Memento Subliminal Message
I was watching Memento late last night and noticed a split second shot I’ve never seen before. At one point in the movie (1:30) while Lenny is talking about Sammy Jankis there are a few frames where Sammy is replaced in the shot by Lenny himself. The transition is quick and may not even be caught if you’re not looking out for it. Kind of like the spliced penis in Fight Club.
The subliminal message is that Lenny has been recalling facts about Sammy Jankis but are actually about himself. By the end of the movie Teddy explains that Lenny is the one who overdosed his wife with insulin but because of the memory conflict you never really know the truth. Director Christopher Nolan makes it perfectly possible that Teddy is telling the truth but at the same time allows Lenny’s version of the past to remain a possibility as well.
You can believe Lenny makes up his own memories to shield himself from the physiological pain of killing his wife or you can believe Teddy is just making up another story so he can manipulate Lenny. The subliminal message pushes in favor of the first argument but doesn’t necessarily prove anything.
I guess in the context of damaged memories it really doesn’t matter if you caught it or not.
