SPOILER ALERT!!!
How can you read three study books about Memento?
It's a film about a guy who has a very short term memory and forgets everything very fast and who gives himself a purpose to live for by sending himself on different quests by tattooing himself with some clues to find the supposed murderer of his wife. It's all shown backwards, so that it seems that we're experiencing everything the way the main character does.
All you've done is put the entire film into as tight a nutshell as you possibly could. A couple of the books attempt to expand on the theme of self-deception, which was one of the themes that really got to me from the . It's not a film about a couple of cliched themes, it's a film about almost everything to do with human nature.
It's a film about revenge, and how vengeance can be almost futile once the quest is completed, and that the most attractive thing about revenge is the journey itself.
It's a nightmare noir about the loss of control. In various flashbacks, we see Lenny, pre memory condition, as a very hands on, sure of himself investigator who seems to be in complete control. Throughout the film he longs for that control and can't regain it because of said condition. The closest he comes to regaining any control is when he deceives himself into doing despicable acts.
It's film about our (often over) reliance on memory, and how it shapes our perception of the world and people around us. The film forces us to ask many questions regarding memory. Is memory reliable? Is it possible for our memories to be misremembered or distorted? '
The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it? My actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. My wife deserves vengeance, and it doesn't make any difference whether I know about it' This is complex stuff, Nolan's inviting us to wonder whether our actions have meaning if weren't for our memories. The world outside Leonard's head is still defined by his action, but this is not an easy question to answer, and that alone invites discussion.
You mention the reverse chronological order as if it's some weak gimmick. There have been many films that have used fractured narratives. However, given the context of the film, it reverse narrative structure is used to it's fullest potential because, as you say, the film forces us to experience his condition and dilemma first hand. That's another one of the genius of
Memento, and I find it puzzling how you can dismiss that aspect so easily when it's absolutely essential to the film.
Personal identity is another major theme here, too. But i'll say no more because i'm probably boring the pants off everyone!
My point is, Memento's themes can be analysed into 20 books if someone chose to.
Same goes with The Prestige. Nolan actually had to use sci-fi to pull his trick, so he actually cheated as the "director-magician". The 'trick' with the twin brothers was pretty cool, though.
The sci-fi part of the film has been of contention for quite some time now on here. I still don't understand how it's a cheat or how the sci-fi aspect takes away from the film. It's not like there weren't hints throughout. Near the beginning, Cutter refers to the big box as 'real magic'. I honestly don't see how that's a cheat.
Nolan took the easy way out by introducing real "magic." He completely destroyed the whole point of there being a trick by introducing the cloning/teleportation.
The thing with Nolan's protagonists are they are always individuals who go to extreme and extroadinairy lengths in order to achieve a certain goal. Whether it be some meta dream espionage, a man who travels all of Asia to build up his mind, body and spirit or a man creating external memories in order to seek his wife's killer, they all do some pretty amazing ****. That goal is often selfish, and I took Angier's trick to reinforce the Nolan protagonist as well as one of the central themes in The Prestige. His trick seemed fairly remarkable until you knew the secret of it, and thus, the trick came across as disappointing. And I always thought that was Nolan's intention with Angier. We were never meant to be wowed by his reveal towards the end, and I think it really works on the director-magician metaphor.
And the fact that there are 3 study books in existence on Memento is hilarious. It's also hilarious that you took the time to read them. Sounds like a bigger waste of time than reading a Dan Brown novel.
Memento changed the way I viewed film. I studied film and have a career in video editing and general media because of
Memento, so certainly not a waste of my time.