Introduction

I have been asked to complete a 1000 word essay demonstrating my understanding of audience theories on a film text, the film we are using is called Memento. The film is about a man suffering from short-term memory loss that uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife, the film plays backwards and so the end of the film is the beginning of the story.  

First impressions

When I first saw this film I thought it had a very strange narrative, it stared from the end and worked its way to the begging of the story.

The first thing you see is the picture of a dead man with blood spilled around him, this then goes on to rewind and show you the killer and how the man died.

The next scene shows the killer at the front of his apartments building talking to the person behind the counter, the story then goes on to show you how they got to the location where the man was killed.

The next scene is now a little earlier in the story, the film carries on like this and the ending is the beginning of the story.

As the story carries on you find out new things about the killer and why he has murdered the man, you get to know him better and understand why he has to write everything down, you find out that he has memory loss and has tattooed himself all over his body to remind himself of important things.

I did not completely understand what was going on because the film was playing backwards; you find out everything in a different order to what you would usually,  

I found that the film really made you think and want to know what is going on right from the start, because also it was so confusing you really had to listen the whole way through and not miss any of it or else it will start to get to confusing.

Effects

At the beginning of the film the fist image you see is of a dead man with blood spilled around him, this image can be disturbing to some people as the man is dead and there is blood everywhere which tells you he must have been murdered.

Just after you have seen these images it goes to the murder scene where the killer is taking photos, the film then goes on to rewind and show you the man being killed with a gun, you can see and hear the gun being fired which can make you jump as you are not expecting it.

There is a lot of violence as people are being killed and there is the use of guns and bad language.

Uses and Gratification           

The main reason for people wanting to consume this sort media is to be scared, they want to watch something that will make them jump and want to scream.

This theory suggests that the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the powerless, unsuspecting mass audience.

For example:

If we see a woman washing up

On TV then women will assume

That it is their job and men assume

That it is not their duty it is the woman’s.