When Memento was released, the most intriguing element of the film, to reviewers, was the intertwining of one narrative in chronological order with another in reverse chronological order, both of which meet at the film’s climax. The main character of the film, Leonard Shelby, and his wife, have been attacked. His wife is dead, and he suffers from anterograde amnesia as a result. This disorder keeps him from processing short-term memories into long-term retention. He carries a collection of annotated Polaroids around with him to help him deal with the stimuli around him, to make the best decisions in a dangerous situation. Ultimately, he finds out that Teddy, the person who has been “helping” him find the other attacker, is actually that attacker. The deeper philosophical issues that undergird this story, though, revolve around the nature of memory – and the nature of identity, which, in many ways, is based on our memory. The question of whether we should fear a future trial or torture which will only happen after we have undergone a significant change, and the human tendency to pursue one’s own interests instead of moral principles, because of the notion of personal identity, both come into play in this story.
Williams’ article “The Self and the Future” poses many questions about authenticity and identity; one question that plays a role in Memento is the question as to whether one should fear torture in the future, if one also knows that one will not remember having been told about that torture, and one may receive psychological changes that will make that torture benign. Because of Leonard’s anterograde amnesia, this sort of memory loss is what happens to him, over and over again, throughout the movie. He only overcomes this memory loss by tattooing a license number on his body and keeping a photographic record of the people he should (or should not) trust. An interesting question, though, is whether or not Leonard’s identity has changed with the loss of his short-term memory. I would argue against this, as Leonard’s long-term memory appears unaffected, and his short-term memory appears to be working more and more effectively as time goes by after the attack. Also, he seems to be aware of his lack of ability to remember in the short term, and I would argue that that knowledge would constitute a form of torture as well.
Parfit’s article “Personal Identity” engages the idea of the uniquely human notion of the idea of having an individual persona. This persona, he argues, leads to a human desire to preserve self-interest at all costs, even above moral principles. In Leonard’s case, his self-interest involves survival and revenge. His moral principles are clearly subsumed by this self-interest, as he murders one man who is innocent of the attack, and then he murders Teddy at the story’s end. Interestingly, the innocent man’s girlfriend ends up helping Leonard, which also calls moral principles into question, but what is clear is that Leonard is on a mission, as a result to the attacks on his personal identity, in the forms of his own memory and his most intimate relationship, to gain revenge on whoever took that sense of identity away from him.
After watching Memento, one permanent impression left is the grave importance of memory as a part of one’s identity. Without that memory, one has no foundations on which to base future decisions – even such basic ones as where to sleep at night, or what to wear. The threat to personal identity makes for compelling entertainment – and for compelling conversation as well.
