NARRATIVE FORM in momento - Essay Example

Memento Order no. 234051 July 2008 Memento The plot of Memento revolves round an insurance fraud investigator, Leonard, searching for a man who has raped and killed his wife. During the brutal attack on his wife he has suffered a severe head trauma which results in anterograde amnesia, a condition in which his brain is unable to store new memories, whereas his memory before the attack is in tact. On regaining consciousness he desparately wants to search for the killer and seek vengeance.

Leonard goes on a manhunt and the plot is all about how he investigates. how he overcomes his memory disorder by an organised system of maintaining notes, photographs, and tattoos to record information and finally kills his wife’s murderer. The films story is revealed in two separate narratives, one in color and one in black and white, that alternate with each other. The investigations conducted by Leonard are depicted in color and are in reverse chronological order.The scenes of Leonard talking to an anonymous phone caller in a motel room are in black and white and in chronological order.

The two narratives merge into a single color by the time the movie ends.One story line movies forward in time while the other moves backwards. The story begins with a murder of a man called “Teddy”, by Leonard. This scene is immediately followed by a black-and-white sequence of Leonard, in a motel room talking over the phone. The movie then alternates between black-and-white and color sequences. In chronological order the story can be narrated in this way. It begins with Leonard talking on the phone to an anonymous caller in a motel room.

These scenes tell a parallel tale, with flashbacks, of the case of Sammy Jankis, that Leonard had taken up as an insurance investigator. Sammy too had met with an accident and had ended up with anterograde amnesia. Leonard investigates and comes to the conclusion that the mans medical claim on the grounds that it was a mental problem and not a physical one was not true. But Sammys wife does not agree, for it means Sammy is faking the disorder. To test him, she asks him to give her three to four insulin shots in quick succession.

Sammy readily does this and she sinks into a coma, but she is satisfied that she has proved that his condition was real. Sammy is taken to an asylum. Leonard then tells the caller how his own wife died. Robbers had raped and killed his wife one night. He manages to kill one of them, but the other hits him on the head and runs away. He develops anterograde amnesia as a result of this. He is determined to seek revenge and kill the killer. He narrates how he has overcome his mental disorder by maintaining notes and Polaroid snapshots of incidents that happen.

He even tattoos information on his body. He has tattooed the clues to the killer onto his body. He tells the caller that the killers name is John or James and that his last name begins with a "G." He even has his license-plate number. On hearing this, Teddy, the mysterious caller, tells Leonard that the killer is a drug dealer. He also tells him that he can find him in an abandoned building outside the town. Leonard goes there and kills the man named Jimmy Grantz. He then wears Jimmys clothes.

A few minutes later, Teddy comes to the building, and Leonard discovers he has been tricked into killing Jimmy who was in no way involved in his wifes murder. Teddy reveals that Leonards wife had survived the attack, but had died from an overdose of insulin administered by Leonard. He also tells him that Sammy Jankis was a fraud and was not even married. Teddy claims that he is a police officer who had helped him , a year ago, to track down and kill the real John G. But Leonard has forgotten this and had begun to search for John G. again. Teddy admits tricking Leonard to kill Jimmy for the $200,000 that was lying in the Jimmy’s car.

At this Leonard burns the body of Jimmy, takes a photo of Teddy and copies Teddys license-plate number. Leonard now decides to continue his search for the killer and sets Teddy as his next target. He notes down Teddys license plate number as John G.s Leonard then goes to a tattoo parlor to get the number tattooed, where he finds a note in his pocket. The note is from Jimmys girlfriend, Natalie. He thinks the note is for him since he has forgotten that he is wearing Jimmys clothes .He goes to the bar where Natalie works to meet her and tells her about his condition.

Natalie offers to help Leonard. From Leonards tattoo she gets John G.s license plate number and gets him a copy of his drivers license, and Leonard matches the ID to the photo of Teddy, whose real name turns out to be John Edward Gammel, "John G.". Leonard concludes that Teddy is the man who has killed his wife. He takes Teddy to the same abandoned building where he killed Jimmy Grantz and shoots him. Memento, an outwardly straightforward murder mystery ends up throwing many questions.

Did Sammy kill his wife with insulin? Or was it Leonard? Was it Sammy who goes to the asylum or was it Leonard? There are many visual hints to suggest both the possibilities. For example, there is a split second scene of Leonard in Sammy’s chair in the asylum and in the films final sequence we get a glimpse of Leonard relaxing in bed with his wife with "IVE DONE IT" tattooed on his breast. According to Andy Klein (2001) “The only way to reconcile everything is to assume huge inconsistencies in the nature of Leonards disorder.

” Reference1. Klein Andy, 2001, Everything you wanted to know about "Memento", Retrieved from http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/06/28/memento_analysis/print.html