A Streetcar Named Desire--review and analysis of the 1951 film by Elia Kazan

A Streetcar Named Desire is Marlon Brando's 1951 film by director Elia Kazan that he co wrote with Oscar Saul and Tennessee Williams based on Williams’ 1947 Pulitzer Prize winning play. 

The film is about 2 sisters and their fall from a wealthy Mississippi plantation to the 1st floor of a sweaty, dilapidated apartment building in New Orleans called Elysian Fields. Stella marries Stanley Kowalski, a primitive who lives on blind instinct. Blanche DuBois, Stella’s older sister, is a fading belle with a checkered past she is trying to escape, a past that includes a seedy hotel called The Flamingo, a 17 year old boy, and memories of a lost love. As long as she has her Stanley, Stella is fine with Elysian. But not Blanche; she knows that the only way to change her life and escape her past is to leave Elysian. Only 2 things stand in her way--Stanley Kowalski and desire! A Streetcar Named Desire stars Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, Vivien Leigh, and Marlon Brando who earned the 1st of his 4 Best Actor nominations for his role as Stanley Kowalski. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, winning in 4 categories for Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter), Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden), and Best Art Direction (Richard Day, George James Hopkins). In this presentation, I will look at themes from the film and offer my personal thoughts at the end.

Self-discipline
Self-discipline is among the many attributes that distinguish humans from all other animals. In A Streetcar Named Desire, former Belle Blanche DuBois describes Stanley Kowalski as “an animal...something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Something ape-like.”

Stanley’s 1st scene is a brawl in a bowling alley followed by a domestic scene where he throws a radio out the window; and in another scene, he beats Stella and cries like a baby to get her to come back to him. These scenes establish his character as 1 driven by base human elements, primarily passion.

But the film also shows how Stanley’s energy and passion work to his advantage: how his aggression translates to his job where he does a great deal of traveling, a position that demands drive, something Stella is proud to point out to Blanche who is very critical of Stanley. Blanche is also surprised that Stanley was a Master Sergeant in the Engineers’ Corps during his time in the military.

Stanley’s aggressive personality is a turn-on to Stella. When Blanche arrives at Elysian, Stella is proud to point him out in a brawl in the bowling alley; Stella even admits to being turned on seeing Stanley smash the light bulbs in their apartment on their wedding night. By contrast, Stanley’s friend Mitch, who prides himself on being a gentleman, is--unlike Stanley--SINGLE. The truth of the matter is that women, like Stella, seem to be more attracted to bad boys.

Hypocrisy
Blanche condemns her sister for leaving Belle Reve and going down in class to marry Stanley often referring to him as an animal and a Polack. But Blanche is not the Ms. Goody Two-Shoes she pretends to be and Stanley sees through her right off the bat. Through some of his friends, he digs up the dirt in her past such as the fact that she once worked as a prostitute out of this hotel called the Flamingo and that she got fired from her teaching job for fooling around with a 17 year old boy.

Mommas boys
Stanley’s childlike personality brings out Stella’s nurturing side. After he beats Stella and she runs upstairs to her friend Eunice’s apartment, he gets her to come back to him by crying like a baby. And when Blanche rebukes Stella for allowing Stanley to manipulate her, Stella becomes defensive just like a mother standing up for her kid. Stella also cleans up the mess he makes when he throws his temper tantrums.

Like Stanley, Mitch’s childlike personality appeals to Blanche. Mitch is looking for another mother to replace his own mother who is dying. His mother is also concerned about him finding someone to take care of him(this is why she wants to know how old Blanche is). His mother still treats him like a child, worrying about him if he stays out too late; he believes that Blanche is the lady that she pretends to be. And to her, he is a safe alternative for her attraction to boys as she can vicariously live out those fantasies with him.

Paradise Lost
Shame
Gen. 3:6-10, “6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois is fearful of people finding out her age; she is fearful of people finding out her past in Laurel where she turned tricks as prostitute; and she is ashamed of people finding out that she was kicked out of Laurel for being involved with a 17 year old boy who happened to be 1 of her students.

By contrast, Stella is not ashamed of her desires and the fact that she left Belle Reve to marry a brute like Stanley Kowalski. She admits to being turned on by Stanley’s aggressiveness and even after he beats her she returns to him the same night and is not ashamed of doing it, even in the face of her sister’s criticism.

Desire
Matt. 10:34-36, “34Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to turn a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Although Blanche is trying to escape her past, temptation follows her to the Elysian apartments. There she is tempted--right off the bat--by Stanley who peels off his T-shirt in front of her. She is tempted by alcohol. And in a moment of weakness, she is also tempted by the sight of a paperboy.

Matt. 13:25, “But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.”

Notice that in this parable weeds are sown while we are asleep. The weeds that this parable speaks of is human nature--emotions and cravings we are born with, that we are controlled by, and that we learn to cultivate through discipline. Human nature is synonymous with Stanley who has no discipline over his impulses. Blanche DuBois may be a hypocrite but she is also trying to overcome her desires and start a new life. Blanche is not like her sister who has given in to the desires of her flesh. And because Blanche has not given up on leaving Elysian, she is a threat to Stanley’s control over Stella.

