Donnie Darko: Realism Vs. Anti-Realism

Realism is the depiction of something as it appears in everyday life without embellishment. Representing truth and accuracy. Anti-realism is a representation of a subject through the abstract or the fantastic. Realism is supposed to show the world as it looks. Anti-realism is the opposite of realism because it is as representational as realism. It could be an altered version of the world that does not necessarily have to conform to the experiences and expectations of real people.

The film Donnie Darko includes characteristics of both realism and anti-realism as it goes back and forth between the two. There are parts of the film that depict actual events that take place. There are realistic scenes within the home of the family, in school, and out of school. The events and characters that take place in these realistic scenes are believable because we as viewers can relate to some extent to what is going on. Whether it is the daily interaction between school kids waiting at the bus stop, or family conversation at the dinner table, we can relate through our own experiences. Although some of the dialogue within the Darko family can be somewhat abnormal, it still qualifies as more realistic than fantastical. On the contrary, there are scenes in this film that depict the use of anti-realism.

The scenes are interlaced with realism throughout the film to show the contrast of Donnie's point of view when he is not in control of his mind and when things are normal. The anti-realistic qualities of this film were apparent upon viewing the interaction between Donnie and Frank, his giant imaginary rabbit acquaintance. The film depicts his hallucinations in actual scenes that transition in and out of the real world seamlessly but noticeable. This is to show the thin line between the real world and the fake world. It gives us a closer insight to what could be going on in the mind of someone like Donnie, who does not know the difference between the two worlds.

An anti-realistic idea is a depiction of a subject in a way that does not reflect everyday life or represent the world as we see, experience, or understand it. Something that is thought of as unrealistic would be an idea or subject that could have a place in the real world, but would not seem natural or likely to happen. But if this event did happen, then it would not be seen as supernatural or fantastical just unlikely. For example, in Donnie Darko, it was anti-realistic when he sees these water like orbs coming out of himself, his dad and sisters body. It was unrealistic when Donnie's family was sitting at the dinner table and he and his sister were speaking to each other extremely inappropriately while the parents just let it happen without really interjecting the way an authority figure would. It made it more unrealistic because of the younger sister who was present at the table listening to all of this happen. Usually, parents would put an end to such inappropriate behavior and discipline the children immediately.

The formal elements of Donnie Darko within the sequences into scenes did help the understanding of the film. There were certain ways some of the scenes were placed throughout the film as well as transitioned into. When Donnie seemed to lose control and go into this state of hallucination, there would be a transition into his world by showing a close up his eye and his pupil changing sizes as well as short fantastical image shots of buildings in water. It did not really make sense as it was showing, but with use of repetition and patterns, we began to realize that this was one of the ways to show that he was going into his own mind. This made it easier to follow the film as opposed to not having any indicator at all.

Because we are used to watching a film that is either mostly anti-realistic or realistic, having both depictions intertwined consistently is a conflict with our normal mode of viewing a film. It is easier to get in the mind set of watching a film that represents reality or a completely false world. It makes the viewer have to pay closer attention to the details of the film in order to understand it. It also makes the viewer rely on formal elements of the film in order to have any consistent clue as to what is going on in a film that has both anti-realism and realism involved.

The elements that stuck out the most in this film were the interactions between Donnie and his rabbit friend Frank. Those scenes were creepy and intriguing. We know that he is hallucinating because of the existence of his medication use. In addition to the evil rabbit, the idea of time travel stuck out as well because this was the element that made reality and fantasy become closer in the film. This is an important aspect of the meaning of the film since it has to portray the thin line between the two.

The narrative of Donnie Darko can be explained as one that shows the depiction of the possible crossing of real and fake within a real setting. To get an appreciation of how close and scary the real can get to the fantastic, it is important to have a large contrast between the two. In order to show a person living in the real world having a different view of the world in his mind, it was necessary to give the character a psychological disorder to increase the believability. Because we know these disorders exist in real life, it is easier to accept them in the film. But when events tie closely together between his world and those of the real world, viewers can no longer trust their experiences of everyday life because it gets a little deeper. It is a wonderful way to represent this phenomenon on camera.