"The Prestige"

[sergebroom]

A couple of days ago, I watched 2006's "The Prestige" - the first time since it was originally released. I've been asked by Bubonicon to give my Steampunk and Hollywood talk, and I felt I should revisit this movie - to see if I'd like it any better. Unfortunately, the answer is still no. It remains - to me anyway - an unpleasant tale about two Victorian stage magicians out to destroy each other, and determined to prove who's the best, and too bad if others get hurt in the process. What does any of that have to do with Steampunk? Here it is.



The story features scientist Nikola Tesla as a pivotal character and as the only one I cared about in the whole affair. He was played by David Bowie, and his assistant was Andy Serkis.

Yes, Tesla and Gollum together at last.

Comments

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

Magicians are the ultimate unreliable narrators. Destroying each other? No. They're destroying themselves. They will do anything to learn the trick and capture the magic. Anything. Which leads us to the key point that this is a story about a very strange and terrible device. A science fiction story. It is not obvious, because that would be telling. (See: narration, unreliable.) As science fiction I thought it worked, wonderfully. As a historical period piece or character study without the science fictional aspect it would be incomprehensible and pointless. It would be like Frankenstein without the monster. The monster is the key to the story. But is it the scientist or his creation who is the monster? The magician or his double?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

this is a story about a very strange and terrible device. A science fiction story.

I guess one could say that this is yet another case of the stage magician's use of misdirection. "You think you know what the real story is here?" My big problem was the lack of humanity in both main characters. I know, that's the point, but I prefer a tale to have at least one character to root for. Bale's magician does show he cares about his daughter, but that comes too late. Personally, where stage magicians are concerned, I far preferred Edward Norton's "The Illusionist", which came out that same year.

One last thing... Did you know that Christian Bale is supposed to be Tesla in a movie about him and a woman who was his long-time friend?

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

Nope but we could always use more Teslas.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

In that case... Tesla appeared in the first episode of "Murdoch Mysteries": http://pics.livejournal.com/serge_lj/pic/000q8p81/g54

[marydell.livejournal.com]

CRACKED did a nice job of skewering this movie in their roundup of "magical movie inventions that were wasted on bullshit." Because of all the things a person could do with Tesla's invention, becoming a successful stage magician is one of the dumbest.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Also, it'd have helped Tesla's own problems with the funding of his research. In a way, that didn't bother me as much as it should have. It sort-of comes with the territory. I mean, people in those stories build robots that can negotiate complex environments, but do they use them to acquire commercial power, like Bill Gates or Thomas Edison did? Noooo... They try to try to conquer the world militarily.