The curtain
Blanche has a checkered past but portrays herself as the ideal woman, telling Mitch that she is a Virgo--which is synonymous with the word virgin--and also telling him that her name means white in French. Mitch is naive and falls for her superior act, referring to her as Miss DuBois and expressing his disapproval over the guys playing poker in front of “ladies.”

But Stanley is not naive and on to Blanche from Day 1. Unlike Mitch, Stanley doesn’t buy into appearances because he knows that a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion. He knows that she is hiding secrets under the fake furs, costume jewelry and superior airs and later in the film, he uncovers all of her dark secrets.

Death
Gen 2:15-17, “15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Desire is the forbidden fruit and the penalty for partaking of it is death. Yet, after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve do not die--or do they?
Job 10:4, “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?”
God, being the spiritual being that he is condemns Adam and Eve to a spiritual death. Likewise, death takes on other forms in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The aging process
There are 2 types of death in Streetcar: a death that is like a corpse you see at a funeral--and the type of death that occurs incrementally over time as Blanche says to Stella in describing those she saw die at Belle Reve: “funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths--not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go!" Even the old, sometimes, say, "Don't let me go.”--The death of Belle Reve is a metaphor for Blanche who--like the Elysian apartment building--is slowly disintegrating: “I never was hard or sell-sufficient enough,” she tells Stella, and “when people are soft,” she says “--soft people have got to shimmer and glow--they've got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a-- paper lantern over the light.... It isn't enough to be soft. You've got to be soft and attractive. And I--I'm fading now! I don't know how much longer I can turn the trick.”

The Varsouviana
This song is the theme of death throughout the film, playing on the night Blanches’ young husband, Allen, commits suicide; playing when Mitch breaks up with Blanche over her past; and playing the night of Blanche’s birthday party when Mitch doesn’t show after Stanley tells him about her past as a prostitute.

Hell
Rev. 6:8, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”
Everyone in Elysian lives in a Hell. Stella’s Hell is a dysfunctional and abusive marriage; Blanche’s Hell is fear of her past coming to light.

Ghetto mentality
When we think of a ghetto, what usually comes to mind is a poor community with minorities but a ghetto is any community that is restricted to its own kind. Isolated from other communities that are different from its own, the ghetto-dweller’s perspective is shaped by what he is exposed to and becomes the norm; such is the case with the people who live in Elysian Fields:

For instance, when Stanley throws a tantrum and beats Stella she leaves him but goes back to him and they make up. When their neighbors upstairs, Steve and Eunice, get into a fight and Steve hits her, Eunice leaves him but goes back to him and they make up repeating the cycle. Blanche is shocked seeing Stanley hit Stella and more shocked to find Stella back with Stanley afterwards. Mitch, on the other hand, is matter-of-fact about Stanley hitting Stella, telling Blanche that it happens all the time.

Breaking the cycle
Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Stella gives up Belle Reve without a fight unlike Blanche who does fight to keep the plantation because, although she is a hypocrite, she is also--through her struggle to keep Belle Reve--trying to resist her desires. Their attitudes towards the Elysian apartment also differ. Whereas Blanche is horrified by Stanley’s outbursts, Stella is used to them and defends him, telling Blanche that Stanley just doesn’t know what he is doing when he hits her and that he is really ashamed of himself afterwards. Blanche thinks that the rundown apartment is beneath their standards but Stella doesn’t mind living in the apartment and has no plans to leave unlike Blanche who hopes that marrying Mitch will enable her to leave.

Streetcar ends on a bittersweet note. Yes, Blanche is committed to an institution after being raped by Stanley but by this time Stella has a real baby to direct her love to and leaves Stanley for good.

Wrap

This film is faithful to Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play but there are some differences, particularly the play’s darker ending. In the film’s coming-of-age character arc, Stella eventually leaves Stanley but in the play she stays with him. Another difference between the film and play involves the rape scene with the play’ being more explicit than the film. Also, Blanche is more explicit in recounting her husband’s homosexual affair.

With the exception of Vivien Leigh, the films’ leading actors--Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden--starred in the original Broadway production which was also directed by Elia Kazan. Brando, Hunter, and Malden have the same roles in the play as they have in the film with the exception of Blanche DuBois in the play which went to Jessica Tandy who won a Tony for Leading Actress in 1948. Brando’s performance in the film confirms my opinion that he is the best actor ever. That he, through Kowalski, can provoke such revulsion and contempt attests to his command over his craft. Kim Hunter is also well-cast as Stella and Karl Malden is perfect as Mitch. But the standout performance in the film--and arguably the best female acting performance ever--is Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois.

Vivien 1st played Blanche in the play’s 1949 London debut which was directed by her then husband Laurence Olivier. After 326 performances in the play, it stands to reason that Mrs. Leigh’s command of her character is due to the sheer brute force that comes with familiarity and repetition. It can be argued that Blanche DuBois’ wild mood swings in the film were fueled by the actress’ real-life struggle with bipolar disorder, a condition she claims was exacerbated playing Blanche DuBois which tipped her over into madness. In any case, her acting is among the best ever irrespective of gender.

