/ Ou Haolin
Foreword
Throughout the film, the friction in the relationship between people is the direct inducement to one after another of open and secret fights - the carelessness of the Borden brothers indirectly led to Angier The accidental drowning of his wife; Angier was burned by anger and embarked on the road of revenge for Borden's hatred; and Cutter, as a bystander, also assisted the two in their "top duel" at different times... As one of Christopher Nolan's masterpieces , "The Prestige" is a well-made suspense film. The revelation and explosion of the brilliant suspense is not about how much it hides and how much it subverts the audience's thoughts, but it makes the audience suddenly realize those "details exposed in the film but ignored" - giving the characters Sufficient motives and characters give the necessary catalyst for this seemingly accidental ending, which is the so-called "in the plot, unexpected". The character shaping of "The Prestige" is very clever. As a fan of suspense films, I think it is necessary to analyze one or two.
【Cutter】Keywords: The
first thing to be mentioned in life is the mechanic Cutter. As a half-master of Borden and Angier, Cutter has been witnessing the path from a magic apprentice to a top master. For him, the "confrontation" between Borden and Angier was as painful as watching his own children kill each other. Therefore, as a bystander with little relevance to the event, he has always maintained a high degree of involvement and participation.
After Julia drowned and Borden left his banner, he was there as a mechanic who mainly assisted Angier, whether it was an open fight in his career (the contest between two shapeshifting magic) or a secret fight in his life ( Use Borden's mechanic FALLon to threaten it), in which, Cutter is active in the front line of the two-person battle.
In my opinion, Cutter doesn't have any favoritism towards the two, but seems to have a bottom line of his own. If he crosses that bottom line, he will choose to stand on the opposite side without hesitation. And this bottom line is also generated by a small action in the movie: every time he performs the magic of water tank escape, he stands by the stage, holding a sharp axe and waiting quietly-his bottom line is "life" .
The first shift, traced back to the fatal accident: Borden indirectly killed Angier's wife Julia, and he chose to stand behind the latter - this time, turning Cutter from objective neutrality to Angier's camp. "Although it can't make up for the loss of his wife, at least, help him become a master of magic. 』I believe that Cutter, with this idea in mind, stepped back behind the scenes and fully assisted to make Angier's magician career prosper. At this time, Cutter's attitude towards Borden was to give up and let him fend for himself, and at most only threaten or suppress his career (mechanic Fallon who assisted in capturing Borden and research and analysis on magic technology).
And the second change was when Borden "killed" Angier - he even sent Borden to the gallows himself as the biggest accomplice in the ruling of the case. At this time, Cutter's disappointment at Borden's "commitment" and regret for Angier's "death" made him go to the extreme of Angier's position - "Since Borden can harm Angier for profit, I will also use legal means to make you pay for your life. 』
The third and final crucial change was when Cutter found out that everything was just Angier's plan - he hated himself, and turned into a murderous knife that Angier used to complete his mission to Borden. Error beheading. So, he abandoned Angier completely and chose to help Fallon (he also learned at the time that his true identity was Borden's twin brother) in revenge. The dirty design of Angier's "life for life" made Cutter feel completely desperate, and the bottom line of his "life" was trampled at will, which was the final necessary remedy for Angier's death.
In the play, Cutter, as an experienced man, advised Angier not to go down the road of "obsession" and "revenge"; and during his apprenticeship, he also instilled the very important idea of "sacrifice" into Borden. Cutter gave the two different things, but it also led to the fatal ending.
【Angier】Keywords: Anger
If I have to compare the more miserable one between Angier and Borden, my choice is Angier.
The reason I chose him is not because he "died" again and again after he sacrificed for his career, nor because he became the ultimate loser in the ending - but because of Angier's emotions, which were gradually swallowed up by the anger of revenge. , and finally burned him to nothing, including his life.
From the beginning of the film, it has been known that Angier is the son of an earl, with wealthy assets, and is a typical rich second generation. But the sense of accomplishment that his pursuit of magic brought him—the love of magic and the joy of deceiving the audience was the origin that prompted him to embark on the path of being a magician. Angier's magic career peaked with the possession of an alternating current replicating machine. And as a performer, he also fully implements what Cutter teaches: "sacrifice." Originally, he could be famous for this superb magic that could not be copied by others, but the fire of his anger never went out - the perfect magic performance was even just a pawn in his revenge. At that time, the Fury of Vengeance burned his love of magic.
