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The Academic Arab College for Education in Israel-Haifa

A Proseminar Paper on: " Nolan and the Detective perspective in Detection and

memory disorder"

the course: A Seminar, Literature and Cultural Studies

Submitted to: Dr. Hana Saiba-Salman

By:Yara Nassar

ID:201283157

Date of Submission: 15.08.2020

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Introduction

Neo-noir is a genre of film noir. The term noir becomes popularized by the French in

1955. It was then applied to crime films beginning in the 1940s and 1950 mostly produced in the

United States. Classic American crime dramas, film noir had similar themes and plots and

different unique visual elements. The characters of the films were mostly antiheroes who were

conflicted and had to make tough decisions under tight circumstances.

Amnesia affects every individual in specific ways. Due to ignorance on the issue, the

public may not be aware of the different forms of amnesia and the various effects these diseases

have on people. When one experiences trauma, there can be a disintegrated state of mind to the

extent that a person is forming fantasies to deal with the pain of guilt that accompanies the

traumatic event. This issue has been integrated into some films such as memento, which was

characterized by film noir elements. Memento was written by Christopher Nolan and was

adapted from a story by his younger brother, Jonathan, written a few years back called Memento

Mori (Schmidt et al. 2).

Revenge has always been a popular theme in literary works. It can be found in different

literature, including Shakespeare's works like Hamlet or even with the bible, with its concept of

an eye for an eye. As far as the film is concerned, vigilante justice or revenge, especially in film

noir and gangster films, are essential elements in their movies (Meehan 55). Although taking

revenge is not widely accepted in modern society, vigilantism is a very crowd-pleasing motive in

cinema. People always expect no matter the genre of the film, that the hero has to be the

individual getting revenge because there some essence of purity in that.

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In this revenge story, there is the addition of the amnesia aspect, more specifically

anterograde amnesia, and the viewer is taken throughout the film on some of the manifestations

of the disease. Amnesia and participation in violent crimes have always been a critical issue in

forensic sciences with implications on medical and legal processes (Jelicic 617). Memory loss

can undermine the assessment of relevant medical intervention, future risk assessment, and

choosing appropriate defense options (Jelicic 617).

In the film, Leonard Shelby develops amnesia after a traumatic event where his wife was

killed by two assailants and managed to kill one of them before receiving a traumatic blow,

which leads to the development of anterograde amnesia. Though he remembers events before the

accident, he develops severe short term memory loss that makes him come up with innovative

ways to remember details on his wife's murderer because police are unable to help him. He then

proceeds to commit a couple of major crimes in this quest. This paper will establish that amnesia

is associated with violent crimes and that in Christopher Nolan's film Memento, the main

character is partially responsible for his actions because of the gap resulting from his memory

disorder.

Literature Review

Different concepts are explained through the paper, including various research conducted

on what amnesia is and the different elements and forms characterizing the disease. Amnesia,

accompanied by violent offending, is characterized by short memory gaps that generally

correspond with the most violent end of an assault (Huyssen 100). There different explanations

on hand about memory loss in offenders. One of them states that some people suffer from a

permanent or temporary brain dysfunction that undermines the permanent storage of criminal
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acts in memory during a crime. This category of memory loss is labeled as organic amnesia.

Others offer an explanation that is relatable to the film's character, where offenders are usually in

a distressed emotional state when committing a crime. The details of the crime are stored in the

memory as settings of intense emotion (Huyssen 100). Later, when the perpetrator is in a calm

state of mind, he/she ultimately does not remember their actions. This type of memory loss is

called dissociative amnesia.

The movie is categorized as detective fiction, which is a subgenre of mystery and crime fiction.

These movies are characterized by an investigator who can either be an amateur or professional

who investigates an offense, which most of the time is a murder (Bedore 140). These genres

became famous around the mid-nineteenth century and have remained a popular theme in novels

and films. The traditional characteristics of a detective story include a perfect crime, the suspect

who is wrongly accused, but the circumstantial evidence seems to point to him/her (Bedore 140).

The superior power of observation from the detective with the superior mind and finally, the

unexpected and startling reveal on who the culprit is. Detective movies primarily work on the

principle that flimsy evidence is irrelevant (Bedore 140).

