César C. González P.
Film Analysis – ENG 2300
Prof. Leila Estes
November 8, 2015
Paper Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
In Richard Kelly’s science fiction psychological thriller drama Donnie Darko (2001), the title character (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teenager with paranoid schizophrenia, must follow a figure in a rabbit costume named “Frank” (James Duval) in order to save the world before it is destroyed by a disturbance in the time continuum of the Primary Universe. The disturbance creates an unstable tangent universe that is only able to exist for a short amount of time before it is destroyed by a black hole; the destruction of the tangent universe would also result in the destruction of the Primary Universe. The “disturbance” appears in the
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Tangent Universe and must be returned to the Primary Universe in order to re-establish the original time construct and prevent the Tangent and Primary Universes from being destroyed.
In Donnie Darko, the “disturbance” is an airplane engine that lands on Donnie’s room; no one is able to explain how it got there. Throughout the film, Frank instructs Donnie to perform a set of actions to set some events into motion, from flooding his school to burning down a motivational speaker’s (Patrick Swayze) house, in order to return the “disturbance” back to the Primary Universe. Additionally, Frank also prepares Donnie to face inevitable death as if the airplane engine is successfully returned to the Primary Universe, it will fall on him and killing him, but saving both universes; and if the original time construct is not re-established both universes will be destroyed by a black hole. Under Frank’s …show more content…
instructions Donnie is able to return the “disturbance” back to the Primary Universe, saving both universes and resulting in his death. Annotated Bibliography McCarthy, Todd. "Donnie Darko." Variety 29 Jan. 2001: 50.General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. In an article for Variety Todd McCarthy compares Donnie Darko to “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. Just like Holden Caulfield, Donnie Darko is alienated from the rest of society and “must find a way to express himself in relation to society.” McCarthy does criticize how the complex and numerous layers of meaning causes the members of the audience to distance themselves from Donnie. On the other hand, McCarthy praises Kelly’s imagination and his complex and multifaceted plot and narrative. McCarthy also highlights how the film’s music helps the audience identify the setting of the film and helps create the ambience. Raschke, Jessica. “Where is Donnie?' Dreams and Delusions in 'Donnie Darko”. Melbourne: The Australian Teachers of Media Inc, 2006. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. Raschke explores the ambiguities of Donnie Darko, and also addresses the ideas of dreams and delusions of the film. Raschke poses questions to the audience such as whether Donnie “displays uncanny prescience” or is Donnie simply looking back at events that already happened? Or if Frank is simply a part of his ordeal as a teenager with paranoid schizophrenia? Raschke also mentions how Donnie is an unreliable character due to his schizophrenia and how the audience can never be sure of his sense of time and reality; are Donnie’s experiences part of his medication, dreams, hallucinations or him experiencing lucidity? Simmons, Gary. “Where's Donnie? It's neither here nor there: Ideas for Teaching Donnie”. Melbourne: The Australian Teachers of Media Inc, 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. Simmons establishes Donnie Darko as a mixture of different elements of different film genres. Donnie Darko can be interpreted as a coming-of-age film, but it does not follow the generational gap formula; adults are not depicted as different to teenagers, Donnie Darko does not create a “us” against “them” world; not all adults are depicted as authoritative, unfair and hypocritical. Science fiction is also a prominent part of the film according to Simmons as there are multiple references to Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time,” but at the same time, “Donnie…watches the world play out its daily life with supernatural detachment.” Additionally, Simmons mentions the multiple references in Donnie Darko from Richard Adams’ “Watership Down” to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Trainer, Adam. "They made Me do it: The Mad World of Donnie Darko." Australian Screen Education. 37 (2004): 138. Web. In Adam Trainer’s article, Donnie Darko is portrayed as a commentary to life in the 1980s.
He points out that elements such as non-diegetic music and the topics of some conversations between characters make up life in the 1980s. Trainer highlights the dinner conversation at the beginning of the film in which Donnie’s sister Elizabeth and his father Eddie discuss who they support in the upcoming presidential election. According to Trainer, the film’s social commentary extends to its use of non-diegetic music, both Echo & the Bunnymen's “The Killing Moon” (in the original theatrical release) and INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” (in the director’s cut) help establish a temporal location; the 1980s. Throughout his article Trainer presents Donnie Darko as a film about coming of age, science fiction, psychology and drama, but also as a commentary to life in the 1980s and about the dysfunctionality behind the 1980’s neo-conservative, middle-class, suburban
America. Wise, Damon. "The Donnie Effect." Empire 07 2011: 96-8. ProQuest. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. Donnie Darko’s director Richard Kelly discusses his experience directing Donnie Darko from the struggle that the film faced right after the Sundance Festival to September 11 and how it affected the film to finally discovering its popularity in a theatre. Kelly mentions how the film almost did not happen at all; fighting over the films 1980s setting, the technical choices and the struggle to get the jet engine scene right, could have all resulted in Donnie Darko being cancelled. Kelly describes the film’s initial reception as “it was like we had the Ebola virus.” Donnie Darko almost didn’t happen, but fortunately it found its place and has ever since been an influence on other films. Kelly also reveals to Wise his influences and his thought process and how he came up with the elements that made Donnie Darko the cult-film it is today.
The film starts off showing the only sincere moments that viewers will watch with cuts to beautiful fields and artistic shots of headlights coming down a road. Director Jack Riccobono is quick to come away from these scenes as he delves straight into the bitter world Rob and Kevin are divulged in. Their story is told through first person accounts of the films Rob and Kevin, showing viewers their life stories through their own words and actions. The director uses techniques commonly found in documentaries, such as having titles and narration, to fully engage viewers into the lives of the subjects.