Again, enough can’t be said about the film’s acting, 1 of only 2 films--along with Sydney Lumet’s 1976 satire Network--to win 3 Oscars in this category: Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Actress, Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, and Vivien Leigh, respectively; Brando was also nominated for Best Actor.

Elia Kazan had the most productive and artistically successful career of any director within a given decade, directing 8 films from 1950-57 including, arguably, 3 of the best films ever in A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront, and East Of Eden.

A Streetcar Named Desire is the 1st Tennessee Williams Play I’ve read and I must confess that he was a great writer. When I read the play, I could see and hear all the characters in the film. I’m not sure Streetcar is THE greatest film ever, but it is definitely up there with the best.

Black Narcissus reviewed and laid bare in black and white!

Black Narcissus is a 1947 drama co-directed, co-produced, and co-written by British duo Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell known together as The Archers who also collaborated on great films such as The Red Shoes, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Small Backroom, “I Know Where I’m Going!” and others. 

Based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Margaret Rumer Godden, Black Narcissus follows a Superior nun named Sister Clodagh and 4 fellow Sisters who are sent to Saint Faith, a remote Indian village in Southern Asia. The palace of Mopu is 8,000 feet above sea level facing a mountain range nearly as high as Mount Everest. The highest Peak, Nange Dalle (Nange Daily), is nicknamed The Bare Goddess for a good reason. General Toda Rai donates the palace to the nuns to open a school and a dispensary and assigns Mr. Dean as the nun’s guide as well as their link to the villagers. The palace of The Bare Goddess sits on a high windy shelf above Mr. Dean and the villagers who live far below in the valley. To Superior Sister Clodagh and her 4 sisters, the task of setting up the school and clinic seems simple. But none of the sisters are prepared for the high altitude, the strong wind, the spell of The Bare Goddess; they can hide their bodies but they can’t hide the mountain. The film’s music is by Brian Easdale, is edited by Reginald Mills, and its cinematography is by Jack Cardiff. The film stars Deborah Kerr as Sister Clodah, David Farrar as Mr. Dean, Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth, and Jean Simmons as the village girl Katchi. The film won 2 Academy Awards for cinematography and art direction for Jack Cardiff and Alfred Junge, respectively, with actress Deborah Kerr winning the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. In this presentation, I will take a closer look at the film’s themes and offer my personal opinion of the film at the end.

Themes

Empathy
You have to relate to people to empathize with them. This is the story of Jesus who came in the flesh to experience life as we experience it and to be tempted in all ways like us. Like Jesus, the nuns are sent to a palace exalted high above a remote village in south Asia to build a school and a hospital for the natives. The natives are connected to the land through farming and live simply. But unlike Jesus, the nuns are running away from everything associated with pain and any other feeling reminding them of the past and what they are. As a result of this renunciation, the nuns are to the villagers as the palace is to the valley, high and out of reach. For example, a young general named Dilib Rai congratulates Clodagh, the Superior nun, on the birth of Jesus. She reprimands him by telling him that Christ is not addressed in such a casual way. But a local guide named Dean is within earshot and objects to this formality by pointing out that Christ should be casual and as much a part of life as our daily bread.

This separation of the divine and the flesh is symbolized by the Holy man who isolates himself from the other villagers and spends all day and all night staring at the mountain. For example, there is a scene where he doesn’t react at all when a villager dies. In an equivalent scene, Sister Clodagh tries to get a nun named Ruth to open up and talk to her concerning the nun’s weight loss. Ruth’s weight loss is due to worry concerning her vows to the nunnery and her attraction to a man--Dean, their guide. But knowing how Clodagh would condemn her if she were truthful about this, Ruth refuses to confide in Clodagh.

If Clodagh could accept her own feelings as a woman, Ruth would feel like Clodagh could relate to her and open up. But Clodagh, being the Superior Sister, is self-righteous, insensitive and is as cut off from herself as the Holy man is from the other villagers.

Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are...”

The power of the senses
Stimulation reconnects the nuns to the past and their emotions. Sister Phillipa is reminded of what she was before becoming a nun when she finds Dean fixing a pipe in the shower. Dilib Rai’s colorful clothes and jewelry reminds Clodagh of the emerald necklace and other jewelry her grandmother left her. When Dean joins in singing Noel and Lullay my Liking, his masculine voice reminds Clodagh of the night her fiancé gave her a present of jewelry.

The House of The Bare Goddess: TemptationWhen the nuns arrive at the palace, sister Phillipa complains about the garden being overgrown. And later, Clodagh tells Dean that something in the air and high altitude has “exaggerated” everything. Both the overgrown garden and that “something in the air” is nature. Nature’s power over the body is more powerful at Mopu palace. Dean and Katchi symbolize nature. This explains Dean’s raw masculinity, his mostly exposed body and its effect on the nuns, and also the effect of his voice when he sings with the nuns (On a side note, pay attention to the young general’s face when Dean sings and the general’s comment about Dean’s deep, beautiful voice afterwards). The power of nature over the mind also explains how Katchi’s raw sensuality is able to seduce and ultimately conquer the young general who believes that going to an all-girls school is as simple as studying hard.

