Amnesia
Just a short blog entry today on the topic of Amnesia.
There are too many films that use Amnesia as the main point. The three that initially come to mind are Memento, Bourne Identity and Long Kiss Goodnight.
Long Kiss Goodnight was made first with the premise of an ex-CIA agent (Geena Davis) waking up somewhere, no doubt, discovering she has immense butt-kicking skills and proceeding to kick butt with aformentioned skills. Same as the Bourne Identity, though the BI is considerably better I think.
But Memento did something very differemt. The main character has short-term amnesia and so tattoos himself with vital information to help him track down his wife's killer. The end is left deliberately vague - maybe he killed her himself but just forgot, and made up a load of facts to draw himself off the track. Memento is a must-see film. In addition to the plot itself being confusing, the entire story is shown backwards. Not the speaking sections, obviously, because otherwise it just sounds bizarre and mangled, like one of vacuous moron George Bush's speeches.
Anyway. That particular mental condition is used far too much I think. Much better if some other condition could be used, like cronic incontinence. Wouldn't that make a great thriller? Every two minutes the main character stops with something trickling down their leg.
Perhaps these days with so many tens of thousands of films it's hard to be completely original. But after three above-average films using amnesia, that's enough. Besides, they always forget who they are but not basic skills like eating and going to the toilet. Again, a lot of missed opportunities I feel.
And finally here's one of the posters for the Long Kiss Goodnight, on which we can see Geena Davis looking surprised everything is exploding despite apparently holding what looks like an petrol can.
There are too many films that use Amnesia as the main point. The three that initially come to mind are Memento, Bourne Identity and Long Kiss Goodnight.
Long Kiss Goodnight was made first with the premise of an ex-CIA agent (Geena Davis) waking up somewhere, no doubt, discovering she has immense butt-kicking skills and proceeding to kick butt with aformentioned skills. Same as the Bourne Identity, though the BI is considerably better I think.
But Memento did something very differemt. The main character has short-term amnesia and so tattoos himself with vital information to help him track down his wife's killer. The end is left deliberately vague - maybe he killed her himself but just forgot, and made up a load of facts to draw himself off the track. Memento is a must-see film. In addition to the plot itself being confusing, the entire story is shown backwards. Not the speaking sections, obviously, because otherwise it just sounds bizarre and mangled, like one of vacuous moron George Bush's speeches.
Anyway. That particular mental condition is used far too much I think. Much better if some other condition could be used, like cronic incontinence. Wouldn't that make a great thriller? Every two minutes the main character stops with something trickling down their leg.
Perhaps these days with so many tens of thousands of films it's hard to be completely original. But after three above-average films using amnesia, that's enough. Besides, they always forget who they are but not basic skills like eating and going to the toilet. Again, a lot of missed opportunities I feel.
And finally here's one of the posters for the Long Kiss Goodnight, on which we can see Geena Davis looking surprised everything is exploding despite apparently holding what looks like an petrol can.
posted by Mkzrj at 8:44 pm
2 Comments:
What about someone with narcolepsy? That would be highly amusing. But it wouldn't make for much of a film..
Or random attacks of diarrhoea?
.ytiralih eruP
?sdrawkcab kaeps ylno ot tsinogatorp niam eht sdael taht noitidnoc A
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