THE PRESTIGE: Blu-Ray (Touchstone, 2006) Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (2006) is a
movie about magic, as opposed to a movie that is magical. The screenplay by
Jonathan and Christopher Nolan and Christopher Priest is all about the art of
illusion - a obsessive passion that leads to a deadly rivalry between two
illusionists in a race to rightfully be out-classed as the greatest of all
time. Fudging history by inserting the credible scientific genius of Nikola
Tesla (played with uncharacteristic and exquisite panache by David Bowie), the
central plot is quite brilliant and baffling. Initially, Julian Jarrold's and
Sam Mendes' producer approached Priest to adapt from his own novel. And
although Priest was intrigued by the prospect, it took another year before the
book’s option was bought by Aaron Ryder at Newmarket Films. Distracted by the
finishing touches on 2002's Insomnia, Nolan hired his brother, Jonathan
to work on the script. From here, another 5 long years would elapse before
either was satisfied with the final edit, shifting the book’s focus with a
strong focus on the visual depiction of its stagecraft magic, carefully spent
in three acts to mirror the basic elements of a magic illusion: the pledge, the
turn, and finally, the prestige. Although The Prestige would remain
thematically faithful to the novel, two major changes were necessary to bring
cohesion to the narrative. Lost in translation, the novel’s spiritualism
subplot as well as the modern-day book-ends. Evidently, Priest concurred with
these changes and the project moved forward as planned.
From the earliest gestation, Nolan sought to secure
the talents of Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Delays, rewrites and Nolan’s
involvement on Batman Begins (2005) pushed the project into a seemingly
endless turnaround, even as production designer, Nathan Crowley began to
crystalize his ideas for the sets in Nolan's garage, creating scale models,
images, drawings, and detailed notations. Meanwhile, Crowley scoured LA for
viable locations that could be used to recreate turn-of-the-century London, including
commandeering part of the Universal Studio’s back lot, redressed for the
occasion. For authenticity, Jonathan Nolan visited Colorado Springs where
inventor, Nikola Tesla had once conducted his experiments with electricity, the
eventual sequence recreated in the parking lot of Mount Wilson Observatory.
Four downtown theaters were used to stage the ‘magic acts’: the Los Angeles,
Palace, Belasco, and, Tower. To expedite the film’s shoot and keep costs
manageable, Christopher Nolan and his cinematographer, Wally Pfister, employed
handheld cameras and staged much of the action under natural lighting
conditions. Meanwhile, the screenplay evolved into a rivalry between magicians,
Angier and Borden, loosely to mirror the competition between Tesla and Thomas Edison,
and, fueled by a ruthless obsession, secrecy, and self-sacrifice, resulting in
tragedy for everyone.
The Prestige is a diabolically delicious drama that continues to
fascinate upon repeat viewing. John Cutter's (Michael Caine) friendship with
stage illusionist, Robert Angier's (Hugh Jackman) is wrecked by Angier’s desire
to destroy Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) – leaving him soulless, and, with a
menagerie of his own dead clones. Meanwhile, Borden's fixation with maintaining
the secrecy of his own twin causes his wife, Sarah (Rebecca Hall) to question
her husband’s fidelity, resulting in her suicide. Angier also sacrifices his
love for his dutiful assistant, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson) while
Borden is eventually hanged and Angier’s last surviving clone is shot. Borden,
of the proletariat class, is unafraid to become mired in the thick of things,
while Angier represents the highbrow and well-born showman, eager and brash to
take fame for a price. Interestingly, neither Angier nor Borden are presented
as anything better or more resolved than vicious rivals. This mounting
one-upmanship results in unprecedented decimation to all, but an even more
grueling emasculation of each character's soul and basic humanity. The race
between Tesla and Edison to establish a standard for the transmission of
electrical currents parallels Angier and Borden's impossible aspirations,
resulting in self-destruction, merely to claim grazing rights as the greatest
magician who ever lived.
We first meet Robert Angier and Alfred Borden working
an act for Milton the Magician with their mentor, illusionist engineer, John
Cutter, the steady and guiding hand. The finale of Milton’s act involves
binding Robert’s wife, Julia (Piper Perabo) with heavy rope before dunking her
into a glass tank filled with water. However, this night is not like all the
rest. Alfred ties the knots, something goes horribly awry, and, Julia is
drowned. Robert blames Alfred for Julia's death - a claim he seems to take
minor pleasure in by providing no direct answer. The two men part company,
determined to outdo each other on the stage. Robert takes Cutter and becomes
The Great Danton while Alfred hires a new engineer and assumes the stage
persona of 'The Professor'. Consumed by rage and his thirst for revenge, Robert
employs a new assistant, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johannson) to get close to
Alfred and discover his slight-of-hand secrets. Robert also hires genius
inventor, Nikola Tesla to build for him an electromagnetic chamber for a
teleportation trick in which Robert vanishes into a ball of kinetic energy on
the stage, only to reappear seconds later on one of the balconies nearest the
stage. Tesla advises Robert against this experiment, as per its danger and
prohibitive costs. Alas, Robert will not be deterred. As a fascinating aside,
the movie also depicts Tesla's rivalry with Thomas Edison, eventually resulting
in Tesla's laboratory torched by men hired by Edison (an actual real-life
event) – a fitting parable about the grave lengths creative genius will take in
order to declare their own supremacy.
The screenplay unfolds into three acts; the first,
involving the rather straight-forward rivalry between Angier and Borden. The
middle act, showcases their respective endeavors in grand illusions and brings
into focus Tesla’s theory of teleportation (a subject that, in life, Tesla
believed was possible, though never proved by his scientific data). The last
act involves a bizarre fake – Angier’s supposed death, deliberately
orchestrated to ruin Borden’s reputation as an illusionist and imprison him for
life. During these shocking final moments, the macabre ‘death trick’ is
revealed with bone-chilling sadism, best not revealed for those who have yet to
see this incredibly dark and compelling dénouement. The Prestige is a
fascinating picture, but one in which occasionally, a few of its plot twists
play more as red herrings upon repeat viewing. The middle act is where most of
the obfuscation occurs: Robert, possessing a doppelganger - a derelict drunkard
who agrees to mimic him. We also meet Alfred’s twin - a mute, successfully to
double him in public. Both Robert and Alfred lose women nearest their hearts;
one, through fate, the other, due to their destructive nature in competition
and vanity. Coincidences are one thing.
But these tend to pile up in rapid succession, diffusing the tautness and
leaving behind an overriding sense of déjà vu. Despite such similarities,
bordering on cliché, The Prestige rallies with great aplomb as a
deliciously clever ‘period’ thriller. It conjures a magical experience out of
the art and craft of making illusions real. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are
formidable adversaries. David Bowie give a startlingly credible performance as
Nikola Tesla. In the final analysis, The Prestige is a movie to rethink
and bear witness to repeatedly.
Buena Vista Home Video’s Blu-Ray easily bests its
already impressive standard DVD. The stylized color palette is more finely
wrought on Blu-Ray. This is a dark film. Where the DVD often lost much of the background
details during darker sequences, the Blu-Ray reveals much more of hidden
background information even during the deepest, darkest sequences. Flesh tones
are stylized. These warmer hues are more subtly balanced in hi-def. The hint of
edge enhancement inherent on the DVD is absent from the Blu-Ray. The audio is
5.1 Dolby Digital. Dialogue sounds crisp and clean. Extras are all direct
imports from the DVD release; distilled into a very brief ‘making of’
featurette and some rather haphazardly assembled shorts discussing production
design and character development. Bottom line: recommended!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
4
EXTRAS
2.5
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