Arts Explorer # 5 – Watch a Film and Chat about it!
Take a peek at the trailer and see for your self...
As my friends and I were going through the different movie trailers, we unanimously chose Donnie Darko. To be honest, I think it is because of the Hollywood stars that are in it – Jake Gyllenhall, Drew Barrymore, and Patrick Swayze! After watching the trailer, I knew the lovable, romantic and funny Jake Gyllenhall would be absent. As my friends and I were sitting side by side, we sat in anticipation – will this be a scary film? Will this film make my top 10 favourites?
Throughout the film I was left confused and creeped out – whether that was the director’s goal of the film or not. Since I found it difficult to follow, at points I wanted to turn off the film. This film sure changed my perception of Jake Gyllenhall. The design of the plot, characters and overall concept left me anxious and nervous.
Donnie Darko sleep walks and has visions of this intimidating 6foot bunny! ...who wouldn’t be frightened! This film has a dark, mysterious and vicious theme. For example, the Bunny, Frank, tells Donnie “in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, the world will end”. This made me and my friends think back to the film 2012, where it illustrates how the world will end. This is such an alarming concept to think the world is going to end in such a short time...did you do everything you wanted to? Were your dreams fulfilled? As the film goes on, Frank the bunny is portrayed as evil. He manipulates Donnie into committing crimes including flooding the school, stealing his father’s gun and setting Mr. Cunningham’s house on fire. The director’s ending was a relief for my friends and I since he made it apparent that in fact it was all just a dream. This made us all relate back to when we may have had a bizarre dream as Donnie did.
The word that I felt fit this film perfectly is surrealism. This film is not like any other film I have watched before or typically pick off the shelf to watch. Though, this film indeed has many art elements seen through the forms of: symbols, dreams and images. According to Schirrmacher & Fox (2009) surrealism when the “artist (in this case, the director) creates a dreamlike world that is more intense than reality” (p. 204). After watching this film, there is no doubt that Donnie Darko represents surrealism. Frank, the bunny illustrates the fantasy image since only Donnie can see this menacing creature. Furthermore, Donnie Darko is a film where the characters travel in time. This aspect of the movie definitely represents surrealism as it is something unrealistic and out of the ordinary from everyday life. Though, I’m sure sometimes we all wish we could travel in time.
As a future educator I would not promote this movie for children to watch, although, I would encourage children to watch and chat about a favourite movie with fellow classmates. I feel this would promote children’s language skills and also broaden their imaginations. Children and educators can discuss the meaning of the movie, why the director made it the way he did, the types of characters in it. This would get the children’s minds thinking, broadening their knowledge to a deeper level. A movie viewing would enhance children’s imaginations and sense of creativity because the different imagery and story lines would inspire the children to think about something they may have never thought of before.
References
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & Creative Development for Young Children (6 ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.
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