The Prestige

Terrific commentary. I enjoyed this on first viewing up to the end, which I felt just didn't make any sense.

I'm with Brian that the theme of the movie is what these characters will do for their art, which is fake magic. Introducing real magic undercuts that badly.

Ending on 75 water tanks full of dead Wolverines is just ridiculous. Even if you buy the unspoken premise that he'd never want a surviving copy (because of the problems with Root), he'd still just empty the one tank and reuse it.

Oh, huh. Need to re-watch with that in mind. Good call sir.

Thanks, magnificent bastards need love too.

Shifty Bench: When did the wife ever help with the cutting of the fingers? The actual cutting was just the brothers. I mean she was heping him stop the bleeding, but she just thought that the wounds had reopened. She had "no" (Notice the quote marks) idea that there was 2 of em.

Huh.

When we see the flash of the finger cutting it cut straight to the wife tending to his wound. I didn't think that was the same as when his fingers were shot off. If it was, her inclusion in that scene threw me off.  Darn Nolan and his sneakiness.

Remember, I posted right after seeing it for the first time, The Prestige is a film that demands more than one viewing to let bits sink in

Batman's real mistake was not letting his wife in on the gag. Magicians (and Batmen) do this all the time. After all, she's likely to figure it out eventually, in which case she'll be so angry she's likely to blab. Meanwhile, your life would be a heck of a lot easier if she wasn't constantly doubting your sincerity (and Fallon's beard).

It would even have worked thematically, since he was also fooling ScaJo. Nolan could have focused his angst about whether or not to tell the girl on that relationship, since Batman certainly can't trust her completely.

Hi! First post on this site! I think The Prestige is a brilliant movie. One aspect of the movie that really intrigues me which no one else I know has picked up on is that Angier is determined to find a way to perform the trick of the bird in the cage without killing the bird. So determined that he tells Cutter that he doesn't want to kill animals. However, when it is himself in "the cage" (or the water tank) Angier has no problem with letting himself die. Did anyone else notice this?

Greg, Australia.

That's a really great point. The only real answer that I can think of is "He was obsessed. Shit happens." I'd never considered that aspect of his character in retrospect before, good catch.

It's part of his character arc, when Cutter is demonstrating the new bird cage trick to Angier he implies that the new trick will kill the bird and that he will only get anywhere in this business if he gets his hands dirty (or something to that effect), Angier gives in and performs the trick, thinking that he is killing the bird. When he asks Cutter why, he says 'I just had to know you could". And this theme continues until we come to where he is at the end of the movie so obsessed with the new trick that he allows himself to literally be the bird in the cage that he kills in order for the trick to happen.

Just listened to your commentary for The Prestige again and want to extend on my earlier post.

Something I have just picked up on is the change in role for humans and animals in this movie through advancements in technology. At the start of the movie we have animals lives being sacrificed for the sake of the magicians performance. As time progresses throughout the movie we see Cutter develop the technology to the point where a bird trick can be performed without it being harmed.

In contrast, through the development of technology we see magicians going in the opposite direction. The new technology puts them (most specifically Angier) in a position where there lives are now the ones that are being sacrificed for the good of the trick.

I find it interesting how magicians and animals essentially swap roles by the end of the film.

Greg.