Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Morality of Memory
2006; Oxford University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.0021-8529.2006.00234.x
ISSN1540-6245
Autores Tópico(s)Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity
ResumoThe film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) is one of those movies that people tend to either love or hate. Critics generally raved about it, but if you look on websites that allow people to post their own reviews, you find a fair number of “one-star” ratings and complaints that the film was confusing, pretentious, or just plain boring. On the other hand, those who like the film tend to really like it, giving it five stars and admitting to having seen the film multiple times in the theater. Why do the fans of this film seem so, well, fanatic in their devotion? Although I think much of their appreciation has its base in the sensitive and creative direction of Michel Gondry, the clever script from Charlie Kaufman, the beautifully melancholy score by Jon Brion, and the impressive performances by all the actors involved, I also think it is not crazy to suggest that the philosophy of the film helped it to achieve the cult-like status it now enjoys. What, exactly, do I mean by saying that this film has a philosophy? Well, I don’t just mean that it explores philosophical ideas. It does this very effectively, but it also offers something more: in the course of exploring these ideas, it implicitly offers a philosophical position. That is, it does not just raise certain deep questions, it suggests answers to those questions. Since it is a movie and not a journal article, the position that is gestured at does not come to us by way of an explicit argument, but it is one that I think can be unpacked and defended. Accordingly, here I will be attempting to make explicit the philosophical perspective that I take to be implicit in this original and moving film. I. FORGET ME NOT
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