narrative coherence, with the introduction of jump cuts. This film among others greatly contributed to the outburst of non-linear narratives, a narrative technique wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order. In the twenty-first century a range of independent films with a variety of non-linear narratives have been getting mainstream release. Within this essay I will briefly explain the different types of narratives and the reasons for their popularity. The directorial intent for many non-linear narratives can be to evoke mood, maintain suspense, indicate the malleability of memory, signify dream, and above all to provide visual pleasure. The involvement that a spectator can feel from a non-linear narrative can offer both a sense of pleasure and relation. The fact that it is up to the viewer to keep up, put things together, and make sense of the narrative provides a sense of satisfaction, and can become the reason they are watching the film. Removing the chronological order of a story and rearranging its components can make a it more compelling than if the scenes progressed in chronological...
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...Audience. What is Media? The media is the means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television and film. The media disseminates meaning to a mass audience. The word media is derived from the Latin “medium”, which means “an agency; or the way something is communicated or expressed”. What is Media Studies? Media Studies is the study of how meaning is created and disseminated through the media. The media that are studied are those of mass, rather than interpersonal communication, such as mobile phones. The media texts may be newspapers or magazines, television or radio programmes, cinema films, advertisements, music videos and websites. The range of media texts will cover fiction and non-fiction, such as Donnie Darko, Bowling For Columbine, The Simpsons, and Nike adverts. Media is a construct; messages are being mediated and a point of view communicated, even where the events seem at their most ‘raw’ and direct. This course will enable you to look at and listen to media products, not simply as a consumer, but as a critic - able to question the content and purpose of the messages rather than take them at face value. You will be equipped to make reasoned, well balanced judgements about what is being communicated through the media, and make sense of the ever-expanding and complex web of communication. You will learn to appreciate...
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...M.A. Digital Culture and Technology Digital Effect Dissertation Proposal Introduction The aim of this dissertation is to question the nature of digital cinema and its relationship to analogue filmmaking. I would like to argue that “pure” digital or analogue cinema does not exist anymore. Even films which are shot and edited using digital technology, in most cases, eventually will be printed onto film in order to be projected. I am interested in the transformation of storytelling and narration caused by digital revolution. I will analyse the shift that occurred in cinema after 1997, when the video techniques became more popular. I would like to avoid simplifying or dismissive statements about the aesthetics developed by digital techniques. It is a very rare occurrence for a film to be entirely analogue or digital. Therefore, I intend to talk about the intersection of digital and analogue techniques and the effect that digital practices have upon the tradition of storytelling. In their analysis of new media, Anna Everett and John T. Caldwell describe this intersection of analogue and digital with a term “digitextuality”. This fusion of “digital” and “intertextuality” illustrates the process in which old media acquire new shape and form: M.A. Digital Culture and Technology New digital media technologies make meaning not only by building a new text through absorption and transformation of other texts, but also by embedding the entirety of other texts (analogue and digital)...
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