Back to Blog
Unreliable narrator definition6/17/2023 ![]() In the course of this thriller, it's challenging to grasp which memories of Leonard are real or not. In the Christopher Nolan gem Memento, a man named Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) struggles with short-term memory loss due to anterograde amnesia. Memento (2000)Īmnesia in movies is a red flag that immediately marks a character as unreliable. ![]() Furthermore, you'll need to observe the way he interacts with Mr. It slowly cripples his sense of reality so that he never questions why his stories are so absurd. The most blatant clue is his dependence on drugs. Looking at the scenarios he falls into and the felons he deals with, it seems obvious that Elliot's accounts are biased and inconsistent. The unstable hacker has his own mental episodes that make it hard to trust him. There's nothing unquestionable about Elliot Alderson. Related: The 10 Most Popular Movies of the 1950s, Ranked 8. Kurosawa never emphasizes which story is true, not even the assaulted wife's. ![]() Each of them shares a different story, with some lying or inflating their accounts. The Akira Kurosawa film follows a group of witnesses in the case of a slain samurai in the forest. In fact, it's so iconic that there's even a term named after the film: the Rashomon effect refers to how a group of individuals often give opposing interpretations of the exact same event or situation. Rashomon is one of the most definitive examples of unreliable narrators in cinema. It's the kind of thriller that lingers with you long after. Following Teddy's investigations-and dissecting the clues ourselves-show us that he has the telltale signs of an unreliable narrator, from his desperate questions to his stark denials.Īnd as the film closes in on its mystery, the entire story changes. This Martin Scorsese gem follows Deputy US Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) who's sent to the titular island to investigate a missing patient.īut as Teddy gets closer to the truth, his sanity is tested. Shutter Island requires full concentration to catch all the clues and grasp its lurking mystery. Related: The 15 Best Modern Detective TV Shows Worth Watching 10. Throughout the first season, we're confronted by which detective we can best rely on-and that makes the suspense in True Detective pay off. Hart does his best to manipulate and deflect anything shady from him. Even the main characters-detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson)-have their own flaws that make them unreliable.Ĭohle has a hard time dealing with psychological trauma, substance abuse, and teetering vices cancel out his credibility. In the acclaimed anthology series True Detective, nearly every character is a red herring or an unreliable narrator. But in Kint's case, you're never sure if he's a truthful witness or a clever deceiver. Granted, his accomplices also make for unreliable narrators in themselves, as seen in their first interrogation. ![]() His unstoppable yapping, his shaking, his stutters-they all point to the fact that something is amiss. Verbal Kint of The Usual Suspects is the archetypal unreliable narrator. In his shoes, you'll better appreciate the iconic twist. He's left to interrogate one of the two survivors and try to interpret his convoluted stories. The Usual Suspects (1995)īefore watching The Usual Suspects, place yourself in the shoes of Agent Kujan, who's tasked with investigating a massacre on a ship. Here are our favorite examples of unreliable narrators in movies and TV shows. Unreliable narrators are tricky because they might be intentionally lying to deceive other characters (or viewers), or they might just be lost in themselves and trying to pick up the pieces of their stories.Įither way, the unreliable narrator is one of the more useful narrative tropes in how it can shake up a story, inject mystery, and climax with unpredictable twists. Unreliable perspectives can come from dark motives, mental instability, or clouded emotions. In movies and TV shows, some characters are shifty and vague and exude a sense of untrustworthiness-and sometimes that happens because they're unreliable narrators.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |