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‘Memento’ Audience Theory Essay

The film is based around the fact that Leonard, the main character, is trying to find the guy who killed and raped his wife. We find out that due to his amnesia he is actually the one who killed his wife, and that she was only raped. Also we discover that he killed innocent Teddy due to his memory loss and believes he is John G as he is mislead by a girl called Natalie. Leonard, later  in the film we find out, that he killed the guy that raped his wife already, just he chose to erase this from his memory in order to keep him from going almost crazy due to his illness.

The Film ‘Memento’, a physiological thriller, started off as very confusing as I didn’t really follow what was going on so I began to really get interested and want to find out more about the main character Leonard. Soon after all the questions of why did Leonard he kill Teddy, who is Leonard and what’s wrong with him etc, I understood that the colour bits of the film was actually going backwards in time, whilst the black and white was in chronological order. This was to show what it was like for him piecing his life together as he suffered from a short term memory loss after an accident where he can’t record any new memories. This is a good effect on the audience because it keeps them alert and aware of what is going on.  Also this enables the audience to relate and understand the way Leonard has to think now, and the seriousness of his condition.

We find out that Teddy, who gets shot at the beginning, has raped and murdered the main character’s wife. The violence within the scene of Teddy getting shop eventually becomes desensitized because it is used so frequently the violence no longer shocks the audience and they become immune to it.  Therefore the further violence seen later in the film is no particular shock or surprise to the audience. Here the desensitisation theory applies as the violent acts become no longer unexpected. This repetitive exposure to violence may alter the audience’s perception about violence and how acceptable it is in real life, resulting in perhaps an increase in crime over years. This suggests that the ‘Cultivation Theory’ could be applied to this film as the immunity to these violent acts on screen could make the violence more acceptable as there is no feeling behind the audience as it is so repetitive.

Also the copycat theory may apply here as Leonard justifies his acts with revenge; therefore it could be argued that people watching this film may become vengeful after a loss and Leonard’s actions may be imitated. Also as this film is rated a ‘15’ it is still available to teenagers at a prime age of which way they can turn in life. This could easily influence young minds of teenagers, and it may be argued that crime could be one of the influential factors.

As this violence appears to be justified in the film by Leonard wanting revenge for the death and rape of his wife, the ‘Hypodermic Syringe Theory’ could be suggested to apply to this text. This is because the justification of murder could influence and alter people’s beliefs in the audience as to how murder can be okay when seeking revenge.

The audience watching ‘Memento’ may be consuming this media text for several different reasons. Firstly the audience can identify with Leonard well because of his loss and suffering, this is reinforced by the way the film is narrated backwards, therefore the audience can understand the way Leonard is thinking and feel like he does in the condition he has. The audience relates to his confuse and to the eagerness to get to the bottom of why and what has happened. This falls under in the ‘Uses and Gratification’ and ‘Personal Identity’. Also people may watch it to entertain by allowing the audience to find different meanings and denotations of the film. This is known as ‘Reception Analysis’. For example the ending of the film could have many different interpretations. This ambiguous ending leaves more for discussion and puts emphasis on the two step flow theory. My original reading of the film was absolutely confused so it could be negotiated easily. By researching further about the film I was swayed to a preferred reading of the film and I think If I watched it again I would enjoy it more and appreciate it more as I wouldn’t be as confused and trying to keep up with what’s going on.

 As there is many different denotations of this film, others may discuss their opinions, and what they understood and didn’t understand about the film, this is called ‘The Two step Flow’. People will go and talk to others about this film as it is potentially very confusing for some and therefore it will be discussed with others. For example the reviews about the film and synopsises will influence the people who go and read up about it after as they didn’t understand. I looked up the reviews on the film and it is rated highly amongst a wide range of websites. It explains the narrative is explained as ingenious and the centre of the film. Amongst these reviews is a brief synopsis about the film, which enabled me to understand it fully. Therefore I am now very keen on the film, and understand how cleverly it was portrayed and appreciate the brilliance of the narrative. By this film being highly rated I have now been influenced to think the same, as thinking back on the film I can understand where the reviewers are coming from.

Overall there are many theories that can be applied to ‘Memento’ such as ‘Cultivation Theory’, ‘Two Step Flow Theory’, ‘Uses and Gratification Theories’, ‘Personal Identity Theory’, ‘Desensitisation Theory’, ‘Reception Theory’ and ‘Hypodermic syringe theory’. I believe that the theories that are most relevant to this text are the ‘Desensitisation Theory’ as the violence no longer becomes obvious to the audience; and the ‘Two Step Flow Theory’ as this film is difficult to understand and creates an area for discussion and research to influence what they have found out.