Ethan Mowery's Online Portfolio

Donnie Dark: Can Love Conquer Fear?

Can love conquer fear? This is the question posed to us in Donnie Darko, a dark film that takes place in 1988 in the small suburban town of Middlesex, Virginia. Donnie Darko, the main character whose last name reflects the ominous tone for the film is like most teenagers, lost, confused, afraid and struggling to find himself. Donnie may be like most teenagers, but he isn’t normal. Donnie sleepwalks, sees imaginary things, and as we learn, is a schizophrenic. The movie is presented to us from Donnie’s perspective; we have to deal with the reality he presents to us. However complicated Donnie’s reality seems, the movie’s ethos is that love is more powerful then fear. It is not love in the romantic sense but a love of life.

Donnie is introduced to us while sleepwalking, directed out of his house by a man named Frank dressed in a dark grey bunny suit. It is an all too eerie scene with characters lit from behind, sharp outlines emphasizing the dark beings surrounding the actors. The audience at this point isn’t aware of whom this scary looking bunny is, but the scene has the effect of a nightmare.

The camera pans up as Donnie awakens the next morning on the local golf course. Two figures, a doctor and Jim Cunningham, a local celebrity and self-help expert, stare down at him. As Donnie peers up at the two men the sun frames Cunningham’s head in such a way that it creates a halo atop his head. A stark contrast to the dark images presented just moments earlier in the film. Perhaps it is misdirection, but the cinematic elements that make up this moment are designed to manipulate the viewer into seeing Cunningham as a loving, saintly figure and Frank as something or someone we should fear.

This clever use of lighting and camera positioning carry on throughout the movie, assisting to create mood and enhance meaning for key scenes. For example all of the scenes in which Frank appears are dimly lit despite the fact that the bunny does not always appear at night. The choice of lighting during these surreal meetings with Frank is really designed to play on the notion of being afraid of what’s in the dark, perhaps even death. Since Frank is an imaginary friend of Donnie’s it easy to interpret these visions as nightmares, even though Donnie seems to welcome the visits.

Other elements within the mise-en-scene clue us into the fear that exists in the Middlesex community. Fear is present in religion. The children attend a Catholic school that requires them to wear uniforms, which are used because of the schools fear of children misbehaving if free to wear whatever they wanted. School uniforms can also be used to protect students from the fear of ridicule from others because of the clothes they wear. Not only did the choice of using these uniforms as costume make the film more authentic, more importantly, it helped reinforce the element of fear omnipresent in the movie.

It is in the school that we see the movie’s ethos spelled out so clearly, in the scene in which the students participate in a class exercise that asks them to lump social situations into the categories of either love or fear. Donnie protests participating in the assignment explaining that you can’t simply lump everything into the categories of either fear or love. This not only reveals a bit about Donnie’s character, but also forces the viewer to struggle with his or her own feelings concerning fear and love.

Fear runs rampant throughout Middlesex. The P.T.A. worries about what books the children read. Donnie’s parents fear for his well being out of love. And Jim Cunningham is afraid of being exposed as a fake. Donnie tells Cunningham he is afraid, very afraid, but he doesn’t want to tell him of what -- namely, that he perceives Cunningham to be the antichrist. Yet Donnie didn’t seem to be afraid of Frank or of questioning his teacher’s authority. Instead, his fear is exposed in various hypnotherapy sessions, a chance to unveil some his innermost feelings. At first these feelings focus on his sexual desires before his real mental crux, the implicit sense that he will have to face his fear of dieing alone.

The elements of fear in the movie are heightened in by the film’s portrayal of love acting in opposition to it. Drew Barrymore’s behavior in the film is one example. Not only is Barrymore’s character an empathetic teacher that seems to teach purely out of love for children, but she makes the connection between Donnie and his girlfriend, Gretchen, when she asks Gretchen to pick her seat in class by sitting next to the boy she found most attractive. We can see Barrymore as a conduit of love. Although she is not a central character in the film, her role helps Donnie find love in a world of fear.

At the beginning of the movie Frank gives Donnie a very specific time, a deadline, for when the world will end. The repetition of the countdown toward this date throughout the film builds suspense regarding impending world doom. It is only at the end of the movie that the Director puts the story into perspective and lets the audience understand what Frank had been talking about all along. Surprisingly, one can infer that the film took place in a tangent universe in which Donnie cheats death, and as a result time has shifted from God’s intended path.

The device of time travel appears throughout the movie and plays a big role at the end when Donnie essentially sacrifices his own life to preserve the lives of the ones he loves by traveling back in time. The use of time travel serves to make a complicated plot more complicated, as science fiction is further mixed with reality. One might argue that this is a real failure of the movie. However, if you can accept certain loopholes in time travel theory, this shift in time isn’t bothersome. In many respects, each of us would love to have the perspective that time travel affords Darko, giving us the ability to look both forward and backward to make the best choices for ourselves.

In Darko’s case he ultimately uses this perspective to end his adolescent quest for his identity and become master of his own universe. After listening to both the real and imagined voices of the movie’s characters that swing between fear and love, he finally comes in touch with his own feelings. In a sadly ironic twist, he chooses death to affirm his belief in life – and the love he feels for those around him.

Personals

Recent college graduate seeks motivated employer that desires Web technical proficiency or writing skills -- preferably both -- for a long term relationship.     The right company values leadership,  initiative and team work in all its employees from the top to the bottom of the business, which is where I'm willing to begin.    A passion for excellence and a sense of humor are definite pluses.   Give me the opportunity to put my foot on your ladder and let's climb together to the top.

1. 2. 3.  CONTACT

If you like my work and see promise in how my skills will benefit you and your company,  we should talk and make something happen.

- Contact Me