People have always been intrigued by detective fiction over the years, memento being an

example of detective fiction that was immensely popular. There are various reasons behind this,

and one of them is that detective tales go beyond the lines between wrong and right, guilty and

innocent and bad and good (Schmidt et al. 55). This simplifies the readers' ability to identify the

person in the wrong and the necessary moral and ethical implications on the critical characters.

There is also character identification whereby in modern detective tales, the hero of the tale is

given a character flaw, which helps the reader connect with the character. Detective stories also

offer macabre and gruesome crimes that are the best attraction to potential viewers (Schmidt et
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al. 56). The more horrifying the crime is, the more the reader is interested in following the

detective who solves the mystery. Audiences are also attracted to detective fiction because they

are attracted to testing their crime-solving abilities. People are interested in identifying the

person responsible for the crime, why the crime was conducted, and why the murder was carried

out early in the story. Finally, the revelation where the perpetrator is discovered is often the

climax of the story. The story does not end there as the detective has to catch the criminal and

determine the motives behind the crime.

Leonard Shelby is an ex-insurance investigator whose wife gets murdered. Despite his

attempts to save his wife, he is unsuccessful and suffers a head trauma that makes him

experience severe anterograde memory dysfunction as the film describes it. His short-term

memory does not function anymore, and his current memory span only lasts for 15 minutes, and

he cannot create long term memories. The interesting fact about his condition, like Leonard puts,

he can remember things before his accident. The movie's title is relevant to the whole story as a

memento is an object that someone keeps to remind oneself of an event or person. The

connection established between the premise of the film and the title is extremely crucial because

it is applied throughout the story. Memento emphasizes that the last thing remembered by

Leonard is the death of his wife. He clearly remembers the happiness and emotions that she gave

him, and due to his condition, he is unable to comprehend time and how it functions. In one of

the scenes, Leonard contemplates how he is supposed to heal and move on while he is unable to

feel time. This says a lot about Leonard's life and his feelings about his wife's presence around

him, always stalking him. It demonstrates the horrible experience accompanying anterograde

amnesia.
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Amnesia is simply a simple term used to mean loss of memory. The most common type

of amnesia is often described in movies and stories, and the kind Leonard happens to have

effects long term memories. Specifically, the blow to his head led to bilateral damage to his

hippocampus, causing severe anterograde amnesia (Postle 350). This type of damage is known to

create this type of amnesia, and damage to similar temporal areas of a brain has demonstrated to

increase the severity of amnesia (Postle 350). This may be the case of Leonard because even

after this damage, he still retained some aspects of his long term like his identity. Anterograde

amnesia terminates the ability of the brain to transfer short term memories into long term ones.

Therefore, victims of the disease are unable to make long term memories despite being semantic

or episodic Memory (Aggleton 281).

Every morning, Leonard does not recall that he has the condition. He even tattoos himself

on with words written as "Sammy Jankins.". This tattoo serves its purpose of reminding him of

the extreme nature of his ailment. Sammy Jankins was a client investigated previously by

Leonard for insurance fraud. Sammy Jankins also suffered from amnesia and had found different

ways to deal with this memory loss, including taking polaroid photos and including small notes

on them and tattooing important details never to forget them. Leonard's world begins evolving

around his short-term memory, consistently having to remind himself of things that are of value

to him, in his survival, and in the search to find the person responsible for the murder of his

spouse.

With neuroscience growing at a rapid pace, there still a lot to be learned in defining the

neurobiology underlying behaviors, emotions, and cognition. Among these cognitive domains,

memory is one of the functions that has been studied heavily, yielding fruitful results in

neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and nature (LeDoux 654). The evaluation of reported amnesia,
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especially among criminal defendants, is difficult because it needs a particular approach in

assessing the memory and comprehending its neurobiology (Lacy and Stark 686).

In reality, most severe forms of amnesic syndromes have a clear psychiatric and

neurological basis. Real fugue states are uncommon, but people with these ailments retain the

ability to learn new information and do everyday tasks in the context of severe retrograde

amnesia triggered by a traumatic affair (Lacy and Stark 686). As agreed by most experts, the

most characteristic feature of inorganic amnesia is the interference of attention span or normal

intelligence and permanent problems in taking in new information (Stern 986). Identity and

personality remain unaffected. The most severe types of amnesic syndromes develop after

neurosurgery, stroke, or brain infection. These factors may be overlooked by movies in favor of

dramatic head injury, which is more appealing to audiences (Stern 986).

