Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

[josh]

The conversation between Frank and Donnie during the Evil Dead movie reveals that Frank is something other than he appears and suggests that Donnie is something other than he appears.

This is consistent with his "intimidating" Iowa scores, possibly measuring inteligence.

It is also consistent with his Donnie's response to Gretchen's statement suggesting his name sounds like a super hero. His response was "what makes you think I'm not?"

This coupled with his ability to chose to end the tangential universe makes me wonder whether he is an exceptionally intelligent person or something else.

That Roberta Sparrow discovered and wrote about the ideas and possibilities that Donnie was just discovering reduces Donnie to exceptionally intelligent rather than super human.

Any ideas?

[rightfielder21]

There is not doubt, that Donnie has "super powers"... The PoTT says "The Living Receiver is often blessed with a Fourth Dimensional Powers. These include increased strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water. "

This is how he is able to easily get into the school (amoung other places), when it was locked, put the axe through the solid bronze statue, pull the engine off of the airplane, ect....

BTW, that "What makes you think I'm not? " exchange is one of my favorites in the movie...

[Elwood]

What a great quote! Josh, I agree with your reading that this is Frank saying that although Donnie looks like a man, he's obviously something else inside.

I think there are so many different ways to see this:

In terms of advancing the storyline, Donnie doesn't completely understand his role at this point in the movie - by saying this, Frank pushes Donnie to realize that he's more than just an average man (ie, he's the LR with special powers and responsibilities, as rightfielder says above).

He's also a superhero character. Superheros save the world on a regular basis - something Donnie's about to do. The superhero conversation with Gretchen overtly hints at this, Kelly mentions it in the commentary. Just like Clark Kent took off his "man-suit" to become superman, Donnie's man-suit disguises his superhero nature.

In terms of a teenage angst/coming of age theme, Franks asks why Donnie is wearing a stupid MAN suit. Frank is reflecting Donnie's fear of not being able to grow up into the man he wants to be, and instead turning out to be like the stupid men around him (the principal, Cunningham, etc.) Is he conforming too much?

Then there's the interpretation of Donnie as a Christ figure. Why are you wearing a MAN suit when your nature is really divine (dying as you save the world is certainly a sign of Christian divinity). Saving the world is not something "man" can do, only God. Studio Ghibli brought this up here:

darkomovie.proboards24.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=disc&&thread=1092853903&&start=3#0

Oh...and I also wanted to add, at the end of the movie during the party, as we get closer to the conclusion and Donnie's true nature becomes more apparent/relevant/important, he's chosen to wear a skeleton costume. To me this shows that his man-suit has become transparent, so we can see right through it to his true self within.

[crackur]

^ good point on the skeleton suit.......but I think we are looking too much into this but thats the fun of it

[gretchen]

there is nothing in DD that we can look too deeply in.

everything in this film is there for a distinct reason.

[ProvidencePortal]

And with different emphasis, we have the suggestion that Donnie is purposefully (if subconciously) ignoring what he sees to be true. Frank's "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit," becomes, when more properly punctuated for emphasis, "that stupid-man suit," or, "the skin of a dimwitted person."

Consider --

Donnie: "Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?"
Frank: "Why are you [purposefully affecting the characteristics and behaviors of a stupid person, instead of acknowledging what you see around you and transforming yourself into an enlightened man, one who recognizes his position, powers and responsibility?]"

Echoing this interpretation of the "stupid [XX] suit" format in Donnie's inquiry of Frank makes for some interesting nuances. "Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?" might mean something like, "How dare you flout my reality, live after death, appear and disappear at will -- do all these supernatural things symbolized by your bizarre appearance? How dare you shake the foundation of my reality and make me consider I'm something other than I am? Can't you see I'm trying my hardest to play dumb? And yet you make it so difficult ..."

edit: added missing 's'

[Elwood]

Yes, I like that interpretation, too, Prov. And it's complemented by the movie quote that Josh mentioned in the first post - Donnie's Iowa scores being "intimidating". Donnie is smarter than the average kid, so Frank wants him to shrug off the "stupid suit" and realize what's happening.

What do you think of viewing Frank's calls to Donnie to "Wake up" in that context? I've been thinking that "Wake up" should mean something more than what it first appears to mean, since after Frank says it Donnie does not, in fact, wake up. He stays asleep, but sleepwalks.

Maybe "Wake up" could be seen as Frank delivering a variation of the stupid-man suit message: "Don't be stupid, wake up, realize what's happening around/to you".

[Going back to the skeleton suit for a minute, it occurs to me that there is an even more obvious symbol that I missed in my haste to relate it to the shedding of a "just-a-man suit" - it's certainly meant to also foreshadow Donnie's death.]

[ProvidencePortal]

Elwood said:

it's certainly meant to also foreshadow Donnie's death.

