Mr. Martin and Memento, Part 1
The statement that “our conception about narrative…depend[s] on a shared set of assumptions about causality, unity, origin and end that is characteristic of Western thought” (Wallace Martin 85) greatly connects with the way that the film, Memento (2000), is presented to its audience. Most people watch movies with the preconceived notion that it will start at the “beginning” and “end” accordingly. Memento could not be farther than that assumption.
Memento’s sequence of actions is told unconventionally. Though it doesn’t start at a prototypical beginning, it does not completely start in medias res either. As the movie progresses, the audience gathers that Memento actually starts closer to the film’s end rather than “in the middle of things.” The events are exposed in a reverse chronological order, overlapping only slightly to bring the audience back to what would happen next (or rather, what happened before).
The “temporal arrangement of the story line and the ways in which point of view control the perception of the action[s]” (110) allow viewers to engage in ideas of causality. The audience already knows that Leonard (the main character) kills the man he believes murdered his wife and lost him his memory. They are now interested in “back story” (Why is he running? Who’s Dodd? What lies did Teddy tell to make us distrust him?). Keeping to the notion that people are constantly looking for meanings in motifs, characters and connections when reading texts, Memento’s protagonist and viewers both evaluate the situation(s) forward and backward (though the former must do so because of his “condition;” the audience does because the narrative’s point of view is set up that way).
Between the string of (disconnected) events, there are additional scenes of Leonard “remembering Sammy Jankis.” These particular occurrences “fill in facts about the past” (128) and are examples of “delayed exposition.” Through these recounted memories, the audience learns more about Leonard’s character prior to his wife’s death. These flashbacks allow viewers a finer description of Leonard’s desperately meticulous personality, and the irony surrounding his memory-loss condition.
Works Cited: Martin, Wallace. Recent Theories of Narrative. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Memento’s sequence of actions is told unconventionally. Though it doesn’t start at a prototypical beginning, it does not completely start in medias res either. As the movie progresses, the audience gathers that Memento actually starts closer to the film’s end rather than “in the middle of things.” The events are exposed in a reverse chronological order, overlapping only slightly to bring the audience back to what would happen next (or rather, what happened before).
The “temporal arrangement of the story line and the ways in which point of view control the perception of the action[s]” (110) allow viewers to engage in ideas of causality. The audience already knows that Leonard (the main character) kills the man he believes murdered his wife and lost him his memory. They are now interested in “back story” (Why is he running? Who’s Dodd? What lies did Teddy tell to make us distrust him?). Keeping to the notion that people are constantly looking for meanings in motifs, characters and connections when reading texts, Memento’s protagonist and viewers both evaluate the situation(s) forward and backward (though the former must do so because of his “condition;” the audience does because the narrative’s point of view is set up that way).
Between the string of (disconnected) events, there are additional scenes of Leonard “remembering Sammy Jankis.” These particular occurrences “fill in facts about the past” (128) and are examples of “delayed exposition.” Through these recounted memories, the audience learns more about Leonard’s character prior to his wife’s death. These flashbacks allow viewers a finer description of Leonard’s desperately meticulous personality, and the irony surrounding his memory-loss condition.
Works Cited: Martin, Wallace. Recent Theories of Narrative. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
posted by Carly @ 11:44 PM
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