I have watched the movie several times, several years apart, and every time I watch it, I have a new feeling. From the beginning, I didn't even understand the plot at the age of eleven or twelve, and now I am amazed at its subtlety and neatness. Deadly Magic is indeed not the best work among so many excellent works of God Nolan, but it can be seen from here that Nolan's subsequent success is not accidental.
The magical paths of the Burden brothers and Angel's seem similar but very different. After the two parties parted ways in the water tank incident, Anjie still had excellent props masters to prepare a new career for him, while the Burden brothers were just two insignificant and fledgling magicians, but the Burden brothers spent their whole lives preparing for the most important project. A great magic show, such love and risk have given them the courage and courage to make a name for themselves. We have never looked at this story from Burden's perspective, and naturally we are partial to Anjie, thinking that Anjie is greater and better than Burden. When I first watched it, I even felt unhappy because Anjie lost in the end, thinking about the future Never watch this movie again. But if we turn the camera to the Burden brothers, those lives full of pain and depression will unfold without reservation. Who can share the family with his brother for a magic trick, who can choose to endure for magic when his brother and his wife are quarreling, and have to silently hug his sad daughter, he has countless people who can't even share with his dearest people. Secretly, watching the lover is angry, desperate, and finally committed suicide in the doubt and confusion. We must not understand their behavior. To be precise, we hate their behavior that hurts others, but the fact is that they were born for magic. Cutting hands, sharing wives, sharing curtain calls and life are just the price that must be paid. They believe that magic is a life-long performance, just like that Qing Dynasty magician pretended to be lame all his life. This is their dedication to magic. [As an aside, when Burden was flirting with Sarah, he sent her home once, but he said goodbye at the door and turned around and went to someone's house. I found out that there are already two brothers here, and it is impossible for a normal person to be a thief. As soon as you close the door and lock the door, you crawl to someone's house.]
And Anjie, our male protagonist, can be said that his character has created a tragic life for him and his friends to a certain extent. First of all, he is a person who is not good at observing and is extremely confident in his own judgment. After watching the performance of the magician in the Qing Dynasty, and then watching Bourdain's performance with the widow sister, he couldn't find the mystery of magic, and he once showed the attitude of "I don't listen, I don't listen, I'm right", until Bourdain widow sister Pointing out the most obvious clues, but even so he still firmly believes that Burden's trick is not a stand-in, he is too proud and conceited, such an obvious thing becomes a mystery that can never be solved in his eyes, just as his The props master said, "obsession is a young man's game". He has been obsessed with solving puzzles all his life. At first, it was the secret of his wife's death, and then it was the secret of changing shadows and the audience's wonder at magic. He never stopped. If you pursue it, you will easily fall into Burden's trap and fall into the abyss of infinite death. "I have to summon the courage to walk into the machine every night, I don't know if I will disappear or a miracle will appear." What kind of courage and hatred made him go to the point of self-destruction, he chose the same as his wife The way to die, the feeling that according to legends is like coming home, is actually extremely painful. The shock and pain when he knows the truth may be something that can punish him more than death. The An Jie who was unwilling to kill no longer exists, he has become that lucky bird.
When I watched it, I was moved by the love of the Burden brothers for their daughter, especially when the paranoid Burden said to his daughter before his death, Dad will bring you home soon, and finally when Wen and Burden walked to the daughter in the garden, I realized that this was the case. The deceased Burden performed the last magic trick for his daughter. Perhaps Sarah was not his love, but he paid genuine love to this little Sarah. The look on their faces when they said goodbye was really uncomfortable. Burden's love for little Sarah was sincere every day.
In the end, Burden said to Anjie that no one cares about a dead person. When I first watched it, I thought he was talking about Anjie, but then I thought it was wrong. Anjie is now a jazz, his maid and friend. Wouldn't you find out, as a result, people were talking about themselves. It's wonderful, one line contains the mystery of Anjie and Burden's last magic, Anjie's last magic exchanged death for Burden's life, and Burden's last magic was to exchange his brother's death for Burden Their lives were spent in revenge for each other, but their paranoia just made their magic reach the pinnacle of achievement.
I feel that Nolan's early films still underestimate the IQ of the audience. The design of the two-person showdown at the end is a bit like the scene where Hitchcock's agent in Psycho explained the dual personality. In fact, there have been a lot of foreshadowing and explanations. Playing clips such as cutting fingers and changing clothes is actually not a must, but it can make people feel the joy of discovering new foreshadowings after watching it a few more times.
I'll leave it to the more powerful bigwigs to interpret the Tesla and Edison metaphors in the movie, but it seems that Nolan is more inclined to Tesla's achievements and people.
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