FILMMAKER MOVIE REACTION!! The Prestige (2006) FIRST TIME REACTION!!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Hope you enjoy my filmmaker reaction to The Prestige. :D
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Original Movie: The Prestige (2006)
Ending Song: / charleycoin
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Abracadabra..!
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THE BIG LEBOWSKI FIRST TIME WATCHING will be uploaded Wednesday! Enjoy the day!
Oooooh The Big Lebowski!!!!!!! :)
A Bronx Tale or Hurricane (Denzel)
One of my favorite movies
Far out Dude.
Alfred Borden, Robert Angier. Cutter, Alley, Danton, Alfred Borden, Robert Angier. (Because there are two of each.) Put 'em together, and what do you get...? ABRA CADABRA
Just something pointed out on TvTropes.
Rewatching this movie is a real treat. SO many little clues.
"What knot did you tie?"
"I don't know."
He literally doesn't know the answer. His brother tied the knot, and refused to tell him.
It's an unexpected answer, like so many in this film, which drives the narrative.
Wow... this is one of my top 10 films of all time and on my 10+ rewatches I've NEVER picked up on that. Amazing. Thank you K S!
@@beefknuckles yeah I feel like every time I re watch this there is some new little detail I find. It's incredible. People give it no credit when they are Ranking Nolan films, but its top 3 for me
Hell Nolan gives it away in the very beginning with the bird trick ("you killed his brother!" or something to that effect), then we see Borden outside of her apartment and then suddenly INSIDE her apartment moments after. It's impossible. He HAS to have a double. But we're told he's a magician and we "want to be fooled" so we never question it. Brilliant film!
@@jamesrountree1949 Exactly. The movie about magic tricks is itself, a magic trick. The level of thought that appears in the movie is mind boggling.
The best part about The Prestige is trying to figure out which version of Christian Bale's character is currently on screen.
100% this. And Nolan goes out of his way to give a tell with every scene.
Yeah, it becomes obvious, honestly, on second viewing, when you're seeing the more earnest Borden brother, and when it's the more rash and obsessive brother. I remember thinking, "How did I not see this the first time through?" But Bale is so good at playing it like a personality disorder, that he's able to give two very different performances, and convince us that it's the same person.
@@larrote6467 When Angier was reading the diary, it becomes apparent that Alfred suspects Freddy of tying the double knot but the latter denies it.
And we did that on our second time watching this movie again, because that only revealed at the end of the movie.
I think one is little "fatter" in the face too and has a tiny it of accent. Watching it second time and knowing they are twins I was able to differentiate them. I know it's the same actor but they made them different.
David Bowie as Nikola Tesla is the cherry on top of this mind bending sundae. Elite Nolan.
Mind was blown by that haha
@@JamesVSCinema Nolan was big fan of David Bowie and he really want to work with him so he casting as Tesla.
@@atti97 Tesla was also a HUGE Ziggy Stardust fan so Nolan knew he'd love Bowie playing him
@@stevetoth7136 eh ?
@@the_judge_8262 do u know who Ziggy Stardust is?
Borden never got cloned. Tesla never built him a machine, so that is his actual twin.
Bowie and Smeagol help Wolverine by building a machine to put on a show with Alfred, in order to beat rival magician Batman and his assistant Black Widow.
Yeah I always thought Borden had met Tesla first hence the note.
@@JamesVSCinema yeah, that's the one plot device that's a bit ehh - essentially a red herring leads Angier to a cloning machine. I don't mind too much, because this film's got so much rewatchability. Pretty much every Borden line alludes to the twin brother twist and you're mad you didn't realise. You wanted to be fooled!
😂😂
Smeageol haha, James did you notice Smeagel in this movie, Gavrael ain't joking about this
Lmao at the last sentence!
This movie is absolutely phenomenal man, easily one of Nolan's strongest films from every standpoint, in front of as well as behind the camera, and imo his most overlooked and criminally underappreciated films
Yeah I’m beginning to notice his smaller scale films have incredibly intimate character moments!
I really think it's his best one.
@@chanceneck8072 Inception has some of the laziest dialogue i've seen for such a big movie. For real, half the script is an exposition dump (yet Tenet is worse). But Dunkirk is Nolan's best work. Which is crazy because it doesn't get talked about enough. Probably because it doesnt have some big sci-fi twist to jerk over.
@@DeathByDominic you realise every movie has a hater even movies that you watch and love and you sir are one of those hater for Inception
@@DeathByDominic the film isnt the problem, but you are
8:00 that scene where the little boy is like “he killed it” while crying, hits a little different a second time around
"Where's his brother?"
@@inkwisitive And Borden's reaction is brilliant as well because that kid just called out his own trick.
It is basically the entire movie, literally cried out by that kid. But you don't know it at the time.
I love how the film implies that Borden and Angier's rivalry mirrors Edison and Tesla's. Also the idea that while Borden and Angier work with illusions, Edison and Tesla are like actual wizards whose inventions are the equivalent of real magic.
Beautifully put
Hey, nice way to rock that Arthur C. Clarke idea about advanced science looking like, equating to magic.
Its interesting how the two characters tend to mimic Edison and Tesla as well. Angiers is Edison, Wealthy, and more of a showman/business man than a scientist (magician), bit of a dick. Borden is Tesla, a working class natural genius, singularly focused on the science (magic), to the detriment of everything else in his life.
