Grizzly Man and Memento

Like Grizzly Man, Memento was manipulative in the way the film was shot. Grizzly Man is a documentary and Werner Herzog puts his own beliefs about Timothy Treadwell into the movie. We are manipulated by Herzog’s words about Treadwell because he questions Treadwell’s sanity and does not objectively portray him in the film. While Memento incorporates many levels of manipulation in the film, the movie works backwards and as the story unfolds, we learn more and more about the characters and following scenes explain their actions from the previous scenes. However, we are manipulated into believing that some characters are bad and some are good because of the way the story unfolds. At the end of the movie, (the beginning of the story) we realize that our beliefs are wrong and we suspected the wrong characters all along. This method of storytelling is effective because we are manipulated to feel like Leonard, since we do not know why something is happening, the way he does not remember why certain things are happening. While it is effective in manipulating the viewer to feel like Leonard with short-term memory loss, I had trouble switching my views of the characters at the end of the movie. I still picture Teddy as the bad guy even though he is good in the end (or the beginning). I wonder whether this was Nolan's intention or not.