High school sports can have a tremendous effect on not only those who participate but the members of the community in which they participate. These effects can be positive, but they can also be negative. In the book Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger shows that they are often negative in communities where high school sports “keep the town alive” due to the social pressure. In this way, Friday Night Lights gives insight into the effects of high school football being the backbone of a community, revealing that the fate of the individual football players are inadvertently determined by the actions of the townspeople.
Black Hawk Down - Summary of the book as written by Mark Bowden. It was mid-afternoon on October 3, 1993. There were approximately 160 men eagerly awaiting the signal to proceed. Matt Eversmann sat waiting in Super Six Seven, a Black Hawk helicopter.
Who decides how much someone's life is worth? Is it even morally right to put a price tag on someone's life? I believe that there should never be a price tag for how much someone's life is worth. Every life is unique and cannot simply be replaced. Every life should be treated the same no matter what the circumstance.
Friday Night Lights is a non fiction book written in the late 1980’s and very early 1990’s. The book was written by H.G. Bissinger. H.G. Bissinger is an American author and is from New York City.
All through this film moods were continuously changed through lighting and music creating a symbolic meaning behind every scene. An example
9 to 5 is a 1980 comedy film starring Jane Fonda as Judy Bernly, Lily Tomlin as Violet Newstead, Dolly Parton as Doralee Rhodes, and Dabney Coleman as the boss Franklin Hart Jr. The film focuses on a department that is being poorly run by a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss. After finally getting over their differences, the three main ladies develop a friendship, vent to each other, take down their boss and eventually help each other run the company.
Love and Violence The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz covers the issue of Love and Violence thoroughly throughout the book, and shows how anger and love influence the impulsive and reckless decisions the characters make. Searching for Zion, by Emily Raboteau on the other hand, shows that love comes in different forms and may be easily misunderstood. Abelard, Belicia, Lola, and Emily show love can be a devastating force if not handled carefully and, can be very dangerous. As others commonly have, Oscar confuses passion or lust with love, which in many ways can be critical when conveyed in violence.
One of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the same author is getting to know the author as a person. People don't identify with Gregor Samsa; they identify with Kafka. Witness the love exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. It's like that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.
The last night of their high school began with a borrowed Impala car. The audience experiences relationship woes, a sock hop, a mysterious blonde, and pranks on the cops. More importantly, as the movie goes on, daring street races, run-ins with greasers, vandalizing, and booming rock ‘n’ roll replace the happy atmosphere. The movie orchestrates many storylines and is full of fashionable nostalgia, music and vivacity of the night. The movie also crafted scenes with risky antics, using contemporary music to spectacularly enhance the tenor of the
The film Donnie Darko focuses on promoting hard thinking. The main character, Donnie Darko, is a teenage boy who suffers from delusions and sleepwalking. He avoids his own death by help from a man in a bunny suit. Who also informs Donnie that the world will end. Fear and loneliness is shown throughout the movie and is embodied as being controlled by fear, preying on the fear of others, and fear of tragedy .
"Johnny Mnemonic," is a short story written by William Gibson. It appears in a book of short stories written by Gibson called Burning Chrome in 1986. Gibson is a writer of science fiction and one of the first to write in the new genre called cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a type of fiction that examines a futuristic world dominated by computer technology, massive cartels, and cyberspace. In other words, its an artificial universe created through the linkup of tens of millions of machines (Gibson 904). This is the futuristic world of Johnny Mnemonic. Even though this story is very interesting in terms of science and technology, it is also interesting in the sense that this short story examines how technology and science can affect the worlds delicate cultures. In this examination of the short story "Johnny Mnemonic", I will define what is meant by culture and describe how technology and science has effected the unique subcultures of the Lo Teks and Yakuza. Two subcultures that are within the larger cyberpunk cultures described in "Johnny Mnemonic". As well, I will describe where the characters such as Johnny Mnemonic and Molly millions , fit in to these cultures, if they do at all. Also on this same theory, I will give examples of how our own cultures in today's world contrast with these fictional cultures in "Johnny Mnemonic", but I will also show how we are following in the same path in which those in "Johnny Mnemonic" have followed.
Twenty-eight days…six hours…forty-two minutes…twelve seconds, that is when the world will end. The movie Donnie Darko, Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in just a short time. Throughout the movie, different literary devices are experimented to give the movie a deeper meaning. This provides the audience with a hidden message that gathers the viewer’s attention while keeping them entertained. Donnie Darko is a movie that has imagery, symbolism, and foreshadowing and by merging these devices creates a film that holds their audience’s attention.
Life is an ongoing process of learning and growing through challenges and experiences. It is mentioned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet, that “unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Emerson contributes to the idea that change is inevitable and it is key to one’s personal development (Lipovetsky, 2012). Well, such is an essence in the film “The Blind Side” when the protagonist, Michael Oher, changes and grow through adversities, which eventually shaped him into the man he is today. Oher, also known as Big Mike, is a 16 year old African American teenage boy. Oher was one of the twelve children living in a broken extremely impoverished home in the ghettos of Memphis surrounded by drugs.
Capturing the Friedmans film is a interesting documentary that captured the lives of a middle class family that went through shame and embarrassment for child molestation. The family lifestyle depicts a middle class family that lived a certain way. Arnold Friedman, the father, the award winning teacher and his son, Jesse brought dysfunction into their family household. The fact that they lived in a well-known area in Jersey banned anyone from participating in certain things. Families around the area was in shock about the molestation charges cast upon Arnold. That situation was not considered to be a norm. Division arise quickly between the neighborhoods ,one side believed the Friedmans and on the other side believe they were guilty. In a sense,