In the movie, Leonard was still able to use his cell phone, drive a car, and have

conversations with people. They are all examples of procedural memory, which is usual in

anterograde patients (Matthews 613). However, anterograde patients can still establish

procedural memories because this does not occur in the hippocampus. Patients with this ailment

do this by repeatedly doing tasks that become second nature to them and learned through

procedural Memory (Matthews 613). It is vital to acknowledge that memory is neither a single

nor a unitary concept in neurocognitive functions. The term memory refers to an individual's

ability to learn, store, and retrieve information (Hulme and Mackenzi 111). Regarding the type of

data learned, there are two types of categories of memory widely accepted, including procedural

or declarative. Declarative memory is the ability of learning, encoding, and retrieving factual

data and information about oneself (Matthews 614). Procedural memory refers to an individual's

ability to learn, store, and redo procedures and skills (Matthews 614). It generally refers to the
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memory of how things are accomplished and is demonstrated through execution as opposed to

explanation.

As reported by a patient, the clinical features of memory loss can enable more focus on

the genuinely of the amnesia. Studies have indicated that periods of substantial memory loss are

blurred and of gradual onset and ending (Wood and Kinsbourne 170). Translating that if an

abrupt beginning and end characterize an amnesic episode can indicate feigned memory loss

(Wood and Kinsbourne 170). Furthermore, individuals with real amnesia have islands of

memory where they do not have complete memory loss but can recall events occurring at the

amnesic period (Cheke and Clayton 14). There is a diminishment of amnesia in people with

alcohol intoxication and mild head injury (Cheke and Clayton 14). In the initial stages, the

individuals cannot recall the events that occur days before the poisoning or injury. However, as

days go by, their memories of significant events slowly return. In most cases, these old memories

make a comeback before more fresh recollections, a phenomenon known as Ribot's Law.

Therefore, the shrinkage of amnesia accompanies the genuine inability to recall some criminal

events (Groome 230).

Nolan utilizes classic noir narrative composition yet somehow distorted plot. Nolan

provides viewers a precious insight into the principle character's mind. He takes them on a

backward journey via a false memory where the characters appear to arise from the fog. The

spectators are similarly as lost as Leonard, and there is the uncertainty of the characters, and if

Leonard should trust them as he interacts with them. The film's cinematic and story structure

brings about a disorienting effect on the viewer, which gives a visceral effect similar to the

everyday life of individuals with anterograde amnesia (Schmidt 120). Like Leonard Shelby, the

viewer begins the story with only the knowledge they possessed before the film started. In this
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sense, the audience is much like him after the accident. Just like Leonard wakes up to fresh

moments every time his thoughts change, the audience is kept in the same footing with exposure

to new clues of the puzzle accompanied by each piece of memory that passes his mind.

Besides the attempts to make the audience understand the emotional experiences and

nature of anterograde amnesia, it accurately depicts the challenges these people experience

during interaction with the world. Sammy Jankins, the man, tattooed on Leonard's hand, shares

the same condition, is an anecdotal foil that Leonard uses to explain his situation to other people.

Sammy can recall complex skills like the proper administration of insulin to his wife, who has

diabetes. Yet with this, he cannot learn simple tasks or remind people he met after his accidents.

As Leonard recalls Sammy, he remembers meeting him on many occasions, and he rarely

recognizes him. The viewer observes this phenomenon as Leonard interacts with different

characters characterized by him reintroducing himself, explaining his condition, which further

reveals the nature of the amnesia affecting him.

Viewers of the movie quickly discover that they really cannot trust the investigation of a

mentally ill individual like Leonard Shelby. There are several hints on the unreliability of human

memory and that the viewer is dealing with an extremely unreliable narrator. Leonard is also

easily manipulated by other individuals, which means that he has already collected information

that is inaccurate and useless since they are individuals set on deceiving him, including Teddy.

Lenny also finds himself making some mistakes while collecting data on the murder of his wife.

