Over the past few classes, we have been discussing the human memory. We watched a movie called Memento, in which a film technique knows as hapax was used. In this technique, the movie opens up with a scene that we would later realize was the end of the plot. The movie ends with the beginning of the plot line. The scenes of the movie filmed in color appear in the movie backwards. There are also black and white scenes in the movie that appear in chronological order. The differences among plot order and color contrast makes it difficult to realize the hapax until the very last scene of the movie. At the end, we discover that the main character, Leonard, actually is not as innocent as we originally thought. Even though it was difficult to determine the sequence of events of the story line, I think it is fair to say that most viewers would think that Leonard was an innocent victim to a brain injury that distorted his memory.
When discussing the movie in class, it was pointed out that the directors of the movie made is obvious in the first scene that it was supposed to be backyards and the end of the plot when the bullet from the gun and the blood moved in reverse. Although the story was somewhat hard to follow because of the hapax, I think the directors gave obvious clues such as the difference in color and the Sammy Jenkins scenes that hinted that Leonard was not innocent. It began to make me think that sometimes, the human memory of events or stories can be lost or missed because of our emotional connection to a person involved. We learned relatively early that Leonard lost his wife because she was raped and then murdered in their house. Immediately, we feel sympathy for him and are invested in the revenge that he is seeking. Even later in the movie when we see that Leonard hits Vanessa, I never assumed that he was a bad person or might be causing himself some of this harm. I think the viewer’s emotional attachment to Leonard gives important insight to our human memory; emotions and feelings are just as if not more powerful than observing actions or discovering fact. Although Leonard would forget everything since the accident, he always woke up feeling the urge to get revenge. He also remembers the feeling of losing his wife. These feelings overpowered his self-discovery of what really happened that night, causing him to seek revenge even after he murdered the rapist years previous. Similarly, our feeling of pity that we originally felt for Leonard prevents the viewers from picking up on all of the clues given about the real Leonard.
I think our emotions interfere with our interpretation of a bunch of other books that we have read in this class, specifically the Buried Giant. Throughout the whole book, we are presented with Axl and Beatrice, whom we observe to be truly in love. Although they are not treated well by the community, Axl is always looking out for Beatrice whom he called his “princess”. Both Axl and Beatrice have problems with their memories. At the end of the book, we discover that Beatrice had an affair so their love was not as true than we originally were lead to believe. It makes me wonder if there were any clues throughout the book that would have given hints to this affair. I think that our first memory of the feeling of love and admiration could have distorted our memory or recognition of other details that would have questioned their relationship.