Memento - The Film

I truly enjoyed the film "Memento," which I learned was written and directed by Christopher Nolan who is the brother of Jonathon Nolan, the author of the short story in which the film was based. For me, one of the main reasons why I found it so interesting was the way Nolan filmed it, in a backwards type narrative. Like in his brothers short story Christopher had two different story lines, one which was told in black and white and was in chronological order and the other in color and was told in reverse order. In the short story Jonathan had italicized text that represented letters written in the past, and normal text for what was happening in the present. Although Jonathan and Christopher's stories differ a lot, they are both centralized around the main character's disability to create to memories, and the fact that he needs to get revenge for the death of his wife.
The film was kind of like a mystery to me; you're never quite sure what characters to trust. The big mystery for me the whole movie was weather or not "Teddy" was a good guy. Seeing Leonard kill Teddy in the beginning of the movie makes you as a viewer place him in the "bad guy" category, however as the film unfolds you find out he's only trying help. He reveals to "Lenny" at the end of the movie that he (Lenny) already killed John G. (the man who he thinks raped and killed his wife) a year ago, but Lenny convinces himself otherwise because he needs to have a purpose in his life. Lenny makes up a story about a man named Sammy Jankis in order to explain to himself that conditioning someone for memories doesn't work. In reality Lenny also made up this story so he could "remember to forget" he was the person responsible for his wife's death.