The nuns, the Holy man, and the young general have their own ways of resisting the power of nature. The Holy man isolates himself from other villagers; deprives himself of all sensory stimulation; and he concentrates all of his attention on a mountain. Likewise, the nuns resist nature through hard labor and covering their entire bodies from head to foot. To suppress the instinct to nurture the sick, a child with a high fever is turned out of the convent and sent home with its mother. The child dies as a result but pay attention to the tussle between sisters Briony and Honey. Honey's maternal nurturing instincts come out in this scene as she begs sister Briony to keep and comfort the baby. Also, the nuns restrict the school to young women and children. The nuns limit the color of the garden to green vegetables. And at the end of the film when Ruth trades in her habit for a red dress, Clodagh responds to her by reading the Bible.

When all other efforts to resist temptation fall short, the nuns respond to the power of nature with denial. There’s a scene in the school in which Katchi and Ruth catch a whiff of Dilib Rai’s perfume. Katchi is aroused by the general’s scent and expresses her feelings; but Ruth lies about the perfume’s effect on her. In another scene, Ruth sees some small children and fights back her nurturing instincts by criticizing them.

Humility
Black Narcissus ends with a showdown between Clodagh and Ruth on the cliff underneath the bell. This is a symbolic confrontation as Ruth--in her red dress and red lipstick--has eaten of the forbidden fruit by renouncing her vows to God and a religion that doesn’t relate to her human frailties. In the struggle with Clodagh, Ruth loses her balance and falls off the cliff and down to earth. This falling from heaven and the height of the mountain is symbolic. Ruth falls down to the villagers level, to that of a human.

Isaiah 40:4, “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.”

From the valley below, Clodagh looks up and sees clouds covering the palace, a sign that nature can never exist separately from the body. Clodagh learns also that she cannot help the villagers from the mountain just as Jesus himself had to come down from Heaven to Earth in the form of flesh and blood man:

Romans 8:3, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh...”

Wrap
“A basket of fruit, piled high and luscious and ready to eat” are the words Margarette Rumor Godden--the author of the book that this film is based on--uses to describe the village girl Katchi; however, the same words can be equally applied to the film itself which, like the village girl, is inflamed with erotic tension. Art director Alfred Junge does a terrific job in articulating this tension in the costumes by juxtaposing the nuns’ stark white religious habits against the young general’s flower patterned coats, gold, turquoise, jade jewelry. This tension carries over to contrasting the nuns’ restrictive habits against Dean who may as well have worn a thong throughout the entire film as his bare legs and torso are exposed and glowing as if rubbed in baby oil. All of these visual motifs--the lushly colored surroundings of the village; the young general’s colorful wardrobe; Dean and Katchi’s unabashed sexuality--underscores the plot’s tension and the nuns’ struggle to repress memories of what they were prior to joining the order.

It is hard to believe that as beautiful and as scenic as this film is that it was shot primarily at Pinewood Studios in Southeast England with large-scale landscape paintings, scale models, and matte paintings. The landscape settings were filmed at Leonardslee Gardens in West Sussex, the General’s palace was shot at the home of an Indian Army retiree. None of the scenes in the film were shot anywhere in South Asia. This film is so well shot--especially the aerial scenes of the mountains and palace--and so striking in its colors that there are few films I can compare it with.

Martin Scorsese--who happens to be a huge fan of the film and its director Michael Powell--called the film one of the earliest erotic films and I agree with him 100%. At times, though, the erotica angle is so obvious that I found myself laughing such as the scenes involving Dean and the nuns. Powell is such a great technician that it is hard for me to think that the humor in these scenes weren’t intentional. But I found the most erotic scenes in the film for me involved Kathleen Byron’s character Ruth’s transformation from uptight nun to super-freak acting out Clodagh’s desire for David Farrar’s character Dean.

All of the acting in the film is terrific despite the fact that of all the principal characters, only 1--young general Dilib Rai--is Indian. Jean Simmons, who plays the village girl Katchi, is British and had her face painted for the role. Despite this, it is hard to imagine any actress other than Simmons playing this role as--or more--seductively, especially in the scenes where she seduces the young general. Deborah Kerr is also terrific as sister Clodagh, the Superior Sister tasked with keeping her fellow sisters in line while also struggling with herself. But, to me, the standout performance is Kathleen Byron’s character Ruth who steals the last 1/3rd of the film when she trades in her religious habit for the red dress and red lipstick; wow! Her physical transformation reminds me of the point in The Wizard of Oz where the film goes from black and white to technicolor. The scenes involving her and Dean early in the film also stand out, especially 1 in which Dean is shirtless and her moving in slow motion for a closer look. Funny scene.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have collaborated on many films and I would put Black Narcissus up there with The Red Shoes as among their very best and 1 I’d recommend to someone who hasn’t seen their films.

Personal notes on Christopher Nolan's 2000 thriller 'Memento'

The following are notes I made for a video essay on Christopher Nolan's 2000 film 'Memento.'