Many people believe that the confrontation between Angier and Borden started with "revenge" and ended with "jealousy" - Angier came up with the idea of confronting Borden because of his wife's death, but in the later stage, he became jealous of Borden's life. Irrational Behaviour: He interferes with Borden's career and life again and again in order to envy him for starting a family, which he doesn't have.
In my opinion, this analysis is only half right. Angier took the step toward his final confrontation with Borden, and what kept him going from start to finish was the same thing: love for Julia. Regarding this point, I think there are three details that can be reflected: 1. Since Julia's departure, Angier has no longer been able to have affection for other women (especially Olivia); 2. His wife Julia once thought for Angier " The stage name "The Great Danton", and Angier has been using it to this day; 3. Every time Angier performs "Transfiguration" and enters the machine "death", he will take off his ring and give it to his assistant. I'm afraid, this It was the only thing he hoped the next "self" would inherit - love for Julia.
Rather than saying that the flames of revenge devoured his love, it was his strong love for Julia that made the flames of anger burn and burn forever. And this flame turned his desire to win applause from the audience as a magician into his obsession with "overcoming" Borden; turned his lavish and noble son's life into a hell of revenge whirlpools; turned his resourceful and superb ideas into For the scheming murderous plan...
So, this flame of revenge that he could not control, together with the ring of the oath of the mountain alliance, was reduced to ashes.
By the way, the English name Angier also seems to express the intention of director Nolan's design: Angier (Angier) and Anger (anger) are only one word apart.
【Borden】Keywords: Sacrifice
The core suspense of the film is to reveal that Borden is not just a person, but a pair of twin brothers who work closely together. When he showed his identity to Angier, he once said a sentence to explain their so-called "sacrifice": Simple, but not easy. I think this also shows the pain and helplessness of the sacrifices made by the two.
Angier and Borden, in their apprenticeships, once followed Cutter's instructions to watch a Chinese magician perform and try to figure out his technique. After watching it, Borden suddenly realized that the old Chinese magician was pretending to be lame and used this trick to use his legs to clamp the goldfish bowl; Angier just laughed it off. Later, Angier talked about this with his wife. He said that Borden saw this trick because he had seen Chinese magicians show their feet (but not in the film), and sighed slightly contemptuously: Unthinkable ( unimaginable).
In my opinion, Borden hit the nail on the head with the fact that he experienced a similar great sacrifice and made the same sense - completely self-sacrificing and playing a lifetime of other people in public. It's Borden's sense of self-awareness, and it's a powerful foreshadowing for the brothers to always play the same person.
Indeed, judging from the far-reaching effect of the magician Borden's statement, the sacrifices of the two brought the expected results-the signature trick of Displacement did not make any audience suspect, and the two brothers, who were also brothers, could easily Put an end to the embarrassment of looking for a substitute like Angier. However, the sacrifices they made were too great.
Two Bordens, each in love: one deeply in love with Sarah, the other deeply in love with Olivia. However, for absolute success in their careers, even the closest lovers, they are not prepared to explain, but each share half of their lives - when one lives in the crowd with pride and power, it means the other You must put on a thick disguise, lurking in the corner, applauding secretly, silently blessing.
Among their victims, apart from life, the most profound thing is probably love. In the end, Sarah, who saw through Borden's twin brother trick, couldn't accept such a result, and she chose suicide to escape everything. In the eyes of Borden, who loved Sarah deeply, he obtained Sarah by means of his self-righteous means (sneaking into Sarah's house to gain her favor), and because of this same trick, Sarah abandoned him forever.
At the end of the film, when half of Borden dies, the other half of Borden inherits everything from the former. He succeeded in killing the enemy Angier, and also gained the support of Cutter to better protect his daughter (of course, this daughter is the daughter of the previous Borden, not the living Borden).
Therefore, Borden used an extremely painful method - sacrificed love, sacrificed family, sacrificed career to obtain a complete, one's life.
It is worth mentioning that the words Borden and Brother are also very similar. It seems that Nolan also copied the black humorous joke of the meaning of Angier's name with the same cleverness.
The postscript
"The Prestige" has been extremely successful in shaping the characters of the three core protagonists - while giving the characters their personalities, they also pave the way for their respective oriented endings, which are perfectly combined with the subtle suspense. In Christopher Nolan's works, when it comes to big-name dramas, the explosive "The Prestige" is inferior to "The Dark Knight", which is also a collection of cloud stars; in terms of narrative structure, the subversiveness is inferior to the alternative and special "Memento"; In terms of visual impact, the sense of picture is not comparable to the sci-fi giant "Inception". But its production depth and plot entertainment can really "cover everything", and it is also my favorite as a veteran Nolan fan. (over)
View more about The Prestige reviews