For example, he mistakenly confuses one as and I when taking Teddy's license number. Later in

the movie, the license plate changes according to the tattoo online. The message derived from the

viewer is that Leonard's pseudo-facts cannot be trusted since memory is capable of manipulating
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everything. With these facts in mind, it is easy to believe and prove that Leonard was partially

responsible for his actions.

A critical aspect correctly shown in the film of how Leonard was partially responsible for

his actions is the unfortunate aspect of how people can effortlessly swing individuals that have

anterograde amnesia. Leonard is suspicious that someone is manipulating him but has never was

quite sure of this. This vulnerability is evident when Natalie, a bartender and the girlfriend of a

drug dealer, allows him to sip beer from a mug used by all bar attendants, including Leonard,

like a spitting mug. A few brief moments leading up to the sipping, Leonard saw the cup being

passed around as each patron took turns to contribute with his share of mucus. Since patients

with anterograde amnesia are deficient in encoding explicit memories, a daring test would be

successful (Sutherland et al. 202).

Teddy, who is Leonard's chief accomplice in the film, is also guilty of taking advantage

of Leonard. Since Leonard presumes that the attacker who ran away is called John G, Teddy

helps him obtain names and police reports on criminals sharing the same name. Eventually, he

starts using Leonard’s disorder to his advantage, tricking him into doing his dirty work for him.

He tries to convince Leonard that Jimmy Granz, the local drug dealer who happens to work in

the same motel as Leonard, is the man he is looking after. After collection of necessary clues,

they set up a trap for Jimmy, and when he arrives at the meeting point, he is killed by Leonard.

However, before he dies, he utters Sammy's name, which makes Leonard discover that he has

killed the wrong John G sending him into a tailspin.

Temporary brain damage can cause crime related to amnesia. The hippocampus,

prefrontal cortex, and thalamus all have an involvement in the storage and encoding of data in
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the Memory (Ritchey et al. 51). Out of the three areas mentioned, the hippocampus is probably

the most prone to permanent and temporary dysfunction. Consumption of alcohol closed head

injury and certain illegal and prescribed drugs can lead to the temporary damage of the

hippocampus (Ritchey et al. 51). A significant number of offenders claim that their amnesia

associated with an inability to remember criminal events were due to alcohol consumption

(Jelicic 620). There are different reasons to doubt the existence of this type of amnesia,

especially when crimes are committed, as Leonard's case. Laboratory studies conducted where

participants encoded and stored data in a specific emotional condition and retrieved the data in

another condition have demonstrated the existence of a lack of ability to remember stimuli

shown in the learning phase (Ritchey et al. 51).

Since the story in the film is told backward, it begins with the scene of Teddy being killed

by Leonard and another scene near the beginning showing Leonard killing Jimmy, the local drug

dealer. There is a repetition of events that start again and again to introduce the audience into

how Leonard's moment to moment existence happened. The movie perfectly imitates how

Leonard struggled to make sense of the events occurring around him. Nolan's use of these

structures was perfectly suited to confuse viewers while placing them in the protagonist's head,

who is suffering from anterograde amnesia.

In the film, Leonard has two diverse types of screen memories. Sigmund Freud categories

the two into suppression and repression screen memories (Sprengnether 220). The initial one is

when Leonard's mind repressed emotionally tricky moments. An example demonstrated when

Natalie requests Leonard to close his eyes to visualize his wife. Leonard only remembers some

parts since his brain may have locked out other memories. It can also be hypothesized that

Sammy Jenkins is a mixture of Leonard's past experiences and present ones. Each time Leonard
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gets screen memories, the brain represses the memories, making Leonard's Memory a bit

distorted.

Leonard can sometimes portray in the film as being an individual with self-determination.

However, Leonard may lack this quality because he is attached to his photographs, tattoos,

relationships, and associations of stimuli diverted towards his urge for revenge. An example is

the John G. murdered tattoo, which always reaffirms his burning desire for revenge. John G. may

not have necessarily killed his wife since the tattoo indicates murdered rather than killed. If the

story on Leonard is parallel to Sammy’s tale, then it means that Leonard was responsible for his

wife's murder by insulin shots. According to some scholars, free will is deceived. Free will

comprises who we are, and pure conditioning aids us in eliminating memories (Wallace 233.).

However, when a person is controlled and manipulated by internal and external factors, it

translates to the individual lacking free will.

