The meaning is clear it is not a mystery

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2014)

There is much much more. It's a greater movie than you even think. If you look at the sign above the movie theatre when Donnie leaves to burn down Jim Cunningham's place, the key moment of victory exposing the evil that has been in control of Mr and Mrs Average to make those who can be, free, you will see that it shows "The Last Temptation of Christ". This is the key with which to unlock the meaning of the movie. The tangent Universe where Donnie beats the system is analogous to the world of the Christ anomaly, the one that comes into existence with his getting down off the Cross in that film. Christ also succeeds in exposing the corruption of the authorities and their puppet ally, the Church. In both films, the intervening presence, the Devil's beautiful Angel in "Last etc." and Frank in "Donnie", know that because of our spoon-fed mentality and lack of real imagination we always betray the efforts of good people, like Donnie and Christ, in favour of the quiet life, and just let deceitful and self-interested power reassert its dominion, whatever they have done, and however comprehensively it has been exposed, and have its way anyway, hoping they will maybe leave us alone with our stuff if we let them con us yet again. Both Christ and Donnie symbolically give up their triumphs in their anomalous world, the one we should evolve into according to Kazantzakis and Kelly, to return to the poorer reality of the one in which they are killed, and they do so, perversely, as acts of self-sacrifice, to save others (Gretchen in Donnie's case), and allegedly to save humanity in Christ's case (which is actually lost in the present by his barbarous death), but the real message is that we can't have this better outcome seen in the TU given our indifference towards the courageous people, like them, who will not give up their integrity in exchange for stuff as we do but are willing to fight to expose the truth about the perverse way we are controlled, as Donnie does, though they think him mad, and as Christ does. Kelly shows us for what we are; more like docile domestic animals following fodder, than real meaningful human minds: in the unsatisfactory world we wish to settle for in exchange for the quiet life. This is the message of Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote the novel "Last Temptation...", to the world; and Richard Kelly who realised that it needed a more imaginative and dramatic re-telling. The message is also found in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", where McMurphy is a saviour, with the humanity which is all that is really necessary for us to follow to change from a miserable system of excessive and unnecessary concession towards irredeemably cruel power; but instead he is ironically betrayed by the man who owed him most, Billy, who just couldn't cope. These films are all connected and should be taught at school, as should Kazantzakis. Donnie Darko is a mind-boggling wake-up call to us all.