Twenty-eight days…six hours…forty-two minutes…twelve seconds, that is when the world will end. The movie Donnie Darko, Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in just a short time. Throughout the movie, different literary devices are experimented to give the movie a deeper meaning. This provides the audience with a hidden message that gathers the viewer’s attention while keeping them entertained. Donnie Darko is a movie that has imagery, symbolism, and foreshadowing and by merging these devices creates a film that holds their audience’s attention.
Frank is one of the main characters in the story who surfaces in the movie as a man wearing a rabbit’s costume. He only appears to Donnie when Donnie takes the prescribed hallucinogenic medicine and goes to sleep and he begins to sleep walk. Rabbits are generally associated with the Easter Season when Jesus died on the cross and rose again in his rebirth. A rabbit’s foot is also a symbol that people refer to as a good luck charm and is evident in the first fifteen minutes of the story. The rabbit can also be a symbol of Donnie’s journey as he travels towards his destiny, and his reincarnation in what he discovers about himself and the world in which he lives.
Early in the movie, Donnie meets up with a new student named Gretchen, to tell her that school was cancelled due to the water main pipe being destroyed and the school being flooded.
One of the first conversations that Gretchen had with Donnie was that she thought that his name, Donnie Darko, sounded like a super hero. Donnie relies, “What makes you think I am not?” Because of the events in the first fifteen minutes, Donnie is now the living receiver, which means he has been given four supernatural ...
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... the sum of the numbers that Frank gave Donnie when the world will end, add up to eight-eight and Donnie mentions that his dog, Callie, died when he was eight. In the Bible, it reads that Noah was the eighth person to step into the new world after the great flood. The number eight symbolizes a new life and a resurrection of the world.
Donnie Darko, a science fiction film, has received universal acclaim, for its rendition in depicting a troubled teen on a path for survival. Without giving away the ending, the movie’s plot and characters may have future audience’s glued to the screen. Throughout the movie there are Easter Eggs, which are hidden secrets, to immerse the audience into the whole experience. In the words of Donnie himself, “I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief because there will be so much to look forward to.”
We can see this when Donnie is explaining to his therapist about being alone. Donnie begins the scene reminiscing on how Reberta sparrow, the grandma of death, whispers in his ear, "Every living creature on this Earth dies alone." Donnie has this feeling of loneliness because he does not have any proof. Then he is asked if he believes in a higher power or God he was undecided. When Donnie avoided his death the first time he was given a chance to change the future to see what would happen but this would only cause everyone else to die still leaving he alone. He is not alone when he dies because he has proof there is a God. He allowed Donnie back into a different universe so he could understand why life is truly worth living and how our time on Earth is to grow and influence the lives of others. He was given the opportunity to love which showed him the value of the
Well where should we begin? I know picture this… Your heart is racing as you walk into the movie cinema a blood lust speaks to you as you get in touch with your dark side. You walk into a pitch black room you hear noises all around. Your heart starts to race as a faint light shines into this room as the screen begins to light up. Fear fills your body. It grips you. Holds you. Is this the end? Sadly no this is just the beginning of a film that drains the life from you every second that you watch. I have seen this film once and only once and I will never get that time back as time is a river the current takes us down stream and there is no way to revert the flow...
Perhaps an even stronger testament to the deepness of cinema is Darren Aronofsky’s stark, somber Requiem for a Dream. Centering on the drug-induced debasement of four individuals searching for the abstract concept known as happiness, Requiem for a Dream brims with verisimilitude and intensity. The picture’s harrowing depiction of the characters’ precipitous fall into the abyss has, in turn, fascinated and appalled, yet its frank, uncompromising approach leaves an indelible imprint in the minds of young and old alike.
Meanwhile, plagued by visual appearances of an odd-looking demonic human with an insect mask that seems to be warning of death and doom, Donnie struggled to accept the fate given to him by refusing to die. Yet in the end, Donnie’s is forced – by circumstances – to decipher the true meaning of life. The death of his girlfriend Karen evoked his love for other people. Love became the major connection and proof of the existence among human beings. As Donnie gradually learned and accepted the meaning of love, he began to realize the existence of other people around him. Eventually, he chose to sacrifice himself to bring peace and existence to the people at the primary world. The term “sacrifice” is viewed in a high level of significance. Donnie did a remarkable job of putting aside his desires and ambitions for better people around him. Love always has a great impact on other people. In other words, the relationship of humans are based on love, as evident in the spiritual and emotional aspects of society. It is inevitable for an individual to become emotionally-attached to another person in someway or another. There will be some people who might deny or reject the idea of them having love and feeling, it may be for a friend, a special person, or even to a mother, but unconsciously, they are already in the act of being
Juror #1 originally thought that the boy was guilty. He was convinced that the evidence was concrete enough to convict the boy. He continued to think this until the jury voted the first time and saw that one of the jurors thought that the boy was innocent. Then throughout the movie, all of the jurors were slowly convinced that the boy was no guilty.
