The Prestige: A Mystical Story of Betrayal, Revenge and Morality

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this film was, albeit it looked quite amazing, I couldn’t quite get over the fact of Christian Bale starring. I’m not a big fan of him, quite disappointed with his roles in previous films like American Psycho and Reign of Fire, although I was, admittedly, pleasantly surprised with the interpretation of Bruce Wayne and Batman in the film Batman Begins.

Aside from Christian Bale’s performance, The Prestige was also blessed with the talented directing skills of Christopher Nolan, who won my heart with his twisted and completely unforgettable 2000 film, Memento and worked with Christian Bale and Michael Caine both when he directed Batman Begins. Along with the writing credits of Christopher was his brother, Jonathan Nolan, who wrote the short story “Memento Mori”, which Christopher’s screenplay for the film was based on.

In this movie, Christian Bale simply blew everything away with his performance of the character Alfred Borden, who was rivaled by the other lead star, Hugh Jackman, as the rather vengeful and straight-minded Rupert Angier. The pair worked together beautifully in a way that I couldn’t have even imagined and managed to portray the exchange of physical and metaphorical blows belonging in a long-running rivalry that leaves you wondering even until the credits roll just who is supposed to be the protagonist and the antagonist, or whether both of them are really supposed to cover the entire spectrum of possibilities.

Although in the end, you realize that just like in life there is not always a black and white, but rather different shades of gray which makes it amusingly and refreshingly difficult trying to decide just who you want to end up on top in the end.

However, the movie doesn’t settle merely on the shoulders of the two previously mentioned awe-inspiring performances. Unfortunately, the feminine side of the cast was lacking in any real focus although was not lacking in talent, graced with the presence of two beautiful females; Piper Perabo and Scarlett Johansson, although their characters played important key points for many of the twists, though in the end it seems as if their existence in the film is really just secondary.

However, it feels like this fact attributes to the real point at hand of the film and that is the undying, unwavering and unimaginably stalwart rivalry between Angier (Jackman) and Borden (Bale) which is simulated later on between two other characters, one of which never making a physical appearance though is mentioned in reference at one point and actually plays a fairly important part to a twist in one point.

The fairly interpreted side of this second rivalry is that of Thomas Edison, who is still, in a way, portrayed in the film as the more over-zealous and aggressive side of the rivalry that, in turn, Angier represents. The other side is portrayed by Ziggy Stardust himself, the amazing rock-star David Bowie, as the magical and utterly mystifying Nikola Tesla in his most profound role since that of Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth, twenty years ago. The dark, cryptic and utmost arcane Tesla balanced the metaphorical scale of the rivalry as the more practical and pragmatic individual with a higher moral personality like that, in a way, of Borden.

For me, one way to judge how an actor works is if, during his or her performance, you just completely forget just who the actor is. It was difficult to do this for Bale, Jackman and Johansson, but Bowie certainly covered this area. In this film, Bowie wasn’t the iconic musical artist that he came to be known as over the years. Instead, he was the almost tenebrous and mystifying Nikola Tesla with a seemingly surreal

Another great addition to the cast list was Andy Serkis who is, most likely, best known as the mentally, emotionally, and physically worn-and-torn Gollum and his conniving, diabolical and almost sadistic personality of Smeagol from TheLord of the Rings trilogy. Serkis’ role in the movie was a bit on the lesser side, playing the role of Nikola Tesla’s partner and assistant, Mr. Alley, however still served as a fairly important part as the link between Tesla and Angier later on in the film.

And of course last, but not least by far, is Sir Michael Caine as the very professional Harry Cutter, the older and wiser stage magician to Borden and Angier (mostly the latter). Cutter puts forth an aura that greatly surpasses that of Borden and Angier as Cutter for most of the movie, Cutter holds the ideal of entertainment above all, looking towards the satisfaction of the audience above any kind of conflict. This feeling sort of builds up the character to a sort of icon that the two main characters should be looking towards more than looking at each other and trying to best one another.

All in all, The Prestige, from start to finish, is an excellent portrayal of a harsh rivalry and just how much they can get out of end when vengeance comes to the point of deceit after deceit, betrayal after betrayal, and death after death blended in with a very strong look at the morals of humanity. Not to be forgotten in the story is the never-ending wonder and amazement of the human spirit by the unknown and what is, or perhaps should be, the untouchable in the almost hallucinatory and imaginary world of fantasy and science “fiction”.

Although it deters a bit from the award-winning novel by Christopher Priest, the film adaptation of The Prestige holds true to the general message to the viewer. Life is betrayal and the feeling of being stabbed in the back, and life ultimately ends in death, no doubt about it. However, in the same stride, there is beauty and wonder in life and sometimes that is held in the unknown and the darkest recesses of the human mind.

And sometimes, just sometimes, it becomes necessary to second guess what some would consider morals and what others would consider humanity as great results come from great sacrifice and it is all up to opinion as to just when a sacrifice becomes too much, and this film clearly illustrates just how humans can blur and smudge that line to the point that you just can’t see it anymore.