Can someone explain a few things about the film "Memento?"

[smirkymonkey]

Just saw it on DVD last night.What did you think? Here is what I thought:

Leonard Shelby's wife survived the first attack, but she couldn't cope w/ his memory loss, so he ended up giving her an overdose of insulin (due to memory loss or purposely - what was with that scene where he kept pinching her thigh). Sammy Jenkis was his alter ego, and he invented the story to cope with what he had done. He looks for the "murderer" as a way to deal with his deeply buried, unconscious guilt. Has to continue looking for "killer", even though he apparently has found and killed him before. It's a never ending cycle to keep him going.

I could be completely wrong, but there were a few things that needed explaining.

Who is "John G." and where did that idea come from in the first place? I must have missed something.

If he has no short term memory, how can he remember his "condition?"

During the film he has brief flashes of the murder of his wife. How could he have these flashes if he wansn't the one who did it?

There is a scene where he is lying in bed with his wife and only has the 1st tatoo, the one that has to read in the mirror about avenging his wife's death. ?????

It seemed like everybody was using everybody. Was Leonard also using everybody? Was Teddy being truthful when he told Leonard about his past murders and that the Jenkis couple didn't exist?

Would appreciate any feedback or insight, I only watched it once, so I probably missed out on a few things. Thanks.

[Nimrod]

1. "how can he remember his "condition?"

I can answer that one. He still remembers how to speak and write, also - such things are stored in a different part of the ol' memory banks. The fact he has no short term memory has been moved into long-term memory.

[underpants]

2. *SPOILER*

Bruce Willis is a ghost

[smirkymonkey]

3. Oh. So Bruce Willis killed Shelby's wife?

:evilgrin:

[mark414]

4. these explain it better than i ever could

from the director's website

http://www.christophernolan.net/memento_un.php

[smirkymonkey]

7. Great site!

Thanks!

[theorist]

5. Let me try to help.

Leonard believes "John G." is a fragment of a name from the police record that he studies.

One of the points of the film is that memory is a very complicated thing. One can believe that "something doesn't happen unless you write it down", but the brain is always susceptible to conditioning. Remember the sequence where Sammy kept picking up the electrified object? That's a "memory" to help Leonard cope with the fact that he has "changed his memories" through conditioning.

His wife wasn't murdered. She survived the break in and rape, but it resulted in his condition.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Thanks for answering my questions.

it was starting to drive me crazy.

I do find the subjectivity of memories to be a very interesting topic. Sometimes I wish I didn't remember the last 4 years and could create an alternate memory instead. :)

[tigereye]

8. that movie gave me a headache

and made me sad. It made me feel that Being John Malkovitch was highly linear by comparison. It was a very interesting idea, but.