pjammer: The Prestige

ezekiel's chariot - 張敦楷 (

pjammer) wrote,
@ 2006-10-30 21:51:00

Entry tags:

life, movies

The Prestige
urn-of-the-century magicians become the subject of two major films in as many months, with The Illusionist made a strong initial showing, to be succeeded by The Prestige last last weekend.

As can be expected, a movie about magicians and illusions is naturally fraught with misdirection and disinformation; nearly anything presented in the first act is probably not what it will reveal to be.

"Are you watching closely?"

So The Prestige begins, and takes the viewer into a world of obsession, two former friends driven to an escalating war of vendettas started over the accidental drowning of Angier's wife.

Big and small hints of the secret are scattered throughout the story - from the opening monologue where Cutter explains how every magic performance has three acts, The Pledge (where the magician shows you something ordinary, but probably isn't), The Turn (when the magician makes this ordinary something do the extraordinary), and The Prestige (the grand finale, where the audience witnesses something they've never seen before). The film follows the format, telling the story in reverse chronological order of a trial where one magician is accused of murdering another.

Obsession - the story simmers in its broth from Borden's admiration for the Chinese magician's willingness to pretend to live as a 'cripple' 24/7 just to give him the latitude to perfect a single illusion in his act. When Borden's knot results in the death of Angier's wife Julia, Angier begins a vendetta and attends Borden's performances to ruin his tricks - setting off a low-grade war, alternating between attempts to steal each others' secrets and destroying each others' reputations.

The Reveal was something of a dissapointment for me - while I loved the revelation that Borden lived as two brothers sharing one identity all for the purpose of supporting a single inexplicable illusion (like the Chinese magician he admired so much), I had hoped there was a mundane explaination for Angier's version of the 'Transported Man' trick. The idea of a Duplicator seemed like a cheat (even though the idea of drowning one's own doppleganger a hundred times was a chilling reminder of the depth of his obsession).

Poll #857034 The Prestige
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

1. Have you seen The Prestige?

View Answers

Yes.
32 (71.1%)

No, but I'd like to.
9 (20.0%)

No, and I probably won't.
4 (8.9%)

2. Did you figure out what really happened before the ending/reveal of The Prestige?

View Answers

Yes.
17 (47.2%)

I had a few of the elements right, but missed others.
11 (30.6%)

No.
8 (22.2%)

3. For those who've watched both: how does The Prestige compare to The Illusionist?

View Answers

Liked them both.
5 (31.2%)

Liked Illusionist more.
6 (37.5%)

Liked The Prestige more.
5 (31.2%)

For those who have not seen the film, spoilers are behind the cut and in the comments section and I strongly recommend that you avoid until seeing the film for yourself as it's a fantastic piece of storytelling it both atmosphere and visual beauty.

As you were.
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	rcantilles 2006-10-31 06:56 am UTC (link)
	i read the movie spoiler for it. And I think that the bad science behind the big mystery trick would ruin the movie for me, if I were to see it. I'm just too hard core of a nerd to swallow it. (Reply to this)(Thread)

pjammer
2006-10-31 05:00 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, bad science is always an annoyance for me as well. My other pet peeve is actors who can't convincingly fake playing a musical instrument - sawing away at a violin or banging the wrong positions on the piano.

That said, it is a very *beautiful* film in terms of period costumes, dialogue and the story of obsession/rivalry that drove the two men to murderous lengths.

Did you see The Illusionist?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2006-11-01 03:48 am UTC (link)
	nope. But i did read the spoiler for that too. :P I preferred that general plot to the one for The Prestige as the "magic trick" was actually believable. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rcantilles 2006-11-01 03:51 am UTC (link)
	woops, above anonymous comment is mine (Reply to this)(Parent)

	windswept 2006-11-01 03:41 am UTC (link)
	The bad science is irrelevant, though. It's just a plot device. It captures both the insanity of the mutual obssession, and, as you may read in my other comments, the horrifying acts they will commit to get the ultimate final act, the prestige. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rcantilles 2006-11-01 03:50 am UTC (link)
	it may be just a plot device, but it's a glaring enough error that it would completely fail on me. it's irrelevant to you, but makes all the difference for me. This may be yet another reason I rarely see movies, I have a hard time suspending reality. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pjammer 2006-11-01 07:20 pm UTC (link)
	Except when it involves elves and wizards in LOTR, eh? :D (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rcantilles 2006-11-01 08:27 pm UTC (link)
	there's a difference between fantasy and bad science. Fantasy in LOTR is patently NOT based on science. magic is a whole separate thing. But a Tesla coil (which we know all about scientifically) making copies of stuff and breaking the laws of thermodynamics? no. Not cool! NO NO NO! (Reply to this)(Parent)

darkcryst
2006-10-31 06:40 pm UTC (link)

my main problem with the prestige is that there is no reason to care about the main characters at all. They are both soulless, unsympathetic, and bland.

