Donnie Darko through a Christian Lense

Rating: 10/10 (29 November 2011)

The movie Donnie Darko can be looked at through a Christian Perspective. The first Christian undertone I see is the philosophical argument of human's free will. If God exists, he must have a plan for the universe, a path for everyone to follow. If we are following a path that God knows from start to finish, then we should be able to jump to any point on that path because it already and always exists. Donnie is able to see his path and the paths of other people. In the movie, Donnie can see a watery substance that protrudes from a person's chest and he can see where it is going. It really makes people think about free will in a different way. What if we could see our own "watery substance?" Could we change our direction or would the substance somehow keep us from doing that? Another big issue is the separation of Church and state. This theme is very prominent in Donnie Darko. The best example is a scene between Donnie and his Science teacher. Donnie and his teacher have many conversations about the different theories of time travel. One particular conversation they have certainly depicts the restraints of separation of church and state.Dr. Monnitoff is not able to continue because to answer Donnie's question would be admitting there is a God, and that is just not school appropriate. Donnie is left having to figure out the problem himself, even though the person the government put in place to educate him could probably be very helpful.
Finally, the most obvious parallel to Christianity is Donnie saving the world by dying. Donnie does dodge the death bullet in the beginning when his imaginary bunny friend lures him to a golf course so he doesn't get crushed when the plane engine crashes into his house. However, it was not the way Donnie's life was supposed to go, so in turn his life goes crazy until he realizes he was supposed to die in the crash. So in the end, Donnie finds a way to go back in time and he sits in bed laughing as the plane engine crashes on him. Some people say that he is laughing because he finally figured out that there is something to live for, but death was not the end.