It was indeed a brilliant film.

For me, one of the more enduring themes was in relation to the Patrick Swayze character - the self help guru who turns out to be a monster. It rammed home the message that it's easy to place faith in simplistic people and beliefs though empty rhetoric is just that... in the protagonist's rebellion against such teachings, we see how real life tends to be more complex.

Y'know, I read through this article pretty well unmoved: not that I mean for one minute that it was not a good article. I mean I just was thinking yeah, yeah, deconstruction, hmm. And then one little sentence brought me up: one that talks about Donnies "courage". And I realised that I have simply never seen him as a courageous character....and immediately I was completely re-running the whole movie in my head and reading things differently and yeah...realising anew what a truly successful piece Donny Darko was.

I'm consumed with a need to watch it yet again...and from yet another angle: I guess that's yet another reason to set this one apart from all the stultifyingly boring and predictable spinach that gets served up.

And yeah, come to think of it; the soundtrack itself has got to be reason enough to want to see it again.

Don't count the seconds - be aware of the moment.

I bought DD for under $5 recently and was knocked out by it, though I'm two generations older than you. Donnie had not only courage but the selflessness which is often what makes it possible.

Faustino -

Given that, living in China, the chances of my seeing this movie again any time soon are slim to nil how do you see Donnie as "courageous"? Not being argumentative but amazed that I could have interpreted a film that I related to so much and have seen more than once so differently to you and the author. And probably about a million more people.

By the way, even if you are of a different generation to the author, you were obviously around during the eighties. So what effect did the soundtrack have on you? Did you see it as integral to your interpretation?