Post by Sgt. AWOLaLot on May 18, 2018 21:53:21 GMT -5
After thinking about it, I've decided this would be my favorite film of all time if only given one choice.
"Time to discuss a film I’ve been wanting to review for a long time, simply because I don’t think it’s as well-known as it deserves to be. I’ve sat down to write one twice before but didn’t finish, so let’s do it. And this will be my longest review so far.
“Are you watching closely?”-Alfred Borden
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course...it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".”-Cutter
Those are the opening words to what I would probably pick as my favorite film of all time, if only given one choice: The Prestige. The Prestige is directed by a man I’ve raved about plenty, and that man is Christopher Nolan. Nolan is one of the most successful directors working today, and his filmography has been one of the strongest and most consistent since 2000. It doesn’t seem to be as well-known as his other projects, most likely because it came out between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It’s also the last “smaller”, lower budget film he’s made. But why would I rank The Prestige above Nolan’s other films, even over the likes of The Dark Knight, Memento, Inception, Interstellar, or Dunkirk? Well, I’m going to do my best to give my reasoning below. Before I start, however, I want to say that The Prestige is a film best seen as blind as possible. So if you don’t want to know anything but are curious, do yourself a favor and go watch it (it’s currently on Netflix). I will also have a mostly non-spoiler section, and a clearly labeled spoiler section because I really want to discuss some of them.
The Prestige (2006) stars Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Andy Serkis, Rebecca Hall, and David Bowie. It is directed by Christopher Nolan and co-wrote by him and his brother Jonathan (who surely deserves more recognition). It tells the story of a rivalry between two magicians, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), as they attempt to one up each other to become the best magicians in late 1890’s London. This rivalry takes on an increasing level of danger, however, as their obsession with each other drives them down a road filled with deception, sacrifice, obsession, revenge, love, and jealousy. To quote General Shepherd, “You know what they say about revenge… you better be ready to dig two graves.” And while the theme of revenge is the one that drives the plot along, it smartly leads into many other themes that are present throughout the film. That is what is so impressive about The Prestige and what also makes it hard to review: it becomes very complex when you sit and think about it. There are a lot of ideas present, and yet the Nolan brothers wrote a screenplay that brought them to a satisfying conclusion. It also has one of my favorite twists of all time.
To add to the complexity of the film the Nolan brothers have structured it in an unconventional way, as they’re known to do (especially earlier in their careers). Instead of starting at the beginning, we are shown that Alfred Borden is on trial for the murder of Robert Angier. While awaiting his fate, Borden gets his hands on Angier’s diary. At this point we get the first of many flashbacks as we learn about Borden and Angier, including how they met, how the rivalry began, and the painful journeys they went through as a result. They started out working together as stagehands under another magician but became rivals after a horrific accident, of which there was no reconciliation.
It’s at this point we see Borden and Angier start building their careers as magicians. And thus, so does their destructive actions and obsession. This obsession is one of the biggest parts of the film, and it is particularly present in Angier’s character. Angier starts out wanting revenge for the accident that occurred when he was working with Borden; but then he sees Borden perform a trick that he says is the greatest he’s ever seen. This is the turning point for Angier and from then on, he lets the obsession take over. Even after stealing that same trick and achieving great success, he is restless and craves to be the best; even if his morality is sacrificed. There is also the fact that while his stage presence is better than Borden’s, Borden is the better magician.
This and Real Steel are two of the first performances I saw from Hugh Jackman that weren’t related to Wolverine, and it’s very good in The Prestige. Jackman does an excellent job of displaying the slow transformation of Angier from a decent, moral man to someone willing to sacrifice that morality to best his rival. Definitely an underrated performance.
Then there is Christian Bale’s character, Alfred Borden. Borden is an interesting character, and as we learn more about him it’s clear that the main theme he’s associated with is that of deception. While Borden is the better magician in the sense he has better tricks (and can easily spot the methods of other magicians), his stage presence isn’t as good as Angier’s. However, his commitment to magic seems to go farther than Angier’s, to the point that he lets the deception and secrets effect his relationship with his wife, Sarah (Rebecca Hall). There are days where he’s fully invested in his family, and others where he’s more invested in magic. This conflicting mindset takes a serious toll, and Christian Bale’s performance really is impressive. Again, another underrated performance, and I would rank it above his performances as Bruce Wayne.
The other performances are great as well. Michael Caine as Cutter is definitely my favorite from the side characters. He is an ingenieur (someone who designs and builds the tools to perform tricks), and works with Angier for most of the film. One of my favorite sequences is when he is showing Angier a new way to perform the disappearing dove trick because we get to see the creative process behind making the trick. While Alfred Pennyworth is his most iconic role in a Nolan film, Caine’s performance as Cutter is a close second for me.