Reincarnation

Really it’s like Jimmy got revenge on Johnny by being reincarnated as Leonard who has no memory of his own past life and now seeks revenge for the murder of a wife who does not exist, a wife who is actually jimmy. Natalie is actually Leonard which is why she tells him that they are both survivors, not because he lost his wife, though

Memory

Emotions help us remember. We may forget the details but the impressions stay with us, help us, and protect us. If Leonard felt the things Natalie said to him about how she planned to manipulate him he wouldn’t have allowed her to do it. This also shows how being overly dependent on facts and the means of recording them impairs us and causes us to make the same mistakes over and over. (This is why Sammy Jankis keeps picking up the same electrified object on the test) We have to go back to our notes instead of relying on how the experience made us feel to inform us on how to react which is like being a robot and falls also into the routine category. Also, sometimes you don’t have time to look at a note (such as when Natalie provokes him to hit her, goes out to her car, and comes back in and tells him that Dodd beat her up)

Experience

Experience is the key to growth. without experience and the benefit of wisdom you keep repeating the same mistakes. Leonard’s problem having short term memory is that he is unable to grow and learn from his experiences.

Context and the nature of reality

When Leonard was taking notes on Sammy Jankis and using them to determine whether the man was lying or not, Leonard also reduced Sammy to a bunch of facts and Sammy’s wife knowledge also to a few facts even though she knew her husband the same way Leonard thinks he knows his wife 

• an interpretation of a thing that is unreliable. I could be sweating but that doesn’t mean I’m nervous. I could have just finished working out or ate something hot. The facts don’t provide any underlying basis for it such as why, how, etc. Example from script: 

TEDDY
Lenny, you can’t trust a man’s life to 

your little notes and pictures. LEONARD 

Why? 

(CONTINUED) 

44 CONTINUED: (2) 

TEDDY
Because you’re relying on them alone. You Don’t remember what you’ve discovered or how. Your notes might be unreliable. 

LEONARD Memory’s unreliable. 

Teddy snorts. 

LEONARD (cont’d)
No, really. Memory’s not perfect. It’s 

not even that good. Ask the police, eyewitness testimony is unreliable. The cops don’t catch a killer by sitting around remembering stuff. They collect facts, make notes, draw conclusions. Facts, not memories: that’s how you investigate. I know, it’s what I used to do. Memory can change the shape of a room or the color of a car. It’s an interpretation, not a record. Memories can be changed or distorted and they’re irrelevant if you have the facts. (the inverse of this reasoning is also true: facts can also be unreliable depending on the context they are in as Leonard finds out throughout the film as he is manipulated by his notes to carry out actions that have nothing to do with avenging his wife)

here’s an excerpt from scene 140 in the script that’s the opposite of the excerpt above. Leonard is on the phone talking to a cop: 

LEONARD * (anxious) * What do you want? * (listens) * I know you’re a cop, but what do you * want? Did I do something wrong? * (frightened) * No, but I can’t remember things I do. I * don’t know what I just did. Maybe I did * something wrong, did I do something * wrong? * 

Thank-you. 

Leonard paces. * 

LEONARD * I dunno - something bad. Maybe I did * something bad. * (earlier he said that facts were more reliable than memory)

• A fact is like seeing something like a rock on your car but a fact doesn’t tell you how it got there or why
• scene 123 where Natalie threatens and insults Leonard and hides all the pens so he can’t write a note about it is like people putting more trust in things than themselves or others when I think of how Leonard said that memories are unreliable and facts are. If he’d remembered this he wouldn’t have trusted Natalie later
• in scene 68 on page 115, Leonard writes Don’t trust her on a bar mat when Teddy tells him he can’t trust Natalie. Leonard does this facetiously as if to shut Teddy up but without wit or a sense of humor, the words themselves take on a serious context
• The “look of recognition” he sees in Sammy’s face that makes him think Sammy is faking was the man’s way of pretending to remember so as to not seem like an idiot

existentialism

• If Sammy can’t remember being shocked over and over then Leonard’s feeling that his wife had been murdered may also be something he can’t remember
• The way that Sammy keeps picking up the same electrified object in the shock test is a metaphor for Leonard’s actions: 

Leonard keeps getting ripped off over and over by Burt at the hotel

He keeps allowing himself to be manipulated over and over by Teddy after he kills Jimmy

• Another thing I thought about is that Leonard doesn’t know if he wrote the notes or if somebody else wrote them.
• Do we define ourselves or are we defined by others? 
• are we what we are or are we what we believe we are? 
• Is Leonard Shelby who he says he is? On p. 69 and scene 115, Teddy tells him that he does not know who he is. Without memory, others have defined him as a murderer
• This would support my guess that Leonard was programmed to believe he had a wife.
• in C140, Leonard tells cop on the phone that he’s afraid of doing something he can’t remember like Sammy Jankis did. This strengthens my guess that Leonard did to his so called wife what he accuses Sammy of doing to his wife
• We are all alone and disconnected from each other through our feelings that interpret facts differently 
• Do our actions have meaning without purpose? 
• Leonard truly is living in the moment. Can a forgotten moment ever be said to have existed? 
• As a machine, Leonard carries out tasks that are human in nature such as revenge and greed

desensitization

The fact that Sammy gave his wife--someone he loves--too much insulin makes the case that Leonard also did the same to his wife.

