re: Watched Memento for the first time today (spoilers)

Found this (it's actually Jankis)

LINK

Sammy Jankis (well played by Stephen Tobolowsky) is key to our understanding Memento. First off he's key to Leonard remembering he suffers from short-term memory loss because Sammy, too, has the same affliction—or at least claims to.

As an insurance investigator, Leonard refused to pay off Sammy's claim because it is shown that his amnesia is not physical—but perhaps psychological. In one of those black-and-white flashback scenes, we see Leonard telling Sammy's wife this. She's a diabetic and—in the next scene—we see her testing her husband in an unbearably painful way. Sammy gives his wife regular insulin injections when she tells him "it's time." In this scene, she tells him it's time again and again to see if he'll actually go through with it (her reasoning: if he really loves her and is faking he'd obviously stop). The thing is he doesn't stop.

What's so crucial about this scene is this: it mirrors Leonard's own trauma. Somehow (and we may not have enough information to say exactly how—perhaps through conditioning and repetition as is suggested) Lenny has merged his own past with his memory of Sammy. In seeking out revenge for his wife's death, he tattoos facts on his body (Fact 1, Fact 2, etc.) but the message "Remember Sammy Jankis" is importantly not one of them.

To quote Leonard himself: "memory can change the shape of a room or the color of a car."

The final scene (which, remember, is the earliest in chronological time) with the undercover cop Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) spells this all out. Teddy has his own agenda but what he reveals to Leonard here is true. The black-and-white scene of Sammy giving his wife repeated injections is a visualization of something Leonard psychologically wants to believe—but that doesn't make it so.

The fact is this: Leonard's wife is the diabetic and Leonard is the one who gave her too many shots. This is confirmed by Teddy when he tells Leonard she survived the attack. Teddy also points out the missing pages in the police report. Why are the pages missing? Because Leonard didn't want to face what they reveal. And (even more significantly) there's the image of Leonard's wife on the bed (wearing underwear) in which Leonard is seen giving her an injection. This image is quickly brushed aside by another image of him playfully pinching her in the same spot, but that's just obfuscation. It's a perfect example of a real memory intruding into our hero's mind and him quickly seeking to cloud it so as to avoid psychological pain.

There is also a scene near the end of the movie that shows Sammy Jankiss sitting in an institution. As someone walks by him his face changes for a split second (just a few frames) to that of Leonard.

You have to watch really closely to notice it.

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The fact is this: Leonard's wife is the diabetic and Leonard is the one who gave her too many shots. This is confirmed by Teddy when he tells Leonard she survived the attack. Teddy also points out the missing pages in the police report. Why are the pages missing? Because Leonard didn't want to face what they reveal. And (even more significantly) there's the image of Leonard's wife on the bed (wearing underwear) in which Leonard is seen giving her an injection. This image is quickly brushed aside by another image of him playfully pinching her in the same spot, but that's just obfuscation. It's a perfect example of a real memory intruding into our hero's mind and him quickly seeking to cloud it so as to avoid psychological pain.

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I disagree. This assumes that Teddy is a truthteller which we know for a fact he isn't. I cannot say this strenuously enough: we cannot believe anything Teddy says. Some of it is true. Maybe all of it is true. But we do not know if it is true.

The key to Sammy is that he clearly had to exist and exist before Leonard's trauma or else he couldn't remember him. However, Leonard manipulates his memory of Jenkis for his own purposes. Yes, memory can change the color of a car.

The point is not that Leonard's wife or Sammy's wife is diabetic, but that Leonard no longer knows. And neither do we. We cannot get at the objective truth due to the faulty nature of memory. And he can make himself believe either. Either can be true. Or neither. Such is the power of human memory.

My personal belief is that Leonard killed his wife in the attack and he's trained his mind to forget the fact. He is the killer. (This from reading the short story, which is much different than the movie, and focuses on Leonard in the psych ward).

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Not really

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I've talked to several people who didn't notice it, so I was trying to be nice...

Teddy is not being nice to Leonard. He's using him as a hired killer he doesn't have to pay to shake down drug dealers and take their profits and product. He's not doing it for sympathy, he has an angle. That's why he manipulates Leonard into the opening kill. He's encouraging this fantasy world because he manipulates the evidence into getting Leonard to kill the competition.

Leonard is an escaped mental patient who is avoiding capture because of the protection of a dirty cop (Teddy). Teddy tells Leonard what he wants him to know, and there is no reason to believe he is telling the truth about Sammy Jenkis. Hell, there's no reason to believe he KNOWS the truth about Sammy Jenkis.

Also, let's analyze Leonard's last memory. we have no reason to believe it is not true: he is on the floor next to his wife, as they both bleed, victims of a robbery. Now, under what circumstances is Leonard released to his wife's custody, assuming she survives, and he is to manage her injections? Do we honestly think that he was not obsessed with this missing John G until he accidentally poisoned his wife, months or even years after the incident? How does the timeline work if she survives the attack and Leonard kills her later with insulin? And how does he remember it when prompted to by Teddy? He can't make new memories.

I think there's far too many difficulties with this interpretation. Sammy Jenkis killed his wife. So did Leonard. That's why he instructs himself to remember. He's absolving himself of responsibility.

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You don't impress easily, do you?

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I'm not trying to be a snob, I swear. I just feel like this is his true magnum opus. People say "oh, man, Inception is genius." No, Memento is genius. Such a well-made, well edited, unique, refined film with very few, if any, flaws.

And I'm not trying to say Nolan's other movies are bad, because they are very good, but Memento is on a whole different planet IMO

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the whole snow level at the end just seemed like a big action set with no real depth

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Now you're just being silly.



Everyone needs to check out his first film, Following, if you haven't had the chance.

Tarantino really enjoyed Memento. However, he said it had one flaw.

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How does he keep remembering he has a condition?

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But overall I love the film.

In fact Non Batman movies > Batman movies when it comes to Nolan.

TDK is great.....for a comic book film. Mostly because of Heath Ledger.

Movies like Memento and The Prestige are just better.

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TDK is truly epic, but a lot of that was because of Heath Ledger crushing the role of Joker.

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yes, ledger did a good job, but so did the writers, directors, costume, etc. perfect synergy.


not trying to downplay ledger, but had he not eaten 134 pills, his role wouldn't be so iconic, imho

I'm envious that you get to see for a first time.

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First off, Nolan is a genius. I don't know how you come up with a plot like that or the story line when its backwards.

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Well actually, his brother did.