In the film ‘Memento’, Christopher Nolan draws a line between truth and lies by presenting a story in reverse from the perspective of an amnesiac.
In the beginning of the film (or the chronological end of the story) we believe these facts: Leonard’s the good guy, Teddy’s the bad guy, and Natalie’s the girl helping Leonard. Though as the story progresses (regresses), we learn these facts aren’t fully true. This becomes especially clear at the end (beginning), wherein Leonard decides to set up a trap to kill Teddy, and the once sympathetic character almost instantly turns into a pitiless murderer.
The way in which Leonard sets up Teddy is particularly interesting as well. Aside from the license plate number, it was the note on the back of the photo, which truly solidified Leonard’s suspicions, and kept Leonard continually disbelieving Teddy, even if he was telling the truth. The note read simply “Don’t Believe His Lies”. The phrasing is what struck me. It implies that, although Leonard will not believe Teddy’s lies, he is still open to believing other people’s lies, and as we see, he is fully capable of believing his own lies.
The film further elicits a response from the viewer by posing the question: Who should one believe? Could Teddy be telling the truth when he said that Sammy Jenkins was single, and that it was Leonard’s wife who died of an insulin over-dose? As Leonard said in his mysterious phone conversation- memories can be distorted.
Good guys, bad guys, truth, lies, facts, memories. It was never this confusing when Humphrey Bogart was solving a mystery.
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