also, Leonard is a metaphor for a generation whose attention spans have become so short that the meaning for every act is immediately lost--nothing lasts

scene to support my analogy of Leonard being a symbol for a generation of shortened attention spans. Leonard says that Sammy Jankis preferred commercials to watching movies because commercials are shorter

scene 130 L watches commercials

Emotions

By depending on facts and eschewing emotions, Leonard has nothing to link with the past

plot: Leonard orders call girl to simulate the night he wakes up and finds his wife killed. He believes that the shock of this will make him remember it the same way the shock tests were meant by reinforcement to teach Sammy not to touch electrified objects.

Time

I lie here, not knowing how long I’ve been alone. If I could just reach out and touch her side of the bed I could know that it was cold, but I can’t. I have no idea when she left.” (this metaphor for time is important because it illustrates the importance of feelings in approximating time itself. If the bed were warm, he could have an idea of how long the space had been unoccupied. This metaphor is also important because it suggests that time itself is defined by feelings which facts don’t have)

I think that Leonard is associating things he did to Jimmy with the false story Teddy brainwashed him with about his wife’s rape and murder

In scenes 163-168 scenes of Leonard’s wife death are juxtaposed with him murdering Jimmy. 

Subjectivity

• I can almost see an analogy with somebody recruited to serve in the militiary and a culture where the person is expected to be subjective and follow orders and protocol
• Having no memory leaves you to the mercy of what people say instead of experience
• “I don’t even know how long she’s been gone. It’s like I’ve woken up in bed and she’s not here because she’s gone to the bathroom or something. But somehow I just know that she’ll never come back to bed. (right here is the key! Why would he believe she wasn’t coming back to bed unless he’s been told that she wasn’t coming back to bed?)
• Natalie gave Leonard the note instructing him to go to the hotel and kill Dodd or put him on Teddy
• in scene 130, Leonard confesses that on the night his wife was murdered that he disagreed with the facts of the case file the police made. the paradox is he admitted to putting almighty trust in facts earlier when he disagreed with Mrs. Jankis about Sammy’s condition
• LEONARD
  But he’s not the right guy! * 
• TEDDY * He was to you. Come on, Lenny, you got * your revenge — just enjoy it while you * still remember. * this is the paradox of having a short memory and relying strictly on notes, esp. false notes. It’s like convicting and executing the wrong man but being emotionally satisfied that someone, even an innocent, pays the price
• When you think about what John G. uses Leonard for who’s under the influence that he’s avenging his wife’s murder, this is no different than soldiers sent to fight wars for oil
• Leonard from scene 119: “I didn’t think it was important to her what the answer was, just that she had one to believe.” This statement comes after Mrs. Jankis asks him if he thinks her husband is faking his condition. Leonard’s rationale for not remembering why he kills his wife’s murderer is the same. Leonard from scene 24 explaining to Natalie why it’s important that he get his wife’s murderer: 

NATALIE
But even if you get your revenge, you 

won’t remember it. You won’t even know it’s happened. 

LEONARD (annoyed) 

So I’ll take a picture, get a tattoo. (calms) 

The world doesn’t 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. 

Routine

• Routine is one of the film’s themes that comes out in Leonard’s rituals of writing notes, the women he believes is his wife reading the same book over and over and Sammy repeating the same mistake in picking up the electrified metal shapes (what’s the difference between them?)
• Like i wrote earlier, Leonard has become a metaphor for his interpretation of people by facts alone, in other words, a machine which can be wrong because it doesn’t take into account the motivations behind why people do what they do, only the act itself which is, like memory,
• The problem with repeating something over and over is that it loses its potency and ability to stimulate 
• reading the part where Dodd is chasing Leonard in the trailer park and Leonard forgetting who’s chasing who made me think if you can’t remember why you’re doing something then wouldn’t this be a routine, something carried out without any emotional involvement which is also how he describes his ritual of writing notes on himself, his wife reading the same book over and over, and Sammy Jankis repeatedly shooting insulin into his wife until she dies?
• So, the film is about how we lose the meaning of life and our emotions through routine;
• in scene 112 on p. 63, Leonard orders a girl from an escort service to get her to interact with his wife’s things--hair brush, book, underwear--to remember his wife. Philosophically, this could representf how we try to stimulate ourselves by dressing up fake things with real things such as drugs, alcohol, texting, facebooking, sex, etc
• Learning through repetition (scene 174) Leonard’s Sammy Jankis story gets stronger each time he tells it like a lie that’s told so many times that it becomes a fact
• Leonard has no memories so his actions have no emotional basis and his notes are struck off like a laundry list, like a routine of just something he has forgotten why he has to do it. (just rambling her and trying to get this down)
• without memories or emotions our actions become robotic

