Audience theory essay

Memento is a psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the rating for this film is a 15. I found the film very confusing but interesting, as the scenes were shown in chronological order. Throughout the film I felt like I didn’t understand what was happening but the next scene always confirmed what had happened in the previous scene, which made me eager to continue watching.

Overall I found the film quite violent and also disturbing. The scenes I found were violent were, when Leonard knocked Dodd out and tied him up at put him in a cupboard, the very first scene when Leonard shot teddy and the scene where you saw his wife in a body bag. I found the scenes when Leonard was tattooing him self very hard to watching and found them quite disturbing. The violent and disturbing scenes were affecting me at the begging of the film but the more I saw these scenes the more I began to be immune to them, this is an example of desensitization this theory suggests that an audiences attitude to violence can be effected by having being exposed to it to much of the same violence.

The reasons an audience might want to consume this text is because they might want something that challenges their mind, and gives them a thrill when finding out the twist at the end.

The ‘copy cat theory’ basically means when negative behaviour is imitated. I don’t think that this theory applies very well to this film because, the certificate is a 15 so anyone younger than this age should not be watching the film so therefore will not imitate the bad behaviour. People above the age of 15 are mature enough to know that the violent scenes in this film are wrong so would not or should not imitate the scenes.

The further into the film I got the more I felt for Leonard and the more I wanted him to find the killer of his wife. This is an example of the uses of gratification theory for personal identity.

After doing some research of this film I found out that the film ‘memento’ has a very high rating of five stars. Some audience comments –“An unforgettable trip into the mind of a man with no memory”, “A puzzling film that utilizes flash animation to guide one through a murder mystery”. A lot of people I spoke to about this film said they did not enjoy it, this did not change my opinion, I really enjoyed the film and would like to watch it again. The reviews prove the theory, of the two-step flow theory as this creates an idea of the film that you’re about to watch.

I found that my understanding of the film did differ from others, as I thought that Leonard killed his wife and had just forgotten, some people thought that Leonard had found the killer but had just forgotten and was just continuing to look for a killer that didn’t exist. Also weather his wife was actually diabetic or not?

I found that my reading was preferred, as I liked the way the film was laid out, and liked that I had to really think and concentrate throughout the film.

I feel the most relevant theories to the film is the desensitization theory as the more you watch the film the less you feel bothered by the violent and disturbing scenes, for example the further into the film I got the less disturbing I found watching Leonard draw his own tattoo’s as I had become immune to it as I had seen it so many times. I also think that the two step flow was a relevant theory because I talked to a lot of people about the film to try and help my understanding, unlike other films where you might just say it was a good film, with this film I really got into in-depth conversation with peers.