Fear and Love
Donnie: Well, life isn't that simple. I mean, who cares if Ling Ling returns the wallet and keeps the money? It has nothing to do with either fear or love.
Kitty Farmer: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you're not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here, like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can't just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else.
Kitty Farmer: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you're not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here, like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can't just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else.
Fear is an emotion we all grow up with. It's instinctual, keeps us alive when we're young. We fear relatively simple things: monsters, darkness, heights, and the like. Part of growing up is experiencing real fears, things in the back of our mind that we have to conquer to function as a member of society. Things like war, losing loved ones, terrorism, debt, disease, and ultimately our own mortality. If we do not come to terms with these fears, we will not be able function as a member of society or leave the house. It is one of the most powerful emotions in life.
Fear is discussed directly in one of his classes, where Donnie argues with his teacher, however, it is persistent in the film. Donnie
struggles with the fear of losing his life and that of those he loves. Following the premise of the movie, if he did not conquer his own fear of his own death, he would risk sacrificing the lives of everyone he loves. But sacrificing ones self for those he or she loves is still not an easy thing to come to terms with. On his journey to do this he has many conversations with his therapist on the matter. It is also spurred on by the presence of Jim Cunningham's motivational speech and videos promoted by Donnie's teacher Ms. Farmer, which root fear and love as the "deepest of human emotions." The film is at times scary, but this is important for one to sympathize with Donnie; "a film that really can be scary and believes in its own scariness, scariness with a point - not like the preprogrammed generic film-school pseudo-shockers we've been offered recently. The scariness is rooted in compassion: you are just afraid for Donnie." (Bradshaw)
Fear is discussed directly in one of his classes, where Donnie argues with his teacher, however, it is persistent in the film. Donnie
struggles with the fear of losing his life and that of those he loves. Following the premise of the movie, if he did not conquer his own fear of his own death, he would risk sacrificing the lives of everyone he loves. But sacrificing ones self for those he or she loves is still not an easy thing to come to terms with. On his journey to do this he has many conversations with his therapist on the matter. It is also spurred on by the presence of Jim Cunningham's motivational speech and videos promoted by Donnie's teacher Ms. Farmer, which root fear and love as the "deepest of human emotions." The film is at times scary, but this is important for one to sympathize with Donnie; "a film that really can be scary and believes in its own scariness, scariness with a point - not like the preprogrammed generic film-school pseudo-shockers we've been offered recently. The scariness is rooted in compassion: you are just afraid for Donnie." (Bradshaw)
Love is an emotion most are fortunate to be raised with, the love of our family and friends. A big part of growing up is experiencing the sensation of being "in love." To have profound and affectionate feelings for another, and for them to have them for you as well. Love is one of the hardest emotions to describe, simply because it is the one that not all have felt. Others like fear, joy, envy, sad, etc. are ones that we will feel even in their earliest youth, but Love is something we as a people do not experience until later in life. Falling in love is one of the quintessential experiences of coming of age. It is one of, if not the most powerful emotion in life.
Love is another theme throughout the film. Like fear, it is the subject of the Cunningham speech and videos that Donnie and his classmates have to endure. In addition to this, however, Donnie falls in love with the new girl at school. Bonding over their troubled pasts and feelings of being an outcast, they quickly become friends and start a relationship. While it's never stated that it's Donnie's first relationship, his awkwardness implies it. As the film progresses so does their relationship, and Donnie feels love for the first, and the last time. On his last night, she comes to him distraught over the disappearance of her mother and he consoles her and he consoles her. This culminates in their making love, an act which in this form is one of the strongest expressions of love that two people that age can share.
Love is another theme throughout the film. Like fear, it is the subject of the Cunningham speech and videos that Donnie and his classmates have to endure. In addition to this, however, Donnie falls in love with the new girl at school. Bonding over their troubled pasts and feelings of being an outcast, they quickly become friends and start a relationship. While it's never stated that it's Donnie's first relationship, his awkwardness implies it. As the film progresses so does their relationship, and Donnie feels love for the first, and the last time. On his last night, she comes to him distraught over the disappearance of her mother and he consoles her and he consoles her. This culminates in their making love, an act which in this form is one of the strongest expressions of love that two people that age can share.