An Unsatisfying Conclusion

I love figuring out the end of movies before they happen. Piecing together subtle plot details is what keeps me interested. Similarly, I enjoy television shows like CSI, NCIS, Bones, etc. Mystery intrigues me. I love to recognize facts that others tend to miss. For me, there is nothing better than watching a confusing movie and assembling all of the disparate pieces before the director wants me to. For this reason I found Memento both brilliant and infuriating.

The last few scenes of Memento caught me by surprise, but in doing so, brought the entire movie together. That is, if I believe Teddy. However, after being manipulated for the entirety of the film, and being repeatedly told not to believe Teddy’s lies, how can I let myself trust what he says? It bothers me that by the end of the movie I am still left with a number of unanswered questions. Do I trust Teddy and appreciate the complex manipulation that is occurring from every character, or do I trust Leonard who either thinks, or convinces himself that Teddy is lying? The movie was brilliant because it was intellectually challenging, and it was infuriating because I couldn’t figure it out.

Memento is different than what I am used to seeing in other movies. It doesn’t tie every little detail together in the end, or answer all of the questions brought up in the film. The director makes it impossible to not question yourself. Switching back and forth in time, and contradicting facts, made me feel like Leonard: always questioning reality and separating fact from fiction. Because of the strategic setup, you can never truly have satisfying answers. Everything we are presented with can be undermined in some way, so we are only left with the ability to make assumptions. I think this setup made the movie interesting, but also frustrating because it did not follow the pattern I am used to seeing in most movies: a satisfying conclusion.

Face the Facts

What stood out to me about Momento was the obsession over "the facts." When I think of a momento I think of something that is concrete, usually one is able to hold this memory or token, and there is no doubt or uncertainty. Yet, all of Leonard's "momento's are manipulated and blurred so that he doesn't even know the facts. Can a fact still be a fact if it is based off of lies? Can a fact still be a fact if the person stating the fact doesn't even know the significance, origin, or truth. Leonard's whole life is based around these "facts" tattooed on his body, but if he is in this perpetual cycle of gaining "facts" off of things he doesn't know or remember than how can he trust the future facts that are based off of the other facts.

This reminds me of Cat's Cradle and foma and essentially the entire Books of Bokonon. The citizens of San Lorenzo were able to gain truth from the lies but does that make it ok? Is it ok that Leonard is finding potentially fatal "truth" from previous lies. The San Lorenzans were solely doing it to survive, while Leonard is looking to kill, so do our motives come into play over whether this is valid? I'm not sure. I left this movie with a lot of questions. Since seeing the first half, I have done some research on it, and it has just left me with more questions.

Can't Remember to Forget You

Although we have most recently been discussing manipulation, I heard a line in Memento that reminded me of the beginning of the course. At one point in the movie Leonard is pretending to talk to his dead wife (I think--the context is a little fuzzy) when he says that he "can't remember to forget you" (referring to his wife). This made me first think of manipulation in terms of our memories. In most scenarios, we can't tell our brains what to remember and what to forget--we can't manipulate our memory. And because we can't forget upsetting things or unlearn what we've already learned, we must go about manipulating our brains the way the San Lorenzans did: through good old fashioned lies. If we cannot directly erase the knowledge that our religion is false, then we must tell ourselves that our religion is true. These lies work because they feed us the information that we want to hear rather than erase the information we don't. So which is better, self-delusion or ignorance?

It seems to me that self-delusion, while harder to wrap your head around, is definitely the better choice. Ignoring the existence of a reality is apathetic and will you get you nowhere; however, as the San Lorenzans have shown us, self-delusion can helpful, even healthy. Lying to yourself is a means to cope with a difficult truth, it is a form of self-manipulation in which its perpetrator is entirely aware of the lie and its intended effects. While it might be easier for Leonard to directly manipulate his memory and erase the knowledge of his wife entirely, that lie goes beyond just temporary self-delusion and actually changes who he is and what his purpose is. Without the memory of his wife Leonard would not have the same drive to make his condition work--he would be just another Sammy, a man who doesn't have a reason to continue living (not just surviving) despite his impaired memory.

So while the failure of memory might be the fact that you can't pick and choose it yourself, it is a failure that is also necessary and one that can be alleviated through the more gentle manipulation of lies.

