Jeez, it’s a complicated, twisty-turny movie, but I love it. Great cast, great acting, great plot and some great laughs along the way, even though the movie is suffused throughout with such a sense of loss and grief that it’s almost overwhelming.
An excellent analysis of the film that Wiki led me to: http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/06/28/memento_analysis/index.html
Fire away.
Although Lenny could well have had experiences with burning Polaroid pictures before his bump on the head, at one point he specifically tells a character that you have to burn them to get rid of them. Later (earlier for him) we see him burning a Polaroid of the drug dealer’s body, which seems to say that he remembers doing this.
What say you?
Sir Rhosis
Did you notice if the chapters on the DVD were broken up appropriately? Where each time block was its own chapter?
I ask that so that I can ask this: Does anybody know of a DVD player software program that will allow me to choose what order I play a DVD’s chapters in? I’d like to rewatch this movie in chronological order. So that, immediately after we see him go into the bathroom with a bottle of champagne, we see him in the bathroom wondering what he’s doing with the bottle of champagne.
I’m looking for a program where I can set it to play the chapters in reverse order.
It’s a damn good film with a clever way of showing you his confusion but personally I wouldn’t want to watch it in chronological order. But that’s my preference and I do know that on some versions of the dvd’s there is an option to watch in the different order. Whether it’s the special editions or on the region 2 DVD’s I’m unsure.
I just found a note in my pocket that said, “Ask the guy who just saw “Memento” again (OPEN SPOILERS)”
What does this mean?
I just found a note in my pocket that said…
Oh.
Never mind.
So is his wife dead or not? Was Sammy Jenkins a liar? Who was Leonard lying in bed with during the flashback-ish part of the last scene, where he had the “I DID IT!” tattoo on his chest in the spot he saved for when he found the killer?
In response to DMark’s posts.
ME: [Joe Pantoliano as Teddy voice]: "Marky!
DMark: Do I know you?
Me: It’s me, Sir Rhosi.
DMark: I suppose I’ve told you about my condition…
Me: Only every time we post…
Sir Rhosis
So it was Teddy that Lenny (“Lleennnny!!!”) was talking to on the phone in the room, right? I’m 99% certain it was, but I don’t think it’s made absolutely clear–in the way that seeing the other person is.
P.S. “Remember Sammy Jenkis!”
I think this was an awesome movie; though I went into it having no idea what was going to happen, at all. In a way it was kind of cool, also very confusing. I ended up reading many reviews afterwards to really get it clear in my head but I loved it.
According to the ‘alternate versions’ page at IMDB, this is a feature included on most versions of the DVD.
You want the special edition version (the one in the blue cover). It has an easter egg that lets you watch the movie in chronological order.
I forget where I read it (how appropriate) but someone once noted that it was a damn good thing Leonard didn’t have any tattoos before his wife was killed.
“What the? ‘Mom’? What the hell did she have to do with this?”
Sir Rhosis, he probably knew before he got the bump on the noggin that burning Polaroids was the only way to be sure you’d destroyed them. Not a continuity error, I’d say.
Rucksinator, I saw the movie on Saturday night at a local college, not on a DVD. But the article to which I linked in the OP has some good suggestions on seeing the movie on DVD in the correct chronological order.
DMark, I think you need some tattoos. Yesterday.
Mosier, my own theory is that his wife is dead because Leonard botched her insulin injections, and he muddled that with the Jenkis story in his mind. She survived the earlier rape (remember we saw her blink behind the plastic sheet/shower curtain). Sammy Jenkis either was or was not a liar (Leonard said no, but Teddy said he was; I don’t think we have enough info to know for sure). Leonard had a false memory of being in bed with his late wife; remember that that area of his chest was still untattooed in his “present.”
Prelude, yes, I think Leonard was talking to Teddy on his motel room phone (although by that point, I’d think Teddy was sick to death of Lenny’s circular monologues).
Hal, heh, good one!
I saw things as a little more cut and dried. I saw it as Leonard’s wife did die and that Teddy did help Leonard track down and kill the murderer/rapist. Once that was said and done, Teddy used him to take down any scumbag he felt deserved killing, by leading Leonard that way.
In the end, Leonard did two things. A) he took Teddy out of the equation so he’d stop fucking with him, and B) he set himself back up to look for the “real killer” (paging Dr. OJ, Dr. OJ to the white courtesy phone) … because he knows that without that search his life will be empty.
All the flashbacks to him injecting his wife was just his mixed up mind what with Teddy convincing him he was really Sammy Jenkis, or at least a substitute for Sammy.
Damn I love this movie. I remember when it came out there was a protracted conversation about it on these very boards. I may have to search that one out and re-enjoy it.
How much of Sammy’s story did Leonard accurately remember? Any? Lenny said he could remember everything before his accident, so he could accurately remember testing Sammy, but then seemed to confuse the injection events. So either Sammy really injected his wife, or Leonard did.
I vote Sammy did.
I agree, but I think it’s (purposefully) left ambiguous enough that either answer is a reasonable one.
Didja all notice the very brief shot of Leonard sitting exactly where Sammy had been sitting moments earlier, in the clinic as people pass by?
“I never said he was faking!” Lenny said that Sammy’s condition was psychological, not physical. But according to Lenny, Sammy really did forget everything, he wasn’t faking. But people including Teddy kept misconstruing this to mean that Sammy was a fake.
This is assuming that we can trust anything Lenny says, which of course we can’t.