Investigating the unreliable narrator within neo-noir and the audience's perspective of reality in Memento and Shutter Island
By Henrique Barbosa
Word Count:
Contents
Abstract 3
1.0 Introduction 4
2.0 A Brief History of Film-Noir 5-6
3.0 The Unreliable Narrator
3.1 Memento 7
3.2 Shutter Island 8
3.3 Noir & Narration (DEPENDS ON SPACE) 9
4.0 Conclusion 9
5.0 Bibliography 10
6.0 Appendix 11
Abstract
The essay investigates how a first-person narrator within the genre of neo-noir affects the audience’s perspective of reality in two movies: Shutter Island and Memento. Narration plays an integral
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Shutter Island tells the story about Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall sent to investigate the disappearance of one patient from a highly secure psychiatric facility. The story is told through Teddy’s eyes, where a first-person narrator is presented right off the bet, creating disbelief to Teddy as a reliable narrator; mixed with the themes retained by classic noir, the story is twisted, altered and the audience, as a result, is left manipulated. It is the unreliable narrator that makes the story so intriguing, leaving viewers doubting their perspective of reality and the truth presented, - as the protagonist does - making narration an integral part of both movies that are going to be analyzed. By combining elements of traditional film noir with contemporary themes, neo-noir explores conflicted antiheroes, trapped in a difficult situation and making choices out of desperation or moral nihilism. Memento follows the story of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), a man who suffers from anterograde amnesia and tiles his world for clues in the search for his wife’s murderer. Unable to perform new memories, Leonard finds himself unable to trust what is told to him and relies solely on tattooed messages and photographs. This distrust is passed on to the audience, where his self-aware first-person narration alters the general perception of reality in the film. Both movies embrace features retained by neo-noir and, combined with unreliable first-person narrator, comment on the complexity of human nature and the darkness that comes with
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