Christopher Nolan's The Prestige
The Three Acts of a Magic Trick
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
The worldview a man espouses always plays a part in how he interprets the things he sees. The Prestige begs to bring this fact to the forefront, both in its plot and its handling by director Christopher Nolan. The opening scene equips the viewer with the keys needed to decipher the movie, but whether he uses them is entirely up to him. The beauty of The Prestige is that it works irregardless of using them.
The Pledge
The first part of a magic trick is called The Pledge. This is, to say, the setup. A magician turns to his audience and introduces "something ordinary," as Michael Caine's character (named Cutter) says early in the film. The sequence that opens the movie is also part of the closing, which achieves a Pulp Fiction-like quality for keeping the theme of the film hidden until the final frames. The Pledge in The Prestige is that the two mysteries, those of Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), inexorably and metaphorically sawed in half by the film's plot, will be restored.
Angier is all class, a sophisticate. Indeed, his chosen stage name, The Great Danton, is chosen for its sophisticated sound. Borden, on the other hand, is meat-and-potatoes, a working-class magician; his name is The Professor. In the film, they start out as companions, ensue as competitors, and finish as rivals. Their approaches -- Angier is the showman, Borden the methodologist -- are reflected even in their stage names, and the lengths to which they'll go to complete a trick.
The Turn
The second part of a magic trick is The Turn, a self-explanatory denotation -- the magician simply turns from his audience to induce what Cutter refers to as the extraordinary portion of the illusion. This occurs in The Prestige with the addition of Nikola Tesla to the plot. David Bowie, in a startling role, plays the man known as "the father of the 20th century." Tesla's addition draws a full parallel to Borden and Angier by inducing memories of the War of Currents between Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the aforementioned Tesla. The analogy is complete, the only difference being that the War of Currents was a scientific one; while the rivalry of Borden and Angier is an illusion.
After inventing a trick known as The Transported Man, Borden begins, finally, to earn recognition. Angier determines to top him, and does, by staging a far more elaborate trick meant to wow his audience. But his obsession lingers: he feels his act is deficient, that Borden still has one up on him. Angier, using Borden's assistant and manager, Fallon, gets what he wants -- or so he thinks. He desires the method of The Transported Man; what Borden, in fact, gives him is The Turn.
The Prestige
The third, and final, part of a magic trick is The Prestige, during which the effect of the illusion is produced. Angier and Borden are forever distended, severed; Borden, in his continuing obsession with topping Angier, has been convicted of murdering him during a performance of Angier's latest trick, The Real Transported Man. The film's audience will know that he is not guilty, but what they will not know is the illusion of Angier's death.
And that is the key word: illusion. Surely a film about magicians could not be expected to be told straightforwardly. Nolan has built the story using the devices of the magicians themselves. Angier's Pledge is his obsession, which is made extraordinary in the Turn, and fulfilled in the Prestige when it is revealed that he planned, all along, Borden's downfall. Borden's Pledge is his dedication to his craft, again becoming extraordinary in the Turn, and fulfilled in the Prestige. Tesla is the extraordinary portion of the story; he is the Turn. Borden and Angier's tricks are simple; they are united at the end, in one fitting moment of knowledge where they each learn the other's secret.
Conclusion
Christopher Nolan's film is a lot of things: a story of obsession and dedication; rivalry; and the nature of deceit. Nolan has held up for the audience a mirror of itself. Whether the audience sees a work of art or a psychological illusion depends on the worldviews of its population. The encrypters will see a film about magic as a form of art, as a way of life; the demythologizers will see the film as an adventure in psychology, a trip through the mind: how it wishes to be deceived, as Angier puts it, how it wishes "to escape."
But the truth falls somewhere in between. In addition to creating a good story, it must be noted that director Christopher Nolan has himself done each of the three parts of the magic trick. He has pledged to separate these two men and make them rivals; he has turned them, through tragic means, into enemies; and finally, he reunites them for a cold ending, in which each man realizes the extent of his life’s work: for each, tragedy; for each, treachery. In doing so, Nolan encrypts his method of demystifying, and like a good magic trick, it begs to be seen again.
The movie poster
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