The best characters are the supporting ones.

I think the illusionist had a better plot, mostly because it didn't rely on a really bad (but VERY COOL) sci-fi gadget.

Apparently the book is good though, and all that being said I still enjoyed it - I was just not as happy with it as The Illusionist (though the extra budget shows through in the set and costume designs).

The artistic direction was better in The Prestige, but the cinematography and direction was better in The Illusionist.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	windswept 2006-10-31 07:41 pm UTC (link)
	But the Illusionist was so SIMPLE... I felt like I was just waiting for the movie to catch up to the obvious ending. And Paul Giamatti was completely wasted, and the final scene at the train station - a ha! A Ha! A HA! - as the movie laboriously 2-by-4s us with the already obvious "illusions" - was embarassing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pjammer 2006-10-31 11:53 pm UTC (link)
	Even if you know the spoiler, you can still admire a well-executed illusion. I know how certain magic tricks work, but even knowing the secret doesn't necessarily take away from the enjoyment of watching it done well. The ending of Illusionist was nowhere near as obvious to me as it was to you, and I did enjoy the cinemetography and characters more than you did. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	windswept 2006-11-01 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Even Jessica Biel? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pjammer 2006-11-01 06:04 pm UTC (link)
	ESPECIALLY Jessica Biel. Good lord that woman is smoking hawt. Oh, are you referring to her thespain talents? Whatever. :P (Reply to this)(Parent)

darkcryst
2006-11-01 12:06 am UTC (link)

I agree about the end - that montage was far too long.

The Illusionist was simple - but therein was its strength. It did the simple plot VERY well, however The Prestige was at least simple (in plot, if not simpler), and then proceeded to mess around and generally obfuscate any details (in fact hiding many until the end) that it was much poorer quality storytelling.

Both were simple, but only one was elegant.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

windswept
2006-10-31 07:38 pm UTC (link)

The Illusionist was terrible, since you could figure everything out from about 5 minutes into the movie, and I was even more embarrassed for the Illusionist producers after seeing The Prestige. The movies shouldn't even be compared.

As for the Tesla machine, its existence and horrifying consequences (did you see Primer?) are the perfect crescendo to the increasing horror of the prestige. Squashed birds, to mutilated hands, to hidden lives, to one hundred murders. And let us not forget - Angiers never knows who gets drowned every night... empirically it doesn't matter, but to him, each Transported Man is his death.

The prestige is release and catharsis for the audience, but horror for the magician. It's a gorgeous parallel.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

pjammer
2006-10-31 11:58 pm UTC (link)

No, I did not see Primer althought it came highly recommended and I do intend to catch it.

Well - technically, the Angier that hits the trapdoor IS the one that dies every night - he just dies knowing a duplicate of his is living on his memories elsewhere. I do like the metaphysical and horror elements of the lengths to which Angier is willing to go for his act (in stark contrast to his early career when he couldn't even bear to kill a bird for the sake of a trick).

On a completely different note in the humor department -

The Prestige in 15 Minutes: http://community.livejournal.com/m15m/14491.html

ANGIER: Which knot did you tie? WHICH KNOT DID YOU TIE?

BORDEN: I... I don't know.

ANGIER: HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW?

BORDEN: I just... don't know.

ANGIER: YOU SON OF A BITCH!

BORDEN: Look, I'm really sorry...

[Clearly unwelcome, Borden starts to shuffle away.]

ANGIER: WOLVERINE COULD TOTALLY KICK BATMAN'S ASS.
BORDEN: YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

windswept
2006-11-01 03:38 am UTC (link)

Dammit, LJ ate my comment. Here goes again.

Yes, in the the sense that all Angiers are Angiers, Angiers hits the trapdoor every night. But remember that the moment of zapitude happens *before* the trapdoor, and so Angiers will never know - and he alludes to this in his final monologue - whether "he" is the one transported, or the one disposed of. As I said earlier - to the outsider, this makes no difference. All are Angiers. But from his POV, each time he does the trick, he faces the question of whether this is his own, personal death. Thus, the 100 shows only - he knows he cannot withstand the mental and emotional strain for much longer.

If you recall, in the first experiment with the machine, Angiers kills his other self while his other self is in the middle of a sentence something like, "No! Wait! It's m--" *bang*

We'll never know. Tesla didn't even know.

But the most important point is - as I said above - the machine is simply a device to push us beyond even the horror and sacrifice so far portrayed in the film.

re: humor - Ha!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

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