Structure

• Each scene in Memento is divided and subdivided with the latter part of the scene shown 1st followed by a contextual scene showing everything that happens prior to the scene before it to reflect Leonard’s short term memory with the 1st or latter part reflecting the last thing he remembers and the 2nd or 1st part of the scene putting the 1st part of the scene in the “why” context
• 1st half of each scene is cut off from its greater context to reflect how short term memory affects Leonard’s interpretation of reality

Plot

• question: did John G. send Dodd to kill Leonard? answer: Natalie sent Dodd to kill Leonard. when Dodd pulls Leonard over he asks Leonard how he came across Jimmy’s car!
• In scene 111, Leonard is reading the police report of the stolen Jaguar and the drugs in it, telling someone on the phone that the police weren’t even looking for John G., the man who raped his wife.
• p 76 scene 120 Teddy knows where Natalie lives because he sets off the alarm on Leonard’s car parked outside her house
• scene 126 p. 82 confirms my guess that Leonard killed his wife by giving her too much insulin? in any case, he probably never even had a wife to begin with
• The police DID find someone at the scene of his alleged wife’s murder
• scene 132 after L drinks the mug of spit and milk N says to him that he really has a problem like the cop had told her (Teddy, she knows him)
• 133 his wife’s eyes blink through shower curtain. she is alive!
• In scene b140, Leonard finds the beer mat in Jimmy’s jacket pocket with “Come by afterwards” written by Natalie letting Jimmy know to come over after the drug deal’s complete; this is when leonard shows up. 
• In scene 24, Leonard walks into the diner and Natalie calls him Lenny. He tells her that his wife used to call him Lenny. This strengthens my theory that she brainwashed him and planted the dead wife theory in his head with the help of another woman he imagines as his dead wife
• Jimmy tells Leonard to remember Sammy Jankis
• Teddy shows up at the scene of Jimmys murder checking the doors of the Jag. He set Jimmy up.
• in scene 24, Natalie asks Leonard to close his eyes and remember his dead wife. Is she asking him this to make sure the programming is stilll in his head?
• Reading the script and thinking about the strong possibility that the woman Leonard thinks is his wife was in on brainwashing him into thinking someone, Teddy, killed his wife, this story reminds me a lot of the Manchurian Candidate because (on scene 58) he said that he woke up in bed alone and didn’t know how long he’d been asleep or when she got up to go to the bathroom. I’d think that if someone had raped and beat her in the bathroom the noise would have awakened him. He woke up and assumed she’d been raped when he saw her in the bathroom as though he’d been told this--Teddy told him this, Teddy and the woman he thinks is his wife conspired to get him to murder Jimmy. Then, when he showed up at the restaurant in Jimmy’s clothes, Natalie uses him to kill Teddy.
• confirmed: Leonard was programmed!

Street fighting, testosterone, and sex: Fight Club review and analysis

Fight Club is a 1999 psychological action thriller by director David Fincher starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meatloaf, and Jared Leto. 

The film follows a recall specialist whose existence is defined by materialism and male support groups, particularly one for men with testicular cancer. Unfortunately, Cornelius--the film’s protagonist--has a hard time finding a group that's exclusively for men as he is followed from club to club by a woman named Marla Singer whom he strikes a deal with to not attend the same clubs on the same day. She agrees but the fact that she's always a day behind him makes Cornelius’ anxiety worse until a chance meeting with a soap salesman changes his life. The film is based on the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The film is produced by Art Linson, Ceán Chaffin, and Ross Grayson Bell; the screenplay is by Jim Uhls; the cinematography is by Jeff Cronenweth; the editing is by James Haygood; and the music is by the Dust Brothers. Though Fight Club didn’t win any awards, it was controversial, receiving praise from Roger Ebert and criticism from Time Magazine that described the film as “sensory overload.”

Plot summary

Fight Club begins with the narrator describing his daily life which is defined by both routine and the things that fill his apartment. His name is Cornelius and he works as a recall specialist. His job is to help automobile companies select the cheaper option between recalling defective automobiles or settling claims. Cornelius attends male support groups on a regular basis. At random times when he feels bullied by his boss or other external pressures, a schism opens and shows him a glimpse of his ideal self.

But Cornelius’s main problem is a woman named Marla Singer who gets a kick out of attending all of his support groups, even his support group for men with testicular cancer. One day, Cornelius meets a soap salesman named Tyler Durden on a commuter flight. Tyler gives Cornelius a business card which Cornelius doesn’t intend on using until he comes home one day to find his life destroyed. A gas leak in his apartment blows up everything he owns. Cornelius is heartbroken and calls Tyler Durden to pour out his pain and Tyler invites him to live with him in a dilapidated house on the edge of town. But Cornelius still longs for the life of Starbucks lattes, designer socks, and IKEA furniture. But on the day that Tyler Durden invites Cornelius to punch him in the jaw and Tyler returns the favor, Cornelius awakens to a new form of zen that makes him forget his former cares. To help other men awaken, Tyler and Cornelius create their own support group. Fight Club grows underground and undetected, recruiting men of all ages and races from menial jobs. Everything goes fine in the beginning before Tyler decides to blow it all up by expanding Fight Club into other cities and turning it into a franchise.

