my take on one of the best movies of the past few years

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2002)

Full of Spoilers!!!! First of all, forgive me if someone has already said this, or if I'm just completely wrong, but I thought I'd get my thoughts on the movie down before I forget them. Donnie Darko is Jesus. His purpose in the film was to punish the sinners and give everyone else a second chance. We see towards the end how Frank is rubbing his eye, and Swayze is crying as if they know their crimes even though (since we've gone back in time) they don't know they've committed them yet. Donnie is punishing these people by making them relive their lives before the truths came out. He also gives characters like Drew Barrymore and the Chinese Girl second chances. You'll recall Donnie grabbing her by the ear-muffs and telling her that someday things will be better. He himself makes things better by sacrificing himself for everyone else, like Jesus. The orbs that emerge from his body serve as his chosen destiny, as described in the film, and Donnie himself says that they don't allow him to choose, its all part of God's plan. Donnie follows God's plan even though he realizes that this plan leads him to death. Frank isn't God, but the devil. Frank, like Swayze, like the Sparkle Motion girls all serve as temptation and are everything that is wrong with the world. Donnie wants to reveal these characters as evil and the only way to do so is to die. Consider how when Donnie goes to see Evil Dead, the other movie that is playing is the Last Temptation of Christ. this is no coincidence.. and I believe that the two movies are very related if not one being a remake of the other. The director of Donnie Darko took great care to make everything reminiscent of 1988, not just with the relationship of Scorsese's movie, but also with Back to the Future, scenes reminiscent of E.T. (not to mention an actor being in both movies), the snorting of cocaine in high school, Tears for Fears soundtrack, the bush-dukakis debate, etc etc. Is it possible that seeing The Last Temptation of Christ, and consider the character types that bridge pairs of movies, that we can begin to understand what the old woman represents, why she waits for the letter that perhaps Doc from Back to the Future received that ultimately saved his life, and many other strange, perhaps coincidental, and not entirely one-sided arguments that the movie presents.