Scarlett Johansson is in the film as well, and her character acts as an assistant to Angier. Her character is interesting because she ends up caught in the middle of Borden’s and Angier’s rivalry, which is hard on her because she ultimately just wants to do her job. However, besides Borden’s wife, she isn’t afraid to call out the damage the rivalry is doing to them.
Then there’s David Bowie as Nikola Tesla and Andy Serkis as his assistant, Alley. They aren’t in the film a whole lot, but certainly make an impression when they are. I especially love Tesla’s entrance when he first meets Angier.
The musical score is composed by David Julyan, who was Nolan’s usual collaborator before Hans Zimmer (with The Prestige being the last film he composed for Nolan). The score could be best described as functional. It isn’t very interesting and dynamic, and uses mostly string instruments with a little brass. There is something of a theme that can be heard throughout (particularly in the “Cutter and Angier” cue during the dove trick montage), but it’s very reminiscent of Zimmer’s “Journey to the Line” from The Thin Red Line. Not a bad score, but nothing special either.
The last thing I’ll talk about before getting into heavy spoilers is the main reason I love The Prestige. Nolan presents the film to the audience like a magician would. I can’t get into why without getting into spoilers, but the opening line, “Are you watching closely?” is speaking to the audience, asking us to watch the trick unfold closely. But as Cutter says next, we’re not really looking. The film is structured so that our attention is purposefully misdirected, giving us subtle hints until it comes together in a very satisfying (and somewhat haunting) conclusion. The Prestige for me is the epitome of why I love Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker. Like any good showman, Nolan wants to dazzle his audiences. But what sets him apart is that he challenges himself to find new ways to impress us, and new ways to approach films and storytelling. Memento is mostly told backwards (he isn’t the first to do this, but it put him on the map); The Dark Knight Trilogy shows the potential when the superhero subgenre takes itself seriously (The Dark Knight really is a crime thriller at its heart); Dunkirk has a small script and does its best to put you in the moment; and The Prestige manages to take a story of a dangerous rivalry, presents it like a magic trick, gives it a complexity that’s very engrossing, and brings it to a great conclusion. Borden even says, “A real magician tries to invent something new, that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over, you know?” And that’s exactly what Nolan does. That’s why even his “weaker” films have something to offer and why I’ll always be excited to watch one under his direction. And as for The Prestige, I literally don’t have any issues with it in terms of the story or its presentation. To me it is a perfect film, and any flaws or complaints would get into nitpicking that frankly isn’t necessary. And to share one more line from Angier, it perfectly encompasses what Nolan's intentions are,"You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces."
DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE PRESTIGE
Now to briefly discuss the spoilers. As I said before this film has one of my favorite twists of all time; but of course, it’s actually two twists. The first is that Alfred Borden and Fallon, his assistant, are twin brothers (I have to wonder if Alfred or Fallon are even their real names). This allows them to perform Borden’s greatest trick, The Transported Man. I think it’s this twist that really makes The Prestige fun to watch multiple times. As mentioned before, the film itself is presented like a magic trick and there are subtle references to it all throughout the film. For the twin reveal, my favorite would be when Sarah’s nephew sees the dove trick. Borden tries to convince him that the first dove didn’t die, but the boy knowingly asks, “But where’s his brother?” Borden’s face and reaction are priceless, “He’s a sharp one, your lad.” It’s also fun to try and recognize which twin is in disguise and which isn’t, with the only clues on a first-time watch being that one twin is more of a hothead than the other. I also think I noticed a hint from the directing, though I can’t confirm it. When Angier, Olivia, and Cutter are discussing how Borden does The Transported Man, the camera is zoomed in more on Cutter when he says Borden uses a double and it’s farther away when Angier says it’s the same man. I feel like this was meant to be a subtle nudge to indicate Cutter was right.
And the way the hanging is paired with Borden getting his revenge is, for lack of a better word, awesome. “Do you have any final words?” Borden- “Abracadabra.” And then Angier is shot, we see a hand missing two fingers pick up the rubber ball, and we see Borden alive. I love it, and this sequence is definitely one of my all-time favorite climaxes.
It’s also when we learn Angier’s secret, which is far more sinister than Borden’s. Angier is supposed to be dead, but the machine Tesla built for him ends up being a cloning machine. He uses it for his version of The Transported Man, cloning himself above the crowd and speaking, proving he isn’t a double. But he also has the clone dropped into a water tank to drown every time he does it. The only reference to this reveal was probably at the beginning when we’re shown all of the cages with the birds in it. Some might not like this added supernatural element, but I personally love it.
Well I’m not at over 2,000 words, so I think this is where it shall end. Many people would probably choose one of Nolan’s bigger projects as their favorite film of his, but the organized yet complex nature of The Prestige sets it above the rest for me. I love this film because it has the best of both worlds: a complex narrative that makes one think, which gives it a bit of “artsyness”, but is also so much fun to watch again and again."