Themes

Cornelius suffers from insomnia and schizophrenia. At times of stress and pressure to conform, he sees a flash, unaware that his ideal self is rebelling against the carefully ordered world of his superego or what he consciously believes himself to be.
The men at the male testicular cancer meeting are emasculated and on their way to becoming women in a society that has pressured them into being insecure with themselves symbolized by Bob, the champion bodybuilder who has developed women’s breasts.

Cornelius dislikes Marla Singer because she reminds him that he and his male counterparts are becoming women. Marla is looking for a man, which is why she does not join Fight Club and starts dating Tyler who, to her--as he does to Cornelius--represents the ideal man.

The Dildo

Male virility is equivalent to manhood and this is why Cornelius and other men attend the support group for men with testicular cancer, because they feel emasculated. Tyler works in the theater of Cornelius’s mind, occasionally interrupting his scripted life with an image of his version of the ideal man. This penis that Tyler sneaks into the film reel is also the metaphor for Cornelius’ ideal self.

You’ll notice that in the beginning of the film, Tyler appears as a flash out of Cornelius subconsciousness, blinking in and out just like the penis that Tyler sneaks into the films at the theater where he works. The masculine symbolism is also reinforced when Tyler goes over to Marla’s place and stands by the dildo on her dresser, which is intentionally placed there to be compared to him. This is why she tells Durden when he sees it that it’s no threat to him. She had been following Cornelius from group to group in search of a man that the dildo represents and this is why she never joins Fight Club.

Homoeroticism

Cornelius sees Tyler hugging a member named Angel Face. In a fight match, Cornelius acts out his jealousy by disfiguring Angel Face.

Cornelius and Tyler’s relationship is homoerotic throughout the film but in this scene in particular. When Cornelius sees Tyler taunting him with Angel Face who is younger and almost a virgin as a new member of the club, Cornelius is inflamed and gets back at Tyler by messing up Angel’s face. Afterwards, he tells Tyler that he just wanted to “destroy something beautiful.” On another level, destroying something beautiful also means that Cornelius wants to change Fight Club into a franchise.

In the car scene, we again see a homoerotic verbal exchange between Cornelius and Tyler who, like a man and his wife in a dysfunctional relationship, argue in front of their children being the 2 Project Mayhem members in the back seat. In this scene, Cornelius’ psyche reverts to his childhood when he saw his own parents argue. Other symbols in this scene are the rain and darkness, representing the unknown; the center line in the road represents the norms of society and the steering wheel represents the tug-of-war between Cornelius’s ego and superego which wants to control everything and stay within those norms. He also wants to control Durden and Fight Club but Durden--the id--is unrestricted and he lets go of the steering wheel representing the letting go of Fight Club and allowing it to deviate into anarchy, which is symbolized as both the car going off the road and crashing in a ditch and when Cornelius “lets go” in his fight match with Angel Face.

Tyler abandons Cornelius

Tyler leaves Cornelius and Project Mayhem, the group they started together. Cornelius wakes up to a house full of Fight-Clubbers making bombs. Marla drops by to see Tyler and Cornelius tells her that he’s abandoned both of them.

Cornelius and Tyler split apart from each other. Before, they found common ground with Fight Club but once the club escalates to corporate vandalism and terrorism, Cornelius’s superego takes over again. The difference between the beginning and end of the film is that in the beginning Cornelius wasn’t aware of Tyler’s existence. Now, Cornelius knows that Tyler exists and is in denial that he and Tyler are the same person.

Cornelius finds Tyler’s plane ticket receipts and flies from city to city. But Tyler is always a step ahead of him setting up franchises in every city and building an army. Every guy in every city refer to Cornelius as sir like they’ve already met before. Finally, a bartender in a neck brace addresses Cornelius as Tyler Durden. Tyler appears in Cornelius’ hotel room and breaks the news to him--they are the same person.
This scene and ensuing scenes shows Cornelius getting past denial and the ensuing struggle between his superego and his id, Tyler Durden.

Wrap

When I look at Fight Club, I see a lot of other films, starting with the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I also see Dead Ringers, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, and even Gaspar’s Noe’s 2002 film Irreversible. The film a lot of people compare it with is A Clockwork Orange. I can even see some Lolita in Fight Club in regard to the fact that Humbert and Cornelius both deal with an inner conflict.

I can remember when Fight Club came out and all the hype around it as being a film about fighting. That fact that the film was marketed to the same WWE demographic didn’t grab me. And then when Fight Clubs began popping up around the country and all these backyard fight matches started popping up on Youtube I didn’t think anything about the movie, I just figured that it was a fad. Once I found out that Fight Club’s director was David Fincher--who’d directed Seven and The Game which I liked--I check out Fight Club and it became 1 of my favorite films.

What I really like about the film is how it combines all of these deep concepts like materialism, male impotency and guys empowering themselves by learning how to fight. This film is very graphic and not for everybody. I wouldn’t call this a date film but I wouldn’t call this strictly a guy film, either. There’s a lot of stuff going on underneath the fighting matches that are universal. Still 1 of David Fincher’s best film.