Who Can You Trust

One thing I constantly thought about while watching Momento was how susceptible Leonard is to manipulation and lies. Because he can't make any new memories, he must constantly rely on scribbled notes and his best judgement. Everything and everyone in our world is manipulative and it's almost impossible to get the honest truth. Leonard is forced into this world with absolutely no recollection of his recent past accounts. Throughout this course we've been emphasizing manipulation and deception, but I think this movie focuses on the truth. Leonard is forced to trust his notes, his tattoos, and himself more than anything or anyone else. He has no other choice than to believe in the things he has written for himself.
In Leonard's case, the truth will lead him to justice, so it's crucial that he find the right killer. He wants revenge but he also realizes that with his "condition" it will be difficult to find him. He carries around a camera which take place of his actions and the notes become his memories. They guide him through his hunt and provide him with the most basic information he needs to find his wife's killer. However, sometime the notes can contradict one another. In one scene, Leonard gets in his car to find Teddy sitting in the passenger seat. Teddy tells him that Natalie cannot be trusted, but on Teddy's card, it already says Teddy is a liar. This is a case where Leonard has to use his best judgement and trust that the note he recorded about Teddy was accurate and made for a reason.
As we've seen in all of our texts this semester, manipulation is powerful. This movie showed us the opposite and that the truth can be just as influential. What's important is knowing which side you're dealing with. We, as a class, have learned to recognize when and how we are being manipulated, and even though we choose nothing to do about it, we are still conscious of the manipulation at hand. Leonard is also conscious of this manipulation, but more focused on the truth. He knows people will lie to him so he relies on his notes and pictures to solve his case.

Body of a Man, Mind of a Child

While watching Memento, I was immediately at unease when I looked at Leonard's life and how he handled himself, specifically in regards to how he would interpret the world every time he "woke up".  He was entirely at the mercy of the system he created for himself, a system - though better than that of Jenkis - not free from manipulation.

I viewed the crossing off of the line on Natalie's photo (the one prompted by where Teddy originally tells Leonard not to trust her which then has him cross check Teddy's photo which then has him cross it out) as the most glaring evidence of manipulation.  There are three forces at work here.  Current Leonard's, who decides how to act and who to trust, Teddy, who to Leonard could be anyone, and previous Leonard, or what remnants we see of his existence scattered in his pictures and notes.  A flaw in any one of these three systems can start a very poor decision to be made. 

Current Leonard reminds me of a child.  He is thrust into situations he doesn't understand how to handle, and has to use context clues and vague hints do understand how to proceed.  In a way, he is "reborn" every time he wakes up and has to start making tough decisions again.  Leonard just seems so prone to manipulation.  In the way a child believes everything he or she reads, so does Leonard, as evidenced by him shooting Teddy.

Christopher Nolan's Money

            When I first saw Memento a few weeks ago, I thought it was a work of absolute genius. That was before I found out who directed it. I was originally willing to ignore the fact that Leonard somehow remembers about his condition, even though he cannot form new memories, not to mention his massively implausible encounter with Sammy Jankis. [Spoiler Alert] I mean, how could he possibly have just happened to know someone with the same condition, and how could he have conditioned himself to believe that his own actions were actually Sammy’s? That’s when I got suspicious. So I did a little google search and found out that Memento was directed by the one and only Christopher Nolan. I should have known! It wasn’t pure genius; it was just a Christopher Nolan classic. It has all of his hallmarks: a ridiculous twist, stoic characters, and a plot that nobody understands until the end. Think Inception, just backwards and with shittier actors. Memento was, to me, just another trip down the same, well-trodden path.

            But that doesn’t make it a bad movie. It really doesn’t even take away its “genius” classification. It bothered me at the time because I felt like I had been duped. It just felt like another twisting, turning, stylized Nolan film. I had seen it before. It no longer felt original. But I now realize that I manipulated myself into believing that I didn’t like the movie. Sure, I loved inception, but by the time the twist came around in The Dark Knight Rises, I was unimpressed. Nolan’s style is now a pop culture staple, which I hate for no reason at all. I liked the idea that Memento was a little-known genius, rising the depths of the box office to present a truly meaningful experience for me and a few other savvy viewers. In a world where people take reality TV seriously, how could a major motion picture truly be a work of art? That is a dumb way to think. Don’t be like me. Just enjoy Memento for what it is, and try not to think too hard about Christopher Nolan bathing in a pool of money.

Don't Google It

The first question Prof. Schwartz asked us before starting the movie in class on Tuesday was whether or not we had researched and read about Memento. In fact, if I remember correctly, it wasn't even a question, it was an assumption. We all responded with slight head nodding, seemingly unsure of whether or not we had done this research. I'm not sure how many of you googled the movie or looked it up on IMDB beforehand, but I hope you didn't. I think the best way to go into Memento is with absolutely no background information. Someone ruined it for me before I saw it, and it definitely changed the way I thought about the movie while watching it. Instead of being manipulated by the film and how it is pieced together, I was searching for clues and connecting everything; making sense of it all. This is not to say that the latter is a bad way to see the movie. It is important to recognize that you are not being told a story in a traditional way, and to make connections and parse out the details of the story that can help you understand it fully. Without this recognition, we are blindly following a story line that we may never truly understand, (I never actually saw the end of the movie the first time) and we may miss important details. However, it is impossible to unlearn a piece of information. Therefore, I missed out on viewing Memento in the way it was, I can only assume, intended to be viewed. I was never truly confused by the nonlinear storyline or manipulated by Leonard's unreliable memory. So instead of googling the movie, watch it once, and then, once you understand how the movie really works, watch it again, but differently.