I agree: shuffling of the mortal coil and all that. I also find it almost certain (and kudos to you for pointing it out, Elwood) that Frank's "wake up" is a call to actualization and self-realization -- a demand that Donnie come to from a figurative sleep, a lack of understanding, far more than a call for him to awake from literal sleep.

Excellent, excellent.

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

For some reason i cant register so i gotta be a guest.

the scene with Donnie and Frank in the cinema is my favourite part of the film. But seems to me that some of you are reading too much into it. I just appreciate the way that Richard Kelly synchronises the clips of Evil Dead (another of my favourite films) with those of the interaction between Donnie and Frank (especially the bit with the portal and when they talk about Gretchen) That, coupled with 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is what makes this scene the dog's bollocks! (American translation: it rocks!)

[ProvidencePortal]

gretchen said:

there is nothing in DD that we can look too deeply in.

everything in this film is there for a distinct reason.

Welcome, Guest. Note Gretchen's response to an earlier post above; her perspective is pretty much shared across the board here. That is, for us everything -- even a couple lines of dialogue -- is worth engaging critically and deeply. It's the fun of exploring a movie like Darko!

[h4m]

in POTT it says they have the power to conjure fire and water.. how does donnie get school canceled and what does he do to jim's house? floods the school and burns it down.. although technicly its not "conjuring" in the traditional sense the link is there..


[glow=red,2,300]Booyaka[/glow]

[Liansky]

Ya know, i don't really think it has any profound meaning, the man suit thing i mean. I'm sure that the writer had intended for it to sound profound, and i'm sure he tried really hard to make it sound profound, but at the end of the day, comaparing, 'why are you wearing that stupid man suit', kinda detracts from the actual profound nature of, 'who says that i'm not?'

Now what you said may have relevance, but it's not as profound as you make it out to be. It is what it is. It's Britney Spears creeping into a Janis Joplin song. That's about it.

[Bigboy]

I never read much in to it either. I saw it as a sarcastic response if anything - he may as well have said "Why do you think?" or "Why is the sky blue?".
The answer to
Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?
and
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
are both 'Because I have no choice.'

Thats how I saw it anyway, though I do like Prov's idea of shifting the emphasis of the sentence.

Elwood - I'm afraid I can't see the Christ analogy as you describe it - The Bible says that Jesus died in order to save mankind, but Donnie dies after he has done so - there is nothing to suggest that his survival would suddenly 'undo' it all.
Besides Jesus came back (Or so the New Testament would have us believe.)

[dunk12001]

hey
all of these perspectives on "why are you wearing that stupid man suit?" are all fascinating. They (almost) all provide new and insightful means of looking at what i believe to be one of the most thought provoking movies of all time... but the way i see it, they're also all wrong!! (no offence intended to any of the authors). In one respect, my opinion can be seen as uneducated in that i haven't read POTT. In the respect that i am a mental health professional however, i believe i am well placed to hypothosize about the film content. The way i have always seen the film is that it is an annecdotal account of one persons battle with paranoid schizophrenia. We know DD has paranoid schizophrenia because dr. therman tells DD's mum "all of these symptoms are charachteristic of paranoid schizophrenia". when mum hears this she doesn't bat an eyelid so she obviously already knew he was schizophrenic. i believe that the stupid man suit is a front that DD is putting up to the world in an attempt to cope with his detatchment with reality. It could be said that DD is afraid of the scrutiny he will recieve if he were to take off his suit, in which case he is using it as a defence mechanism. Alternatively, it could be said that he is suffering from delusions of grandeur (a common symptom in schizophrenia, as well as a number of other mental health conditions) and he is afraid of what he may do to the outside world if he takes off the man suit. Although i haven't read POTT, this second theory appears to support the notion that DD is the LR. If the rest of my theory is correct though, this would indicate that POTT is indeed a work of fiction. Of course i am quite willing for my theory to be proved completely wrong and torn to pieces as i am fairly new to DD (already seen it 6 times and bought the DVD tho!!). Check out some of the other topics to see more on my theory of DD and paranoid schizophrenia.
Cheers

[Liansky]

Ya know, in my opnion, i don't think it's so much about schizophrenia as it is about using schtizo as a means of trying to amplify the social commentary. In that case, it's more of a battle with the a system that has lost it's moral direction(i don't quite know how to put it). using the TU analogy, the TU is in fact the reality that engulfs us at prsent whereas the PU is that which is in fact an unreality where the world will be a better place.

I'm no shrink nor have i studied that much, but from what i've seen, the dillusion is too well structured and to well defined. There is nothing to suggest an incoherent manifestation nor do we find a situation where Donnie is unaware of that which exist in the physical world and that which does not. The only time when he really lives himself into the whole dillsusional aspect is when he is under hypnosis, and that's kinda like a sane man becoming dillusional after smoking weed.