"Time to discuss a film I’ve been wanting to review for a long time, simply because I don’t think it’s as well-known as it deserves to be. I’ve sat down to write one twice before but didn’t finish, so let’s do it. And this will be my longest review so far.
“Are you watching closely?”-Alfred Borden
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course...it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".”-Cutter
Those are the opening words to what I would probably pick as my favorite film of all time, if only given one choice: The Prestige. The Prestige is directed by a man I’ve raved about plenty, and that man is Christopher Nolan. Nolan is one of the most successful directors working today, and his filmography has been one of the strongest and most consistent since 2000. It doesn’t seem to be as well-known as his other projects, most likely because it came out between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It’s also the last “smaller”, lower budget film he’s made. But why would I rank The Prestige above Nolan’s other films, even over the likes of The Dark Knight, Memento, Inception, Interstellar, or Dunkirk? Well, I’m going to do my best to give my reasoning below. Before I start, however, I want to say that The Prestige is a film best seen as blind as possible. So if you don’t want to know anything but are curious, do yourself a favor and go watch it (it’s currently on Netflix). I will also have a mostly non-spoiler section, and a clearly labeled spoiler section because I really want to discuss some of them.
The Prestige (2006) stars Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Andy Serkis, Rebecca Hall, and David Bowie. It is directed by Christopher Nolan and co-wrote by him and his brother Jonathan (who surely deserves more recognition). It tells the story of a rivalry between two magicians, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), as they attempt to one up each other to become the best magicians in late 1890’s London. This rivalry takes on an increasing level of danger, however, as their obsession with each other drives them down a road filled with deception, sacrifice, obsession, revenge, love, and jealousy. To quote General Shepherd, “You know what they say about revenge… you better be ready to dig two graves.” And while the theme of revenge is the one that drives the plot along, it smartly leads into many other themes that are present throughout the film. That is what is so impressive about The Prestige and what also makes it hard to review: it becomes very complex when you sit and think about it. There are a lot of ideas present, and yet the Nolan brothers wrote a screenplay that brought them to a satisfying conclusion. It also has one of my favorite twists of all time.
To add to the complexity of the film the Nolan brothers have structured it in an unconventional way, as they’re known to do (especially earlier in their careers). Instead of starting at the beginning, we are shown that Alfred Borden is on trial for the murder of Robert Angier. While awaiting his fate, Borden gets his hands on Angier’s diary. At this point we get the first of many flashbacks as we learn about Borden and Angier, including how they met, how the rivalry began, and the painful journeys they went through as a result. They started out working together as stagehands under another magician but became rivals after a horrific accident, of which there was no reconciliation.
It’s at this point we see Borden and Angier start building their careers as magicians. And thus, so does their destructive actions and obsession. This obsession is one of the biggest parts of the film, and it is particularly present in Angier’s character. Angier starts out wanting revenge for the accident that occurred when he was working with Borden; but then he sees Borden perform a trick that he says is the greatest he’s ever seen. This is the turning point for Angier and from then on, he lets the obsession take over. Even after stealing that same trick and achieving great success, he is restless and craves to be the best; even if his morality is sacrificed. There is also the fact that while his stage presence is better than Borden’s, Borden is the better magician.
This and Real Steel are two of the first performances I saw from Hugh Jackman that weren’t related to Wolverine, and it’s very good in The Prestige. Jackman does an excellent job of displaying the slow transformation of Angier from a decent, moral man to someone willing to sacrifice that morality to best his rival. Definitely an underrated performance.
Then there is Christian Bale’s character, Alfred Borden. Borden is an interesting character, and as we learn more about him it’s clear that the main theme he’s associated with is that of deception. While Borden is the better magician in the sense he has better tricks (and can easily spot the methods of other magicians), his stage presence isn’t as good as Angier’s. However, his commitment to magic seems to go farther than Angier’s, to the point that he lets the deception and secrets effect his relationship with his wife, Sarah (Rebecca Hall). There are days where he’s fully invested in his family, and others where he’s more invested in magic. This conflicting mindset takes a serious toll, and Christian Bale’s performance really is impressive. Again, another underrated performance, and I would rank it above his performances as Bruce Wayne.
The other performances are great as well. Michael Caine as Cutter is definitely my favorite from the side characters. He is an ingenieur (someone who designs and builds the tools to perform tricks), and works with Angier for most of the film. One of my favorite sequences is when he is showing Angier a new way to perform the disappearing dove trick because we get to see the creative process behind making the trick. While Alfred Pennyworth is his most iconic role in a Nolan film, Caine’s performance as Cutter is a close second for me.