"We Must Stumble Blindly Forward, Repeating History"?

The title is from a really awesome Bright Eyes song called "Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And To Be Loved)" which is kind of about being tired of being lied to and manipulated and generally about Conor Oberst's anger at society; it's a solid 10 minutes long, but it's also excellent. Memento is kind of actually my favorite movie, so I have a lot to say, but I’ll try to do with without spoilers because that would be awful.

At one point in Memento, Natalie and Leonard have the following exchange-

Natalie: ...This is a copy of his registration, license, photo and all. Are you sure you want this?

Leonard: Have I told you what this man did?

Natalie: Yes.

Leonard: Then you shouldn’t have to ask.

Natalie: But even if you get your revenge, you won't remember it. You won't even know it's happened.

Leonard: So I'll take a picture, get a tattoo. The world doesn't disappear when you close your eyes, does it? My actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. My wife deserves vengeance, and it doesn't make any difference whether I know about it.

Although Leonard's motives may say his motives are clear, I would argue they’re actually more complicated than he presents. Although he tells Natalie he’s not looking for revenge or the satisfaction he may feel from avenging his wife’s death if he could make memories, his words and actions sometimes contradict this. In a later (earlier) scene, also with Natalie, in talking about his wife Leonard says, “You can only feel details. Bits and pieces which you didn't bother to put into words. And extreme moments you feel even if you don't want to. Put it together and you get the feel of the person, enough to know how much you miss them, and how much you hate the person who took them away.” Although he may suggest other motives, in saying this Leonard voices what I would argue is his real motive, the revenge he said he wasn’t seeking, some kind of satisfaction or sense of peace.

At times it seems like everyone is lying to Leonard… and maybe that’s true, but I would argue that no one is lying to Leonard more than Leonard is lying to himself. Leonard chooses the truth he follows. In a seeming fit of anger, Leonard chooses Natalie over Teddy. Although it may come through manipulation by Natalie, I would argue that it’s in that moment that Leonard decides to kill Teddy. Leonard, who has shown that he was at one point able to read people, doesn’t suggest he’s lost that ability. He even says that he maintains it in asking for his calls to be forwarded. He should be able to tell Natalie is using him, even if her photo doesn’t say so. But he decides to ignore it. Leonard manipulates himself through his disorder as much as anyone else. He says he’s not looking for satisfaction, when all of his actions suggest he wants nothing more. Leonard is as much a manipulator as he is a victim of manipulation.

Play By the Rules, and College Kids Just Might Watch Your Movies

I'm really interested in the "rules" of mainstream media, of how to make art that sells, and Memento is the perfect example of this. While artists want to make something that is groundbreaking and new, that art also has to be recognizable. For example, a ten-minute video of a field, of grasses rustling in the breeze, might be incredibly poetic in its own right, but it is too dissimilar from modern mainstream cinema to sell many tickets. Christopher Nolan walks the line well between avant garde and mainstream movie with the form of Memento. He employs popular tropes, like Natalie, our dark and mysterious femme fatale, which are fitting with what we expect from a movie. By combining aspects of typical movies with his clever backwards-forwards-black-and-white-color idea, he creates a movie that people consider to be a work of genius.
I'm not saying that it's not a good film, or a good idea, making the audience confused as if we ourselves had lost our memories. I'm just saying that it's interesting that for something to be considered "good art," it has to be recognizable and clearly informed by past works. If something is so avant garde that it does not draw from any reality that we can recognize, then it is written off as unintelligible babble. But I wonder why we think this way. It all has to do with power. Those who have already made successful movies have money, which allows them to control a lot of things, including the media, and including the funds for the next big movie. All of this influences the way we think. Those in power have a lot of vested interest in maintaining the status quo so that they can remain in power, and often we are influenced into thinking that we like something that we really don't. Genius, unfortunately, can only exist if it is recognized as such by large groups of people. And people are impressionable.

