Movies - Jim Cunningham

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	Movies - Jim Cunningham

Jim Cunningham is a fictional character from the 2001 movie Donnie Darko
, played by Patrick Swayze.

Jim Cunningham, born in 1944, moved to Middlesex, Virginia, three years before the events of Donnie Darko in 1988. There, Cunningham established a self-help public education company, known as 'Cunning Visions Inc'. According to Cunningham, human thoughts and actions can be polarised into two categories, based upon, as Kitty Farmer describes in the film, "the two deepest human emotions", 'fear' and 'love'. 'Bad' thoughts and actions are described as part of the "negative energy spectrum" (fear), and 'good' ones in the "positive energy spectrum" (love). Cunningham then moves on to solving the subject's 'fear'. These include issues such as bedwetting, obesity, premarital sex, drugs, etc.

During the film, Jim's supposed 'therapies' for or 'solutions' to these problems are never revealed. He publishes two books, Attitudinal Beliefs and Cunning Visions of Love, which become top bestsellers. In addition, several self-help videos such as Controlling Fear are disseminated. The material is also distributed to the six hundred American schools that have adopted the 'Fear-Love' educational programs.

Donnie Darko's Jim Cunningham is a reference to 'self-help gurus' throughout the United States. His methods can be seen as pseudoscientific and focused on 'quick fix' answers to the many personal problems people face. It can be easy for viewers to point out the flaws of Cunningham's 'vision'. Indeed, Donnie Darko argues that "life isn't that simple," and that there are things other than the emotions of 'fear' and 'love' that need to be taken into account. Cunningham, his program, and his supporters (almost all conservatives), are representations of irony as well as social and individual hypocrisy, which develops as an important theme in the film.

In contrast, however, Cunningham's philosophy holds some truth in it. Reprehensive acts do indeed result in the person in question to be fearful of the consequences of those actions, while 'good' acts result in the person to feel good about themselves or others, hence 'love'.

Opposition to Cunningham's self-help empire is scant. Only Donnie Darko expresses his objections at Jim's school visit. Donnie asks Cunningham "how much he is being paid to be here," and starts to argue with him, accusing Cunningham of being a sellout. Cunningham asks him his name, to which Donnie replies "Gerald," and tells him he is a victim of fear, to which Donnie agrees. But then he adds, "But I... I think you're the fucking antichrist", much to the amusement of his fellow students, and to the dismay of the parents and teachers. Principal Cole has Donnie removed from the auditorium.

Jim Cunningham's hypocrisy is displayed on two levels during Donnie Darko. In the Tangent Universe, Frank instructs Donnie Darko to burn Cunningham's house. Donnie obeys, and the fire reveals a secret stash of child pornography, dubbed by the media as the "Kiddie Porn Dungeon". Cunningham's career is destroyed, and faces court charges (allowing Donnie to take revenge for what Jim had done to him earlier). Alternatively, in the Primary Universe, ten days after Donnie's jet engine death, Cunningham is found dead on hole fourteen by a group of golfers at the Saratosa Heights Country Club golf course, on October 12, 1988. His body has an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Strangely, the police search his Middlesex compound for a suicide note, only to find the interior of the house completely bare. His corporate successor, Linda Connie, issues a statement saying

"We are shocked and devastated by the loss of our dear friend, Jim Cunningham. He was an example of excellence in life. His vision of love will live on for ages, and we will not allow another survivor to succumb to the path of fear." (Transcript from the Middlesex Times - Dispatch, October 12, 1988, Donnie Darko Official Website)

Interestingly, the fact that Cunningham's suicide was the result of 'fear' is completely omitted. Nor is the question ever raised. This display of hypocrisy is of great importance to the theme of irony in Donnie Darko's plot. Alternatively, the 'Kiddie Porn Dungeon' provides another example of Cunningham's hypocrisy, as well as irony in general, only this time his contradictive lifestyle is brought to public attention. They are part of the film's darkly humourous satire of public education, which is represented by Cunningham and his conservative supporters Kitty Farmer and Principal Cole, the Middlesex community authority Donnie tries to fight. Also, while Cunningham's reputation dies in the Tangent Universe, he still lives. And in the Primary Universe, he dies, but his reputation lives on for many more years. So while Cunningham's destiny proves ruinous in both dimensions, the events that deliver the blow contrast completely.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Jim Cunningham (Donnie Darko) ]

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