Scarlett Johansson is in the film as well, and her character acts as an assistant to Angier. Her character is interesting because she ends up caught in the middle of Borden’s and Angier’s rivalry, which is hard on her because she ultimately just wants to do her job. However, besides Borden’s wife, she isn’t afraid to call out the damage the rivalry is doing to them.
Then there’s David Bowie as Nikola Tesla and Andy Serkis as his assistant, Alley. They aren’t in the film a whole lot, but certainly make an impression when they are. I especially love Tesla’s entrance when he first meets Angier.
The musical score is composed by David Julyan, who was Nolan’s usual collaborator before Hans Zimmer (with The Prestige being the last film he composed for Nolan). The score could be best described as functional. It isn’t very interesting and dynamic, and uses mostly string instruments with a little brass. There is something of a theme that can be heard throughout (particularly in the “Cutter and Angier” cue during the dove trick montage), but it’s very reminiscent of Zimmer’s “Journey to the Line” from The Thin Red Line. Not a bad score, but nothing special either.
The last thing I’ll talk about before getting into heavy spoilers is the main reason I love The Prestige. Nolan presents the film to the audience like a magician would. I can’t get into why without getting into spoilers, but the opening line, “Are you watching closely?” is speaking to the audience, asking us to watch the trick unfold closely. But as Cutter says next, we’re not really looking. The film is structured so that our attention is purposefully misdirected, giving us subtle hints until it comes together in a very satisfying (and somewhat haunting) conclusion. The Prestige for me is the epitome of why I love Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker. Like any good showman, Nolan wants to dazzle his audiences. But what sets him apart is that he challenges himself to find new ways to impress us, and new ways to approach films and storytelling. Memento is mostly told backwards (he isn’t the first to do this, but it put him on the map); The Dark Knight Trilogy shows the potential when the superhero subgenre takes itself seriously (The Dark Knight really is a crime thriller at its heart); Dunkirk has a small script and does its best to put you in the moment; and The Prestige manages to take a story of a dangerous rivalry, presents it like a magic trick, gives it a complexity that’s very engrossing, and brings it to a great conclusion. Borden even says, “A real magician tries to invent something new, that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over, you know?” And that’s exactly what Nolan does. That’s why even his “weaker” films have something to offer and why I’ll always be excited to watch one under his direction. And as for The Prestige, I literally don’t have any issues with it in terms of the story or its presentation. To me it is a perfect film, and any flaws or complaints would get into nitpicking that frankly isn’t necessary. And to share one more line from Angier, it perfectly encompasses what Nolan's intentions are,"You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces."
DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE PRESTIGE
Now to briefly discuss the spoilers. As I said before this film has one of my favorite twists of all time; but of course, it’s actually two twists. The first is that Alfred Borden and Fallon, his assistant, are twin brothers (I have to wonder if Alfred or Fallon are even their real names). This allows them to perform Borden’s greatest trick, The Transported Man. I think it’s this twist that really makes The Prestige fun to watch multiple times. As mentioned before, the film itself is presented like a magic trick and there are subtle references to it all throughout the film. For the twin reveal, my favorite would be when Sarah’s nephew sees the dove trick. Borden tries to convince him that the first dove didn’t die, but the boy knowingly asks, “But where’s his brother?” Borden’s face and reaction are priceless, “He’s a sharp one, your lad.” It’s also fun to try and recognize which twin is in disguise and which isn’t, with the only clues on a first-time watch being that one twin is more of a hothead than the other. I also think I noticed a hint from the directing, though I can’t confirm it. When Angier, Olivia, and Cutter are discussing how Borden does The Transported Man, the camera is zoomed in more on Cutter when he says Borden uses a double and it’s farther away when Angier says it’s the same man. I feel like this was meant to be a subtle nudge to indicate Cutter was right.
And the way the hanging is paired with Borden getting his revenge is, for lack of a better word, awesome. “Do you have any final words?” Borden- “Abracadabra.” And then Angier is shot, we see a hand missing two fingers pick up the rubber ball, and we see Borden alive. I love it, and this sequence is definitely one of my all-time favorite climaxes.
It’s also when we learn Angier’s secret, which is far more sinister than Borden’s. Angier is supposed to be dead, but the machine Tesla built for him ends up being a cloning machine. He uses it for his version of The Transported Man, cloning himself above the crowd and speaking, proving he isn’t a double. But he also has the clone dropped into a water tank to drown every time he does it. The only reference to this reveal was probably at the beginning when we’re shown all of the cages with the birds in it. Some might not like this added supernatural element, but I personally love it.
Well I’m not at over 2,000 words, so I think this is where it shall end. Many people would probably choose one of Nolan’s bigger projects as their favorite film of his, but the organized yet complex nature of The Prestige sets it above the rest for me. I love this film because it has the best of both worlds: a complex narrative that makes one think, which gives it a bit of “artsyness”, but is also so much fun to watch again and again."