In the three films that I chose to study the use of flashbacks was present to varying degrees, with the film Insomnia containing a small number of very short flashbacks that provide us with a very brief insight as to what the main character, in this case Detective Wil Dormer, might be thinking about and demonstrate how his thoughts relate to events that occurred earlier in the film. An example of this use of flashback occurs in the days following the incident in which Detective Dormer shot his partner Detective Eckhart, when Dormer is unable to sleep we are at first led to believe that it is due to the constant presence of sunlight that is coming through his window into his room, however the inclusion of the flashbacks to the shooting shows us that Dormer was deeply affected psychologically by the incident and his memory of the event is demonstrated visibly by the use of short and sharp flashbacks that essentially appear as snapshots of the incident rather than replaying extended parts of the incident, which shows us what Detective Dormer must believe to be the key moments of that event.
In the film Batman Begins flashbacks are a far more prominent feature due to the non-linear structure of the film and often make a significant contribution to the film, however there are some flashbacks that use the same brief, snapshot style that is used in Insomnia. The film begins with a flashback of a memory that the main character Bruce Wayne is having that relates to his childhood, before returning to the present. This flashback appears to be unimportant at first but the purpose of it made clear later in the film when Bruce Wayne creates the identity of Batman and uses the “fear” that was developed as a result of the event that occurred in the first flashback and uses it create his identity as Batman and motivate himself to protect the innocent people in the city that he lives in and fight against the people that want to use fear to intimidate and control others. An example of an important flashback that occurs in Batman Begins is one that occurs near the very start of the film. This flashback is relatively long but shows a significant event that occurred in Bruce Wayne’s life in the form of the shooting of his parents by a beggar outside a theatre in Gotham City. This flashback is significant for several reasons such as it is revealed later on in the film that the shooting of his parents serves as one of Bruce Wayne’s main motivations for “creating” the Batman identity and attempting to remove crime from Gotham City. The flashback is also significant as it introduces a key character in the form of the Wayne family butler, Alfred Pennyworth (played by Michael Caine), who plays an essential role in helping Bruce to carry out his plan of combating crime as Batman. The flashback also demonstrates the wealth and power of the Wayne family, this power and wealth is inherited by Bruce and he is shown living an affluent lifestyle later in the film.
The use of flashbacks and their significance is most noticeable in The Prestige and adds a large amount of complexity to the plot when combined with the non-linear narrative and the fact that there are two main characters from which the flashbacks relate. The flashbacks in The Prestige are quite long as they all contribute to the story in a significant way. The flashbacks in the prestige are depicting what one of the main characters is reading in the others diary, due to the fact that both men have stolen each other’s diaries in order to discover the secret to each other’s tricks in order that they can continue to outdo each other both mentally and in terms of the complexity and excitement of the tricks that they perform. The flashbacks are not always visually depicted and some of the most significant flashbacks come in the form of voice-overs, as one of the main characters is reading the other’s diary, a voice-over is played of the diary’s author reading what is written on the page, and despite being written in the past it appears as if the author predicted that the reader would steal his diary, thinking that he would make some sort of gain on the other such as discovering his secret, only to discover that the diary reveals nothing. This use of flashback re-enforces the psychological theme that is present in Christopher Nolan’s films and helps to build suspense in order to motivate the viewer to rethink what will happen next. Due to the complex nature of the storyline in The Prestige flashbacks are also used to provide detail about important events that happened previously in the film and how they are linked to their current situation. Another example of the effective use of flashbacks occurs at the end of the film when Angier and Borden are having their final meeting in the basement of Angier's practice hall. In this meeting the two men are describing the sacrifices that they have been forced to make as a result of their obsession with out-doing one another. The flashbacks reveal the sacrifices that the two men chose to take make in order to fuel their obsession and they force the reader to once again re-think their opinions of the two characters.
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