A Memento of Blu-Ray's Past

Christopher Nolan's Memento is a Modern Noir Classic in Hi Def

Oct 12, 2009

One of the first Blu-Ray titles to officially hit the market when the format began it's slow and hulking first baby steps toward domination is already showing its age.

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Insomnia) made his breakthrough film, Memento, on a budget that would likely make the caterers on his Batman flicks wet their pants in a fit of pompous laughter. The film, thanks to its ingenious perception-shredder of a script, went on to find both the critical and audience following that it rightfully deserved. This most likely played a hand in garnering the indie sensation the distinction of being one of the Blu-Ray formats first run of catalog titles. Unfortunately, the first time the training wheels come off the bike for any new technology, for every one that flies down the street, full of life's new verve and energy, another is going to end up crashing into the neighbor's hedge.

It is here, dusting shrub off itself, that we find Memento. The visuals and audio are ho hum at best. Sure, they best their DVD counterparts, but the upgrade we have here certainly wouldn't alter societal thinking into picking up a new fangled DVD player to the tune of $500 to $1000 that Blu-Ray players were selling for at the outset.

Remember Guy Pearce? Neither Does He

Memento has to be seen and no brief synopsis will do it justice. In a short term memory damaged nut shell, the basic premise is this: Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) has lost the ability to create new memories after being struck to the head while trying to protect his wife during a home invasion. After she died, his life has been a never ending quest to find and kill the man(men) who did this to them. Trying to track clues when you can't remember them is obviously no easy task, so Leonard sets off trying to piece things together, by tattooing clues to his body and by trusting in people who can remember what he can not, but may be using his condition for their own means.

The film's stand out claim to fame is that the story is told backward, every scene being the scene that should have come before rather than the one that should follow. Just picture counting backwards and eventually ending up at 1. The end (beginning) resolution, what set all these events into motion, is one of the most calculated and heart rending twists put to screen in recent years, and even after multiple viewings, it still has the ability to make one want to yell at the screen "Why?! Why are you doing this?! Let it go you crazy memoryless, man!"

But he won't. It's this "no matter the cost" philosophy that bring such an emotional impact to its viewers and has turned Memento into the modern day classic that it is. There is no right and wrong sometimes. There is no truth and there are no lies. There is only what we choose to believe. And there is not necessarily an exit.

Backwards Blu-Ray Features

Another staple of early Blu-Ray titles was a severe lack of special features. Somebody up top must have assumed people would be so mesmerized by a 1080p feature film that no one would notice the hours and hours of extras that were available on the 2 disc DVD edition are no where to be found on a Blu-Ray disc that could easily hold all of these and more. What we do get is an audio commentary with director Christopher Nolan and a Sundance Channel special on the film from the program Anatomy of a Scene in plain old 480p (couldn't even take the time to upgrade this one, guys?) Filling up a little more space are the 1080p trailers for Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Underworld: Evolution, and Black Hawk Down.

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The copyright of the article A Memento of Blu-Ray's Past in Indie Movie DVDs is owned by Sean Costa. Permission to republish A Memento of Blu-Ray's Past in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.