Otnemem

[vovat]

The most recent movie that bethje and I watched was Memento. Well, we watched it as best we could, anyway. The DVD we got from Netflix had scratches on it, so it kept freezing up at certain parts. I also nodded off at one point, but I don't think I missed much because of that. It had an interesting premise, although it wasn't necessarily believable in the psychological sense. I wish I could remember what I learned in college psychology about short-term memory. I think most people use the term in the wrong way. Besides, the amount of time the main character could remember things varied greatly. Still, I liked the idea of him leaving notes for himself, and there were some interesting plot twists. I think I liked it better than Beth did, actually.

The night after watching it, I had some weird dreams that might have been inspired by the movie, although I don't think they actually had anything to do with the film. It just put me in the right mood for weird dreams, or something.

Okay, now to watch Attack of the Clones. After replying to a few comments, that is. And maybe I should eat some breakfast.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I liked Memento, and on the Special Edition Thingy, there's an easter egg that lets you see the film in Chronological Order.

As for Shelby, that is a real condition, although I think they may have taken liberties for the script. But there are people like that who exist. (I'd like to read the original short story; from what I understand, it's all of the note leaving with none of the murder plot, but I haven't read it to know either way.)

But yeah -- I dunno; I should probably go back and watch and see about the amount of time he can remember things. I know he said he could remember things for longer if he really really concentrated, like, saying the same thing over and over again, but that's not really necessarily remembering the original memory, but remembering hearing the thing he wanted to remember consistently later. But yeah -- there did seem to be cases where he'd forget stuff instantly, and other stuff that'd stay for a little while (but not usually too long), but I think that COULD maybe be legit, since there's a lot of times that I forget, say, whether or not the glass I just got down is actually mine or a dirty one, since I was busy thinking about something else.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Concerning Shelby's condition, I have to wonder whether it was self-imposed to an extent, and that might have had some impact on how it affected him. I wasn't totally sure, though. He spent a lot of the film talking about Sammy, who had suffered from the same condition, but we found out at the end that he had conflated some memories of himself with those of Sammy. Teddy also said Sammy was a con-man, but whether or not that's true, I'm assuming he at least PRETENDED to have the memory loss, so maybe there was somewhat of a psychosomatic thing going on, since Shelby had been exposed to someone with the condition. Which isn't to say that Shelby didn't actually HAVE memory loss, mind you.

[revme.livejournal.com]

With Shelby, it's been a while since I'd seen the film; did his condition come about from a head-injury? Or was it a traumatic-event? I'm thinking it's a head injury. But yeah -- I'm not sure; if it was a traumatic-event, there's sort of weird things that happen; since the brain itself is hunky-dory, it's just a sort of mental block, and sometimes stuff can jump those constructed walls; though, that doesn't typically help the sufferer, since they don't know how make stuff jump said walls. But yeah -- it sort of _is_ psychosomatic, but it's much more than that, since it is entirely a brain issue; it's not just like thinking you've got a rash or something when your body doesn't; it's your brain telling your brain that it can't do something, and your brain kinda goes "well, you're the boss, me".

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, if Shelby's memory of the assault on his wife was accurate, there was definitely a head injury. One of the guys threw him against the window, and he hit his head on it. I'm inclined to think it was the combination of the injury AND the traumatic event that caused his condition, though.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK; it's been a while since I've seen it so I couldn't quite remember. I mean, i remember the Payoff of the wife bit, but I couldn't remember what happened w/r/t the assault. But yeah, that'd make sense, really if it was a Little From Column A, Little From Column B.


I think I remember the full wife thing now, though, but I don't want to necessarily spoil it, so I'll do this

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER STOP READING EVEN THOUGH THERE'S A BUNCH OF SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD ANYWAY:
Ok, so is this what happened: The attack was real, and made his wife an invalid/vegetable/somethin', and he ended up killing her, accidentally, by mixing up her insulin or whatnot with something else, which ended up killing her, because of his condition; but also because of his condition he forgot that he did it, and etc. etc. etc.? That's what it is, right? I need to watch that movie again, it's been forever. I remember the "remember sammy jankis" bit, too, where it turned out he'd just done a bunch of research into the condition and faked it, which may or may not have set the condition in his head if there is a psychosomatic component to it, but that's more of a plot device and the whether-or-not-he's-doing-it-psychosomatically is irrelevant to the film, right?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that all sounds about right. It was a little unclear how much of the Sammy Jankis stuff was actually Sammy and how much was Shelby, but I think Teddy explained it pretty well. And yeah, whether or not is psychosomatic isn't really relevant. It's just something I was kind of curious about.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Cool; I just wanted to work stuff out, since it has been... 3 years? since I last saw it. And yeah -- I just wanted to confirm the irrelevance of the psychosomaticness to the film; it is an interesting angle, and I didn't want to sound like I was like, dismissing that thought or anything; just wanting to work out the film for myself again 's'all.