The Meaning and Purpose of Self-Sacrifice: The Latent Discourse of „Donnie Darko”
Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
Abstract
The text is an attempt at religious interpretation of the film Donnie Darko (dir. Richard Kelly, 2001) - a production debut, that is now increasingly included in the canon of so called cult movies. The author describes the intricacies of the narrative of the film, and tries to reconstruct its subcutaneous discourse and tracks the signals needed to interpret the title character as a fig- ure of Christ. In this approach Donnie Darko appears to be a character with Christ like characteristics, that travels in time in order to change the order of events, that will otherwise lead to the foretold end of the world. At the same time Nadgrodkiewicz notes that the reconstructed latent discourse does not stand in opposition to the film’s main discourse. Rather together they form a coherent, albeit a perverse structure in which layers of official communications refers to the dark side of the events and the tragic fate of the hero, and the subcutaneous layer allows the assertions about the meaning and purpose of sacrifice that teenage Donnie bears for the sake of his loved ones.
Keywords:
Richard Kelly, religious interpretation, Christ figureReferences
Dayan Daniel, Widz zaprogramowany, tłum. P. Sikora, w: Panorama współczesnej myśli filmowej, red. A. Helman, Kraków 1992, s. 185.
Google Scholar
Hibbs Thomas, Donnie and the Bunnyman, http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/005/5.25.html (dostęp: 17.05.2013).
Google Scholar
Musser Charles, Passions and the Passion Play: Theatre, Film and Religion in America, 1880-1900, „Film History” 1993, t. 5, nr 4, s. 428.
Google Scholar
Socha Jakub, Donie Darko (recenzja), „Gazeta Wyborcza” 2012, nr 137 (14 czerwca), s. 20.
Google Scholar
Ulstein Stefan, Jeanne Ulstein, Teens Dig „Donnie Darko”, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/julyweb-only/donniedarko.html?start=1 (dostęp: 17.05.2013).
Google Scholar
Wągrowski Konrad, Dark, Darker, Darko, „Cinema Polska” 2005, nr 9, s. 82-83.
Google Scholar
Authors
Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewiczkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
Filmoznawca, absolwent kulturoznawstwa ze specjalnością filmoznawczą na Uniwersytecie Łódzkim. Asystent w Zakładzie Antropologii Kultury, Filmu i Sztuki Audiowizualnej w Instytucie Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Redaktor „Kwartalnika Filmowego”. W kręgu jego zainteresowań badawczych znajduje się m.in. film religijny i biblijny, kwestie duchowości w kinie oraz zagadnienia dotyczące związków filmu i teatru. Artykuły naukowe i przekłady publikował m.in. w „Kwartalniku Filmowym”, „Kontekstach” oraz tomach zbiorowych.
Statistics
Abstract views: 72PDF downloads: 19
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, Architectonics of the Theatre – Structure of the Film – Nooks of the Mind. New York Passages of „Birdman” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 109 (2020): Architectural Space in Film
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, Onodrim of Fangorn , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 113 (2021): Film and Technology
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, The Passion Play of the Fassnacht Brothers and the Film Echoes of the “Oberammergau-Like” Spectacle: Some Remarks on Borrowing Using the Example of Dimitri Buchowetzki’s “Der Galiläer” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 87-88 (2014): Film and Theatre
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, The Returning Baroque in Luis Buñuel’s “Un Chien Andalou”: Revised and Updated Notes , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 89-90 (2015): Redefinitions of the Classics
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, Ewa Ciszewska, Jadwiga Mostowska, Three Voices on the “Ode To Joy” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. Special Issue (2013): Polish Film Scholars on Polish Cinema
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, The Actress, the Archetype, the Amnesia: On the Margins of Bergman’s “Persona” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 100 (2017): On Celebrating
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, Of Blindness, Opacity and Reincarnation: “Blindness” by Ryszard Bugajski , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 97-98 (2017): Wandering Motifs
- Jadwiga Mostowska, Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, Our Professor: Ewelina Nurczyńska-Fidelska as Recalled by Jadwiga Mostowska and Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 93-94 (2016): American Cinema
- Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz, Balthasar, Tarkovsky and the “Theatrum Mundi” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 83-84 (2013): Body in Film