Leonard is also partially responsible for his actions throughout the film owing to the

altering of his cognitive functioning. Cognitive functions provide an incredible view of what is

happening in the waking hours of an individual's life (Brehmer et al. 63). Any type of

recognition, like the one provided by memory, is a process that is habituated and pops up

whenever one is engaged or busy in other tasks. This is a perfect fit for the construction of

Memory that Leonard has set up. He repeatedly recalls the Sammy Jankins story, which aids him

in the reconstruction of his thoughts for a brief moment. Sammy's significance is made clear by

the fact that he has tattooed his name on his hand.

Leonard often habituates himself with stories and memories that he wants to recreate. While

victims of anterograde amnesia cannot recreate fresh memories, the ability to make physical
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associations is still present. This is a big part of the Sammy Jenkins narrative, and the main

reason that Leonard thought that Sammy was pretending about his condition. However, at the

end of the movie, it is revealed that Leonard was responsible for his wife's murder. He masks this

event by both the John G tattoo and the Sammy Jankins story. Throughout the movie, Leonard

constructs different narratives for himself. This might be an attempt by him to gain some type of

recognition on the world and the situation he finds himself in. He found ways to justify the

clothes he wore, the car he drove, and all his actions.

Leonard also demonstrates that he has some aspects of dissociative amnesia because he

can’t recall most of the murders that he has done. While most disturbances in memory are

attributed to organic brain diseases, crime-related amnesia raises the query of the dissociation,

which refers to the disruptions of normal functions of consciousness, identity, memory, and the

perception of the environment (Schauer and Elbert 114). A dissociative state refers to a disrupted

state of consciousness that occurs concurrently after a traumatic event (Schauer and Elbert 114).

This disorder is characterized by the inability to recall crucial personal experiences and

circumstances occurring after a traumatic event with psychological origins.

Various frameworks have been established to give account on how and why dissociate

amnesia happens. Most psychological explanations suggest that dissociative amnesia acts as a

protective function that minimizes the severe emotional consequences accompanying trauma

either by impairing the encoding of traumatic events or repressing the experiences from the

conscious self (Schauer and Elbert 114). Another explanation maintains that the description of

this phenomenon is best explained from a neurological and biological perceptive. In this sense,

biological responses to psychological trauma like neuroendocrine dysregulation from high levels

of stress affect attention and the encoding and consolidation of Memory (Blum 430). Repeated
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exposure to stressful situations may alter the transmission of neurotransmitters and thus have

direct consequences on the brain.

Studies conducted on glucocorticoid treatment have determined that elevated levels of

glucocorticoids can hinder the retrieval of traumatic events by inhibiting the medial temporal

lobe activities. It has also been noted that the difference between dissociative amnesia and

organic amnesia is random since both have consequences on the brain changes and lead to

alterations in memory processes (Blum 430). Studies that have tried to establish the relationship

between criminal behavior and dissociative amnesia have indicated that there is a relation

associated with the claim of amnesia and different variables relating to the offender or the crimes

committed. People often report of patchy or hazy memory regarding the crime. Dissociative

amnesia is linked with crimes that occur in a state of excessive emotional arousal in which the

victim is familiar with the offender (Blum 430). In most cases, the crimes are usually unplanned

with no viable motive. The occurrence and severity of amnesia increase with the level of

violence.

Conclusion

Memento presents audiences with the opportunity to investigate the crucial role played by

memory in human lives. There is an establishment of the importance of envisioning the events

that occur when it is absent. There is a scene in Leonard's car where Teddy tells Leonard that he

does not know who he is. Leonard replies that the recalls all events before his accident, and

Teddy responds by saying to him that the person Leonard knows was the past definition and that

he did not know who he was since the accident took place. With this in mind, it is hard to blame
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Leonard on the crime he committed after his accident since he genuinely did not know who he

was and the consequences of his actions.

Memento is a beautiful work of art in movies for different reasons. One of the most

important ones is how the film plays into the idea of memory and consciousness. It provides us

with greater insight into what it means to utilize our memories and how life would be without

creating new memories or building new realities. Throughout the film, Leonard is affected by his

memory loss, which leads him to do immoral acts that can perhaps be justified by his wife's

assault and murder.

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