On 'The Prestige'

“You have to believe we are magic

Nothing can stand in our way”

~ ‘Magic’, by John Farrar

from the Olivia Newton-John album “Xanadu”, 1980

(Spoiler alert:  What follows contains plot points and character beats that give away things you may not want to know if you intend on watching the movie under discussion.  Although, a recent study from the US, the details of which can be found HERE, suggests that “giving away the ending” may in fact increase your enjoyment of the story in question.  That being said, having seen the film will likely assist your enjoyment of this piece; I’m assuming a degree of knowledge.)

Christopher Nolan is fast becoming my favourite film director.  His films have reached a place of 'see on sight' for me, and I consider his last two efforts, Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight (2008), nothing short of masterpieces of modern cinema.  The Dark Knight Rises (currently filming for a 2012 release) is my most anticipated unreleased film by a street.  One of my all-time favourite films is Nolan’s The Prestige (2006), based on the award-winning novel by British author Christopher Priest.  The Prestige concerns itself with stage illusionists, in London at the turn of the 20^th Century.  Magicians, with their pageantry and showmanship, are considered by the film to be the pop stars of that age.  The story follows two such performers Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), from their time as assistants to an older magician, through to the development of careers of their own.  The two men, both obsessive about the practice and craft of stage illusions, begin a rivalry that eventually consumes them both.

The protagonists are vastly different men.  Angier is not as skilled as Borden, but is a natural performer who can capture and enthrall crowds.  He yearns for public adoration and struggles when the spotlight is not on him completely.  Borden is the blue-collar struggler to Angier’s aristocratic persona, a gifted and natural illusionist who is lacking in the showmanship needed to really present what he is capable of.  Both men hide deep secrets, both are driven to extreme acts in the pursuit of what they want.  The tragedy of their feud is not merely that they could have been amazing if they had worked together, but that even until the very last scene of the film, they are both so self-absorbed and blinded by their obsession that they fail to see what their actions have cost either themselves, or the other man.  They remain dismissive of each other, even to the end, even after the costs of their actions are fully wrought.

The cost of obsession is a recurring theme that runs through the whole film.  Early on Borden and Angier attend the show of a Chinese illusionist, Chung-Ling Soo.   Borden immediately discerns the method of Soo’s ‘goldfish bowl’ trick and points it out.  Chung-Ling Soo shows absolute dedication to his craft, the key to his illusion being the ‘act’ he performs at all times while in public.  That Borden spots the method reveals much about the nature of his character, and that of his partner, Bernard Fallon.  Angier learns about the sacrifices that must be made in pursuit of one’s dreams; once the tragic death of Angier’s wife Julia occurs, Angier, blaming Borden, becomes consumed with ensuring Borden’s downfall.  Thus begins a vicious cycle of brinkmanship and sabotage that they both enact upon each other.

The rivalry between Borden and Angier is mirrored by the contention between real-life enemies Nikola Tesla (portrayed in the movie, with an appalling accent, by David Bowie) and Thomas Edison.  The Edison/Tesla conflict plays out as a subplot behind the main story, it’s influence always present.  Tesla, despite being more like Borden with regards to his talents, spends his scenes exclusively with Angier.  It is during these scenes that he recognises Angier’s compulsions and urges him to a different path, knowing full well that his advice will go unheeded.  Tesla, it seems, sees the unflinching drive in Angier paralleled in his own struggles and when Angier suggests that some good has come of Tesla’s obsessions he retorts:  “Well at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave... and one day they'll choose to destroy me.”  Tesla sees the inevitable endgame before anyone else.

The film is bookended by the voiceover of Cutter (Michael Caine), an ingénieur (a designer and engineer of magic tricks) who explains the three stages or ‘acts’ of a magic trick (those being ‘the pledge’, ‘the turn’, and ‘the prestige’).  It’s a clever use of such a device.  Despite the non-linear progression of the storyline, the film employs a similar structure, with one character even describing a particular plot development as ‘the turn’.  It is clear that cinema uses similar tricks as the act of magic; distraction and diversion, sleight of hand, and surprising revelation.  Nolan controls what we see and how we see it, playing with our perceptions and teasing the viewer as he slowly unravels the mystery. 

Nolan uses foreshadowing expertly throughout the film.  Note Borden’s first encounter with Sarah where Sarah’s nephew, crying over a vanished bird is shown an alternative and asks suggestively “Where’s his brother?”.   Borden appears on several occasions to be a poor historian, unable to recall his own actions.  His mistress Olivia doubts his honest and sincere expressions of love for her, based on his continued love and devotion to his wife Sarah.  His interactions with Sarah appear on the surface to be selfish and it is no wonder that their strained relationship drives Sarah to desperation, even suicide, but in each of their arguments he hints at his true duality.  Likewise, Angier suggests his own false facade when he refers to a name change he has undergone, so as not to “disgrace his family”.  When Borden’s daughter Jess’s new ward, Lord Caldlow, is revealed as the supposedly dead Angier, it is clear that there were plenty of breadcrumbs of Angier’s identity left by Nolan along the way.  There is not a scene, situation, or even a single line of dialogue that doesn’t propel the story forward or further the character arcs.  

The opening sequences are an apparently disconnected collection of images, richly detailed and stunningly shot, as is the rest of the film.  If there is a criticism of the film’s visuals, it could be that they are too clean (especially in the high definition of BluRay), especially the scenes set in dingy bars or the prison in which Borden is held during several scenes, having been framed for Angier’s murder.  Even from these very first images, such as the array of top hats littering a forest floor, Nolan is revealing points of the mystery that will only be revealed more fully later, taunting the audience to guess at their true nature.

One of the film’s mysteries that continues to elude me is the relationship between Borden and Tesla.  Did Borden in fact send Angier to Tesla, in Colorado, as a wild goosechase to merely remove him from the magic ‘scene’ in London, or had Tesla actually built the same machine for Borden prior to the story portrayed in the movie?  The film suggests that Borden/Fallon had a cloudy past.  Was that because Fallon did not exist until Tesla’s machine created him, rather than Borden/Fallon being identical twins?  If so, it makes the revelation of Angier murdering his first ‘prestige’ in cold blood even more chilling.

I find the film utterly compelling, although to a viewer looking for easy entertainment, the techniques and structures Nolan employs may be considered confusing or even aggravating.  It’s certainly not a film to approach casually, and in fact it virtually demands repeat viewings.  Whether one is watching it for the first or twentieth time, the question asked by Borden (in fact, the very first spoken words of the film) should be well heeded:

“Are you watching closely?”

**To follow the On Writing Blog on Facebook, click HERE and click the "Like" button**