Christopher Nolan is my favorite director. I have not seen a movie of his that I don't like. I think the thing that makes him so appealing to me is how he takes the visuals and spectacle of a blockbuster movie and fuses it with a more "indie sensitive" story. His films are huge scale and small scale at the same time and I absolutely love it! One of my all time favorites of his is Memento. This film is magnificent. Nolan crafts a Neo-Noir and turns it on it's head by presenting the narrative half in reverse chronological order and the other half in plain chronological order, and does so simultaneously. Like what?!?! You mad man! But it works wonderfully! This film also has a message that really gets you thinking and that's what I want to present today. Now in order to do so we need to go through the plot of this complex film, so if you've seen the film then skip ahead to my 'What Can We Learn' section or, if you haven't, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!! But if you have a problem with R-Rated films with strong language then you can just read my plot synopsis below, but really watch this film.
Plot Synopsis So the film follows a man by the name of Leonard as he seeks revenge on the man who raped and murdered his wife. A good old revenge story. The only problem is Leonard doesn't know who it is, and oh yeah he also has short-term memory loss. So to jog his memory and to keep him on the right path, he tattoos his own body with the information he needs to remember. He also takes Polaroid pictures of places, people, and items that he needs to remember with small notes written on them. He remembers how to do everyday tasks and his past memory is in tact, but after a few minutes he's completely clueless as to what has happen, so he needs to put his trust into the pictures he's taken and the things he has written. Right at the beginning of the film we see Leonard kill the man he thinks murdered his wife. Film over! Oh wait it just started. As I mentioned before the film runs in reverse order so we continually see the moments leading up to this murder. We learn that the man that Leonard killed was named Teddy and throughout the whole film he's telling Leonard to leave town because it's not safe. We also meet Natalie, who is seen giving Leonard information on a licence plate that will lead him to knowing that Teddy is the guy he's after. As the film continues you find out that things are not as they seem. While yes, Natalie is helping Leonard to a degree, we learn that she is also using him to get rid of someone who is after her. Too bad Leonard doesn't remember that. Simultaneously, we are seeing a conversation that Leonard is having over the phone with someone explaining the story of Sammy, someone who also had short-term memory loss. Sammy's wife wasn't sure how to handle it so, hoping to jog Sammy's memory back, she continually tells him to give her insulin shots, which ends up killing her. We learn Leonard is talking to Teddy on the phone and we see the two timelines merge. Leonard goes with Teddy to kill a different man who could've killed his wife. After this incident Teddy tells Leonard that they had already found the guy who did it a year ago and gives him a photo to try and remind him. Leonard doesn't remember though. They continue to talk and Teddy says that Leonard is actually Sammy and that he killed his wife after he had lost his short-term memory and she was raped. Could this be true? Leonard doesn't believe it, so he go's into his truck and writes down not to trust Teddy and leaves off to find out who he thinks actually killed his wife. And this leads to him killing Teddy. What Can We Learn? Through this whole wild goose chase of forgetfulness and revenge, there is one thing that Leonard puts his faith in, himself. When he is confused to what is happening, he looks to his photos or his tattoos to tell him what to believe. He puts blind faith in himself, but as Leonard explains himself towards the beginning of the film, memories are distorted fragments of the past and you can't always trust them. Leonard is relying on his own memories and own messages to find who this killer is, and we find out at the end of the film that the things that he is writing may or may not even be true at all! Yet he takes them as truth and that leads him on the path of probably killing the wrong man. As humans we tend to do this. We tend to put blind faith in ourselves, and the things we tell ourselves could or could not be true at any given moment. We take something from our past, our memories, and we create our own ideologies from these experiences and these can dictate how we choose to live our whole entire lives, without ever being open to what the truth really is, just like Leonard didn't trust what Teddy was telling him. Lucky for most of us however, we don't have short-term memory loss, and we have the potential to look to other places than ourselves for truth. I can look to God and His Holy Word for what the truth is and if my experiences or my ideologies contradict what He says is truth, than I have the ability to change that and put my faith in Him. Praise the Lord that I don't have to put faith in myself, because I'm just going to fail, but I can put my faith into what I know is true and what won't ever fail. Join me in not living like Leonard. Our past experiences and memories can deceive us and lead us to thinking things that aren't true. Let's look to the thing that we know is true. Also watch this movie. It's great.
1 Comment
2/22/2018 08:18:26 am
Nice discussion Austin! It's one of my absolute favorite films, and I couldn't agree more about Christopher Nolan. He's truly a master, especially of psychological thrillers like this.
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Austin VincentJust a guy with a passion for film and Jesus who's trying to show that He can be found in our creative endeavors. Archives
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