Solipsism

In Memento, Natalie asks Leonard if revenge is what he really wants, and if his revenge will continue to matter even if he can't remember it. Leonard responds by saying something along the lines of, "Of course it will matter. The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes." This reminded me of a poem I read ("Soliloquy of the Solipsist", in case you want to check it out) in which the narrator does believe that the world disappears when she closes her eyes. A depressing outlook, I know, but I can't help but think that to a less extreme extent, it might be an accurate reflection of Leonard's reality. Periodically, the world as he knows it erases itself and restarts. Obviously, the rest of the planet goes on around him, but that's not exactly relevant to the smaller, contained construction of his personal reality. We could relate this back to Timothy Treadwell or the citizens of San Lorenzo. They perceive the world in a way very different than most people would say it "actually is." In that sense, everything exists only in their heads, and their version of reality will disappear when they close their eyes.

And after all, revenge is for the living. It won't bring Leonard's wife back. It would bring a sense of justice for most, but I can't see that happening for poor Lenny. He will never have the concrete knowledge that he actually carried out his mission, just the vague notion based on some tattoo or scribble on a photograph. That can't be substantial enough to bring any consolation, really, or any sense that his damaged life has been worthwhile. I know I can't speak for a fictional character, but it seems to me that now that his revenge has been carried out, it'll be far more difficult to find any meaning in a life without new memories. While it might make him feel better to reject the solipsist view now, I think he'll regret it in the long run.

Useless Without the "Facts"

One definition of “memento,” according to dictionary.com, is “anything serving as a reminder or warning.” This definition surprised me.  My mom used to offer to buy my sister and me mementos from big trips we took.  So for me, “memento” always had a very positive connotation (the “warning” piece not fitting this childhood scenario).  In the context of this movie, however, his notes are his mementos, and they serve both purposes.  They are reminders of what he has done, hints to what he needs to do, warnings against other people, and mostly, they serve to warn himself of his own weakness—warnings against forgetfulness.

Leonard says his system of mementos, although incredibly inconvenient and pain inducing, is in some ways more accurate than relying on memory.  According to Leonard, memory is “just an interpretation, worthless without the facts.”  Of course he thinks memory is unreliable—he can’t create any since the accident.  But he does have a point.  Everyone sees the world through an individual lens and thinks about things in unique ways.  Everything we see and do turns into some kind of memory, and we have no control over how it forms, or how it distorts and to what degree.  According to his statement, Leonard firmly believes that the “facts” exist.  However, this logic is flawed because he cannot reach the “facts” without communicating with other people, people who cannot communicate with him without including their memories as well.

In his search for the facts, Leonard must always be re-tracing his steps, re-telling what has passed.  The more time passes, the more things happen, the more impossible the re-tracing becomes before he forgets again.  He says he “can’t feel time.”  This sensation is echoed by the structure of the film and how it keeps jumping between moments in time.  This idea relates back to O’Brien and Vonnegut, how their stories “make things present,” demonstrating the insignificance of time.  Leonard’s story is always being re-told, too easily morphed by himself and everyone around him.  For Leonard, time truly is irrelevant.  He has no recollection of anything since one moment in time anyway.

Choose Your Own Death

http://youchosewrong.tumblr.com/

stumbled upon this while working on my essay. a funny compilation of ridiculous choose your own adventure endings. enjoy!

Happening Again for The First Time

In my chapter addition and defensive paper, I concentrate on the idea of  “something happening again for the first time.” After watching the first half of Momento, I found myself revisiting this idea based on the sequencing of the events in the movie. In my Aura chapter addition and defensive paper, I tried to convince readers that the novel basically portrays a reoccurrence of the same event with the same characters just in a different time. I highlighted the possibility for rebirth to happen without the character ‘dying’ and demonstrated the cyclical nature of the story being told in the novel.  However, in order for this to make any sense and in order for us to make the connections from one time period to the next and from one incident to the next, we need to remember what previously happened. For Leonard, this “happening again for the first time” can never be understood because nothing he does for the first time is remembered. He meets people for the first time every day and we watch him do things for the first time over and over again. In watching this movie, I felt as though I had initially lost my memory and gained it back slowly as the movie progressed. I knew what was going to happen at the end because it was the first thing I was shown, but I couldn’t remember how I got there – why? – because the movie was yet to tell me. As I was taken a couple steps backward and shown what had happened before the previously shown scene, it felt as though I was slowly regaining my own memory by watching Leonard repeat things for the first time. Similarly in Aura, only after reading through the entire novel and then going back to details in the beginning of the book was I able to understand the cyclical effects and the repetition of the characters.

In addition to this, I began thinking about the manipulation that takes place in this movie. Because Leonard is unable to trust himself based on memory (since he has none) he is easily manipulated by anyone he comes into contact with. By just observing his habits, anyone can make him write down or tattoo something they would like him to with the right manipulative techniques because he doesn’t know the ‘truth’. All the notes he makes on the back of his photographs could very well be judgments and opinions manipulated by other peoples’ perspectives. This just demonstrates the idea that unless you know the truth, you can easily be manipulated. But can we ever know the whole truth? If not, are we always being manipulated?