Excellent Social Commentary and Shakespearean Themes

Rating: 9/10 (15 June 2005)

YOUNG HAMLET BECOMES PROSPERO -- Rarely do you ever see a film that combines quality wit and satire, savaging the weaknesses and poverty of values in our modern society, along with drama and tragedy worthy of being called "Shakespearean." Incredibly, this is exactly the beautiful and seamless combination "Donnie Darko" achieves. In addition, it is an example of film-making (including directing, acting, writing, and production) at its very best.
I won't summarize the plot or comment on the story. Others who have posted reviews on this site have done this admirably. I want to comment that the film emphasizes major themes in Shakespearean tragedy plus an additional "magical" element.
To give a short English lesson, Shakespearean tragedy has the following basic elements:
1. The hero has to die in the end (there can be more than one hero, as in Romeo and Juliet).
2. For the most part, the hero creates his own conditions. He always dies in some way by his own doing, either by outright suicide (Brutus in Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet) or by in some way actively bringing on his own death (Macbeth and Hamlet). Individual free will is important in Shakespeare as opposed to "fate" in the Greek tragedies.
3. His death is not meaningless or negative, but rather an act of sacrifice, an action to right a wrong, an act of justice, or some major symbol of love or "rightness."
4. Through the hero's death, the family, community, nation, (pick one or more) world becomes a better place. In this sense the tragedy concludes with a positive "catharsis" (to use the literary term).
5. An overall personal, externally controlled order exists in the universe, which the tragedy reaffirms. Call it God, divine justice, force for good, or whatever. Shakespeare was probably not a traditional Christian in any sense, but he most likely did believe in some notion of God, a God very much in control of the universe.
In "Donnie Darko" the first four elements are clearly present. But the story makes it clear that Donnie and most of the other characters (recall the conversation with the physics teacher who says he can't talk about God or lose his job) are generally agnostic. I get the feeling that, as far as the filmmaker is concerned, the jury on God's existence is very much out.
Interestingly, there's also an element of the supernatural in several of Shakespeare's tragedies (and in many of his other plays). This is not present in all of them, but witness the witches in Macbeth or the ghosts in Julius Caesar and Hamlet. The time travel element in "Donnie Darko" falls very much in this same category. What Shakespeare would have called "a magical story" we call "science fiction."
In addition, however, you have to look at Shakespeare's Prospero in "The Tempest" to find that Donnie combines elements of Hamlet AND Prospero. Prospero is a magician who discovers great powers and could easily become a god or misuse these powers for selfish purposes. Instead, Prospero uses these powers one last time, to benefit the person he loves most in his life. Then, he renounces them once and for all because he realizes being an ordinary human being willing to sacrifice the ultimate is the VERY BEST a person can be in this life.
I only want to say one more thing in terms of social commentary, the central symbol of our society, in the film, is endlessly jumping on a trampoline. This is continuous motion, effort, and "busy-ness" that goes nowhere. It's also a metaphor for time travel certainly (still in space but motion in time), yet the image of jumping up and down meaninglessly all the time also echoes the "Mad World" idea where people "run in circles" going nowhere.
Donnie is able to transcend all of this and reach the sublime through sacrifice. As Joseph Campbell has said, "Sacrifice is bliss." This is the profound bliss Donnie attains by the end of the film.