Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Prestige

Since I received a comment about The Prestige, I will catch-up on my posting by starting with that movie. I will speak generally about the movie making it safe to read if you haven't seen it.



Let's first start by listing the cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie to name a few. This was the magic movie I wanted to see... not the Jessica Biel Illustionist one. Anyway, I just rented The Illunionist and I will report back which is actually the better magic movie.

Director Christopher Nolan of Memento and Batman Begins (great films) adds his crazy non-linear touch to this movie. This lead to my confusion and intense interest in solving the first half of the movie. There are many turns with-in turns, and reveals through time and flashbacks. My advice: Do not get discouraged! Wait out the journal sequences as it all makes sense later on in the movie. I need to watch it at least one more time to appreciate the hints given from the journals.

Although the movie is about magic, it is really about pure passion. Sacrificing your entire life for your passion, to leave a legacy, or to feel loved in your lifetime. Two men struggle to be the best, giving-up their family, lovers, money, and even their own identity. This reminds me of my post about giving up your personality to become great. Only they give-up their entire person to do achieve greatness.

What is so interesting about this movie is it doesn't comment on the fact that these two men have become obsessed with their trade. They both took similar routes to be great, but both men had an entirely different outlook on life and what "greatness" meant. I switched sides constantly during the movie, and was left liking both of the men in the end. It was hard to tell if their lives were actually sad, pathetic ones or if they had truly made the most of their time here on earth. I think by the last scene, I ended up feeling that they hadn't made a mistake sacrificing what they did. (Audience participation: What did you think?)

What is so intriguing about this movie is nothing is ever fully explained, shown, or answered. The audience has the same knowledge or less than the characters for the entire movie, which completely destroys any dramatic irony and replaces it with surprise and intrigue.

The machine at the end is a bit far fetched, but the outcome is a very dark and fitting solution. Anyway, I thought about this movie after it was over for quite some time, and want to watch it again. The acting is pretty good, and cinematography is beautiful (especially the morgue, and the mountain scenes).

So what did you think about it?

A to the S grade: A-
Teacher Comments: Interesting ideas! Next time make sure someone proof reads your work.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Four and a half stars...out of five? A to the S rates on a five star system? Intriguing.

William said...

I thought the same thing......

::scratches chin::

A to the S said...

oh yes, it is out of 5 stars.

0- WTF
1- boring
2- fine
3- average (ya know, some funny scenes or lines)
4- pretty good
5- pretty great

It's pretty much like school grades A-F and then 0 is an incomplete.