In the movie Memento, why does he use a Polaroid Camera? Could the story have worked with a digital camera?

Question

Alot of things bugged me about this film, but one thing that kept ticking over in my head was why did they opted for a Polaroid camera in this movie? Why not digital? It's not like they weren't invented yet when the movie was made - sales were flourishing! So I'm guessing it's a plot-driven choice. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

My guess is that it's too easy to delete a picture on a digital camera. Since the pictures he takes are his memories, he wants something that's at least a little more permanent. Hence the Polaroid, which spits out a hard copy of the picture. And he can write information on the back of the picture.

Also, it allows him to look at multiple pictures simultaneously, without downloading everything to a computer.

Or maybe it's more practical: maybe he didn't know how to use a digital camera before his memory problems began, and so he'd have to constantly re-learn how every time he wanted to take a picture.

Answer 2

OMG--LOVE this movie by the way. I've seen it about 10 times, it's great! Anyway...I think he uses the Polaroid so he had something instantly in front of him. He knows that if he took a picture of it, it happened. Plus, he could use the Polaroids for people to find to perpetuate the lie in the film.

Answer 3

I think if he used a digital camera he might forget that he even took a picture. Since the Polaroid automatically spits the picture out, it would be kind of hard to forget that he took a picture.

Answer 4

someone else already mentioned it.. he can't write notes on digitals without getting them printed out.. but since that would not be fast enough, most likely he'd forget about them.. he trusts the notes ONLY if his handwriting is on them.. he doesn't trust others writing.