Movies -

Finding Nemo

This comical Walt Disney film is about a father's journey to find his son. Marlin, the father, finds a fish, Dory, who accompanies him on his journey to search for his son, Nemo. Dory suffers from short term memory loss, a condition that effects the brain and the way we relate to other people. She is one of the favored characters because no one understands her and we develop a compassion for her throughout the movie when she helps Marlin find his son Nemo. In the movie, Dory has problems learning and retaining information, recalling names and knowing where she is going or why after a few moments. Doctors state that Dory is, "An accurate portrayal of the considerable memory difficulties faced daily by people with profound amnesiac syndromes. The frustration of the other fish around her with constant repetition also accurately reflects the feelings of people who live with amnesiac patients. Although her condition is played for laughs during the film, poignant aspects of her memory loss are also portrayed, when she is alone, lost and profoundly confused."

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

If technological advances would allow it, would you ever want to intentionally get rid of memories of some specific events?

The story traces Joel Barrish's stunned discovery that his former girlfriend Clementine has had their troubled relationship erased from her mind. Out of desperation, Joel seeks the same treatment. He contacts Lacuna, a company that specializes in giving troubled people a fresh start. The name of this company, Lacuna, comes from the type of amnesia, Lacunar Amnesia. (see Diseases under Science) The inventor of the memory erasure process, Dr. Howard Mierziwiak, provides Joel with the help he wants. This movie provides great definition of the centrality or importance of memory in defining our lives. Some memories are very disruptive and can be accompanied by very painful emotions. By ridding ourselves of them we could relieve a lot of suffering. At the same time, they are part of our identity and define us. They help us avoid past mistakes including those of failed relationships, as seen in this movie.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, based on the novel by JK Rowling tells the story about how Tom Malove Riddle, perserves himself in a diary in order to re-open the Chamber of Secrets. Tom Riddle is a memory stored in a diary, in which Harry ventures into, reliving Tom's memories of when the Chamber was perviously opened.

In addition, in the Harry Potter serisis, filled with mystical enchantments and magic, a pensive is used for storage of memory. (See more in literature.)

The Notebook

In The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, Allie Nelson and Noah Calhon fall in love one summer in 1946. This love is “forbidden” because they are from complete opposite families of different social classes. Years later Allie suffers with the disease of Alzheimer’s, her now husband Noah reads her the same story of their love each day just so she can remember if only for a few minutes. Each night Allie finally remembers after a full day of hearing the story of their tangled love, seconds later though she has slipped away once more. Alzheimer's is a disease that is associated with that of dementia. This disease affects not only the person with the disease but also the people around the person, in this movie alone it shows that the kids of Allie and Noah feel the sadness when they visit Allie because she doesn't remember who they are.

50 First Dates

Henry Roth lives in the Hawaiian Islands working as a veterinarian. Although he is usually a womanizer, he falls for Lucy Whitmore, harder than he has for any other woman. They both love spending time with each other and he feels a serious relationship taking over. The next day, when he approached Lucy she failed to recall who he was. This was due to her suffering from short term memory loss after experiencing a terrible accident. Henry was determined to make her life back to normal and have her fall in love with him all over again, each and every day.

Memento

In this movie, Leonard, the main character develops a severe anterograde amnesia (see Diseases under Science), which means his long-term memory is intact, but he has no short term memory, and he cannot create new memories. Leonard uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife. Unlike most films in this genre, this amnesiac character retains his identity, has little retrograde amnesia where memories of the period just prior to the injury are lost and shows several of the severe everyday memory difficulties associated with the disorder.

The Butterfly Effect

The title of this movie, the Butterfly Effect refers to the "chaos theory that in any dynamic system, small initial differences may lead to large unpredicted consequences" (wikipedia.com) This movie is very action pact and shows Evan Trenborn who finds out that he can travel back into the past and become his former self. He now processes the ability to change events that he doesn't like about his future and wants to change about his past. We learn that when he was younger Evan Trenborn was the victim of traumas in which he now has memory loss from because he selected not to remember them. He attempts to set things back into motion for himself as well as his friends, as any of us would do if we processed the key to the future. His main goal is to try to save the one women he loves named Amy Smart.

Deja Vu

In this movie Douglas Carlin, an ATF (alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosions) agent travels back in time to prevent a terrorist attack in New Orleans. When an explosion occurs Douglas Carlin is sent to investigate it and they find a machine called "Snow White" which enables them to look back in time. Doug then finds witness Claire to be a vital link to the case, though he doesn't know how. He also figures out that he has the ability to send objects back in time, so he uses his smarts and writes a letter to himself to tell him that the bombing will occur and to prevent it. This plan backfires however because his friend receives the letter and that changes everything!

Sybil

Sybil Dorsett suffers from multiple personality disorder. Throughout the movie we see her interacting in daily life and then we see her having flash-backs to her childhood. We unravel the childhood memories that she has stored in her mind as other people, other personalities. Her psychologist, Dr. Marcia, embarks on the difficult journey of trying to get Sybil to cope with the memories of the past. We learn that as a young girl Sybil was raped and abused by her mother and she feels that it isn't okay that she doesn't love her mother. The hurtful feelings that she feels she has buried deep into her mind and have changed who she is. The memories suppressed create a barrier that Dr. Marcia tries to break down.

Sources:
http://getmovielink.com/images/covers/Memento.jpg
http://www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun/Games/CartoonsMoviesTV/FindingNemo3.htm
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yiG_7-YlnGk/SEFkXdXFh1I/AAAAAAAAAM0/zvj-_Wg20_Y/s400/50-first-dates-soundtrack-big.jpg
http://www.projections-movies.com/images/notebook.jpg
http://img.listal.com/image/435783/600full-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-poster.jpg
http://www.zimbio.com/Harry+Potter/articles/-SA5MiVmXf0/Harry+Potter+Read+Along+2011
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4101431.stm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0005374/plotsummary