Manipulation in Memento
The reverse narrative of Christopher Nolan’s Memento manipulates the audience to make incorrect inferences about the characters. The movie starts at the end and goes on to the beginning, at first glance it’s just a gimmick, how many movies have been made like this. The reverse narrative is more than that however; there is a dead body and a man with a Polaroid camera when the movie begins. Why did this man kill the other one? Why does he take a picture? The facts aren’t present and this allows one to sympathize with Leonard Shelby. At the beginning of each scene, one is left wondering how these events came to be, like injuries or tattoos for example. The reverse narrative aspect of Memento makes it possible to see the world as Leonard does, it lets the audience know what it feels like to have anterograde amnesia, the lack of a short term memory. The audience is right there with Leonard, not knowing whether a character is a friend or a foe. Not knowing the true nature or motivation of these characters. The first character that actually appears in Memento is Leonard Shelby or, as he hates to be called, Lenny. Incidentally, Leonard is also the main character in the movie. About three or four second into the movie, the
For the first few minutes of Memento, one feels sympathy for Teddy. Why was he shot? Did he deserve to have a bullet put through his head? With such a messy, bloody death, who could help but feel sorry for the guy. Of course, minutes later, the audience sees Leonard’s notes to himself scribbled on a Polaroid photo of Teddy. Leonard tells himself not to trust Teddy and that he is the one he is searching for. From this point on, the audience believes that Teddy is no good, and they do not trust him, just as Leonard doesn’t. This is another example of Christopher Nolan manipulating the audience to jump to conclusions. The audience knows practically nothing about Teddy or what he wants, yet assumes he is Leonard’s enemy. For all the audience knows, Teddy could actually be Leonard’s friend, and some one else told Leonard otherwise. Nolan throws the audience off by using their sympathy toward Leonard and his condition. Since Leonard doesn’t trust Teddy, and the audience doesn’t know any better, they don’t trust him either. At the movie’s end, the audience finds out that their feelings of mistrust toward Teddy were well placed for the most part. Teddy wasn’t to be trusted; after all, he was a dirty cop who was exploiting Leonard’s condition to make an easy $200,000. Although he helped Leonard procure the vengeance that he had sought for who knows how long, he also used Leonard as a weapon. He took advantage of Leonard’s inability to create new memories and had him kill the drug dealer with the $200,000 under the pretense that he was John G. Although there were times when Teddy wasn’t lying, like his advice to Leonard not to trust Natalie. Teddy was guilty of greed and selfishness, but he wasn’t John G. Well, not the John G. Leonard was looking for; he didn’t really deserve to die. The character of Natalie in Memento is introduced as a Polaroid. We have no idea who she is, but Leonard seems to trust her, especially because of what he has scribbled on her Polaroid. When Leonard meets Natalie, she doesn’
Some topics in this essay:
Christopher Nolan,
Leonard Shelby,
Polaroid Leonard,
Sammy Jankis,
Nolan’s Memento,
Incidentally Leonard,
Shelby Memento,
Shelby Instead,
Leonard Natalie,
Sammy Leonard’s,
leonard shelby,
sammy jankis,
reverse narrative,
christopher nolan,
manipulates audience,
nolan manipulates audience,
memory audience,
leonard audience,
audience leonard,
anterograde amnesia,
teddy leonard,
christopher nolan manipulates,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 1389
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
CUSTOMER SERVICES
| |
|
Example Essays Home
