>On Sat, 2 Mar 2002, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>> I think, though, that as far as today's American movies are
>> concerned, we are not exactly inundated by a flood of an earnest
>> interest to include a _left-wing_ political message in art. Instead,
>> we are being bombarded by war propaganda movies (e.g., _Behind Enemy
>> Lines_, _Black Hawk Down_, _Collateral Damage_); and clever and
>> technically expert films with little to say about anything (e.g.,
>> _Memento_, _Being John Malkovich_).
>> --
>> Yoshie
>
>Actually, I was thinking of the war prop dreck as a good example
>of my point. But why diss Memento? Cool stuff; maybe I'm easy,
>but I'd call it good art.
The secret of the protagonist's amnesia and compulsion to murder is the forgetting of misogyny inherent in men's sexual control over women (the "protector" sliding into the executioner). A theme (always implicit in film noir, often explicit in neo-film noir) whose revelation, in more capable hands, could be as devastating (to the protagonist and the audience alike) as the revelation of capitalism and patriarchy in _Chinatown_. As it happens, though, _Memento_ makes the revelation forgettable, overwhelmed by its narrative device, rather than having the narrative device integral to the revelation. It's ironic that a film about amnesia makes its audience amnesiac, because the film forgets its own theme. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>