During the late 80’s, Phil Alden Robinson developed a sensational story that revolved around a real life account of a sport tragedy. The viewers were immersed in a touching account of how sport, a social interest, can play a powerful role in human bonding; thus becoming a very spiritual component of life. It in itself has a profound effect on the societies’ spiritual experiences; and just like religion can respectfully be considered a form of spirituality for a modern society, as exemplified in Robinson’s movie ‘Field of Dreams’. This story resonates far beyond the power of dreams, its appeal lies in a vision of a perfect sport and the love for which can inadvertently resolve issues no matter how grand. The plot at first presents itself as a complex; or maybe even a strange series of events, but somehow its scenes string themselves into a moral about redemption and deep interpersonal bonds.
A very important philosophical character in the movie is Donnie's love interest, Gretchen. Gretchen shares a quality with Frank. This is during the scene where Donnie and Gretchen are in the movies and she is asleep.
The Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, constructs an underground world of men fighting with one and other to find the meaning to their lives. Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are the main characters who start the fight club. They make a set of rules in which everyone must follow.
An individual is shaped and molded by how they are treated by those that surround them. Most people value the opinions of those they care about and want to act in accord. Consequently, the choices people make are greatly influenced by the people in their lives. Sometimes, someone will become close with people who are different from each other. Such is the case in Good Will Hunting. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) struggles between the people that created him and the people that discovered him.
“Apocalypse Now” is a legendary war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film’s main theme is devastation, violence, and horror. In this film Coppola thoroughly scrutinized the main characters ideas, behavior, and emotions to depict the darkness and the horror of war. His goal was to make the audience part of the horror. He wanted the audience to have a tremendous impact on this film and he succeeded with the perfect use of sound and editing in the ending sequence of his film. I will demonstrate how Coppola exploits a wide array of sound and editing to create suspense, intensity, and anxiety in the sequence to affect the audience’s emotions, using diegetic ambient sound effects, non-diegetic music, voice over and four editing types.
The main themes of the story are loneliness, materialism, and freedom from society. Tyler was created because of the lack of connection the narrator had with the people around him. The narrator was lonely and attended so many support groups because of it. He was not rejected at the support groups because the members thought he was sick just like they were. Materialism is a reoccurring theme as the narrator mentions how he has worked his entire life for the Ikea items in his apartment. He tried to fill the void in his life by buying worthless, meaningless stuff. People spend too much time working for things they do not need. The narrator comes to the conclusion that, “You are not your job or your possessions.” Only once a person realizes that can he or she finally let go and start living. “It’s only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler says, “that you’re free to do anything.” In order to be free, we must not care about the stuff we own. Our whole lives are spent working to pay for stuff. If we did not have stuff to pay for, we would not have to work as hard and our time could be spent doing something more meaningful.
The 1986 film “Sixteen Candles” tells a timeless tale of growing up in suburban America. The film’s star, Sam, played by Molly Ringwald, wakes up with big expectations on her sweet sixteenth birthday only to be completely disappointed. Not only does she find that she looks exactly the same as when she was fifteen, but her family is so preoccupied with her older sister’s wedding that they forget her birthday altogether.
The Shining is about a white middle class dysfunctional family that suffers from natural and supernatural stresses in an isolated Rocky mountain hotel. .The father, a former teacher turned writer, is portrayed as a habitual drinker, wife- and child-abuser, with a kind of evil streak The mother is shown as a battered woman. The film suggests that due to the abuse at the hands of his father and the passivity of his mother, the child of this family developed psychological problems. He had imaginary friends and began to see frightening images.
In the beginning of Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, Teddy Daniels is intelligent, full of grit, clever and determined. Teddy believes he is a United States Marshal sent to Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane on Shutter Island with his partner Chuck, to investigate the case of an escaped patient, Rachel Solando. Rachel is said to be a very dangerous patient who murdered her three children. She somehow escapes her cell in the mental ward and is somewhere on the island. As soon as Teddy and Chuck hop off the ferry and onto the desolate island, they are greeted with aloofness and suspicion. None of the employees give them any real evidence of the missing patient and their answers seem to be scripted. The guards, wardens and doctors always keep an eye out for them. When they meet with the head psychologist, Dr. Cawley, he seems congenial and speaks allusively, holding back most of the information he knows about Rachel Solando. Despite the monster hurricane bearing down on the island, Teddy remains determined and strong. Refusing to give up, Teddy marches into the atrocious storm, persistent to locate Rachel. When Teddy and Chuck head out to look around the island, the intensity of the hurricane is described, “Ashcliffe shrouded to their left somewhere in the smash of wind and rain. It grew measurably worse in the next half hour, and they pressed their shoulders together in order to hear each other talk and listed like drunks” (139). The storm is heavily pounding the island yet, Teddy continues to fight through it no matter what happens. Another example of his grit is displayed when he climbs up an enormous cliff to reach a cave. In order to reach the cave he believes either Chuck is camping out in, Teddy ascends on an extre...
Inception remains one of the most complex and deeply engaging narratives of this century. By defying traditional filmmaking, Nolan crafts a stunning cinema masterpiece that plays with the human subconscious. Equally, he provides audiences with the question of whether their reality is true, or perhaps the world they know is a dream. Paralleling the film’s ambiguous ending, the line between reality and the dream world is blurred due to the exceptional strategies Nolan and his team utilize. Mise-en-scéne elements of setting, brilliant cinematography, and profound editing techniques institute the film’s prevailing narrative form and motifs. Many film directors manipulate the concept of fantasy versus reality, but instead of providing a mundane exposition, fantasy becomes the new reality in Inception.