Donnie Darko Annotated Bibliography

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César C. González P.
Film Analysis – ENG 2300
Prof. Leila Estes
November 8, 2015
Paper Proposal and Annotated Bibliography In Richard Kelly’s science fiction psychological thriller drama Donnie Darko (2001), the title character (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teenager with paranoid schizophrenia, must follow a figure in a rabbit costume named “Frank” (James Duval) in order to save the world before it is destroyed by a disturbance in the time continuum of the Primary Universe. The disturbance creates an unstable tangent universe that is only able to exist for a short amount of time before it is destroyed by a black hole; the destruction of the tangent universe would also result in the destruction of the Primary Universe. The “disturbance” appears in the …show more content…

In Donnie Darko, the “disturbance” is an airplane engine that lands on Donnie’s room; no one is able to explain how it got there. Throughout the film, Frank instructs Donnie to perform a set of actions to set some events into motion, from flooding his school to burning down a motivational speaker’s (Patrick Swayze) house, in order to return the “disturbance” back to the Primary Universe. Additionally, Frank also prepares Donnie to face inevitable death as if the airplane engine is successfully returned to the Primary Universe, it will fall on him and killing him, but saving both universes; and if the original time construct is not re-established both universes will be destroyed by a black hole. Under Frank’s …show more content…

He points out that elements such as non-diegetic music and the topics of some conversations between characters make up life in the 1980s. Trainer highlights the dinner conversation at the beginning of the film in which Donnie’s sister Elizabeth and his father Eddie discuss who they support in the upcoming presidential election. According to Trainer, the film’s social commentary extends to its use of non-diegetic music, both Echo & the Bunnymen's “The Killing Moon” (in the original theatrical release) and INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” (in the director’s cut) help establish a temporal location; the 1980s. Throughout his article Trainer presents Donnie Darko as a film about coming of age, science fiction, psychology and drama, but also as a commentary to life in the 1980s and about the dysfunctionality behind the 1980’s neo-conservative, middle-class, suburban

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