Everytime sarah says "you don't mean it today" when he says "I love you", that's his brother pretending to be him. It's really interesting rewatching the movie and realising which brother is which.
No shit sherlock 😂
One of the best endings of all time
Crazy twist right!
@@JamesVSCinema you should checkout another theory of The Prestige ending. That SciFi story about cloning is just bullshit. And that's hoe Nolan FOOLED us.
@Nikhil The film's adapted from a novel of the same name which has a lot of extra layers about the nature of truth (particularly historical truth - the book has a modern day framing device), unreliable narrators etc. The basic plot's the same though so it wouldn't be Nolan fooling us (it'd be Nolan perceiving Christopher Priest, the original author, as fooling us - which, FWIW, I didn't - and then adapting _that_ for the screen - twisty turny :).
i love the twist so much because i caught on to a few parts but didn’t put the whole thing together which made it more satisfying
One of my favorite Nolan movies, I don’t know how this movie’s timeline is so complicated but lays it out for you to follow easily at the same time
He’s brilliant at those sort of things haha!
It's definitely one of the best second watches out there if not the best. You'll pick up on a ton of details you missed the first time.
The fact that it's based on an amazing novel by Christopher Priest also helps ;)
Its funny because that is part of his magic trick of film-making. There are so many time jumps and cuts to several different periods of time within the story and you always have a pretty solid sense of where you are at in the story even if you aren't quite sure where everything is going or what it all means.
His ability to jump throughout time within the narrative yet maintain a larger through-line of where the story is and allowing the narrative to unfold in a non-linear way is top-notch.
Also, the whole movie is metaphoric of film-making in general, similar to Inception having a lot of parallels to movie making in regards to building the dreamworld (each member of Dom's team correlates to an aspect of making a movie). I love that the reveal at the end isn't about the brother so much as it is about what they were willing to sacrifice to achieve the illusion.
The Prestige has some incredible detail/depth which you pickup on in later viewings, for example, *SPOILER ALERT*, the different birds in cages at the beginning don’t just mirror Angier as you mentioned, but directly foreshadow his use of clones. Even the scene where Borden performs the trick to the little boy, the boy catches how it’s done and says ‘Where’s his brother?’, a direct reference to Borden having a twin brother
Yup! I began to put those metaphors together!
@@JamesVSCinema You just gotta watch it AGAIN, there's so much foreshadowing going on, the amount of details is inconceivable, re-watch value is through the roof on this one
Even the beginning of Borden's diary - "we were both young man at the start of our career, who never intended to hurt anyone". Borden wasn't referring to him and Angier. He was talking about him and his twin.
The metaphor of this movie is that the movie itself was structured like a magic trick.
Finally, someone articulated it! I haven't encountered any movie analysis that frames the film itself as a magic trick. The film's structure perfectly mirrors the classic three-act format, starting with the 'Pledge' of introducing the rival magicians, followed by the 'Turn' of their escalating rivalry and increasingly elaborate illusions, culminating in the 'Prestige' of the final reveal. This leaves us, the audience, desperate to uncover the secret at the very end, just like with a captivating magic performance.
Crazy to think Tesla in this movie has the theoretical ability to increase the food supply for those in need but chooses to make HATS.
OK, fair point, he could've fed a lot of mouths BUT those mouths were all _in_ heads. And what do heads need ?
Well to be fair he wasnt aware that he was cloning the hats. And once he was done he decided it was so powerful it should be destroyed
I haven't watched this movie in 8 years and I still remember every twist. This one really sticks with you.
my absolute favourite moment of this film is when borden is trying to calm down the kid who cried about the bird and the kid says "but where's his brother?" and you see a slight twitch in borden's face because his life is literally indistinguishable from his twin (a close second was the big wtf moment when tesla first appears and it's bowie of all people :D)
Favorite line of the movie for me goes to Hugh Jackman's character when he says something to the effect of "the scariest thing each night was not knowing if I would be the man on stage taking the bow and the applause or the one drowning in the tank" so chilling to think about
Especially because the real answer is, he was both. Each time.
@@KS-xk2so I think he wasn't his clone -- that's why he could kill his clone with a gun. The clone thinks it's the original (as per the gun scene), but if the clone thought about the trick more then it would realise it's a clone.
@@endofscene We don't know if the clone stays in the machine or is generated away from it, or if that always stays the same. Angiers himself may not know. The point is Angiers thinks before the show "I wonder if I will be the Prestige or Drown tonight." as 1 man. When the cloning happens, 2 versions of that man now exist, one gets to be the Prestige, the other drowns, but both look back and remember having that thought. Every time.
@@KS-xk2so and that’s kind of relatable to the trick at the beginning of the film, because of the risk, his wife couldn’t be 100% sure she’s gonna make it to the prestige, every time
scary af tbh
My favorite Nolan film. Just so meticulous and different. I love films that make me rethink it when it's over and I think this is the one that Nolan did the best with.
Absolutely agree, I love this film and the the fact that it's "complicated" but not to the point that he has to explain it in every shot as in Inception or Tenet wich are insufferable.
I've come across people who say that they didn't like how Borden wins in the end, still not realizing that it's a two vs one rivalry the entire time. When you figure out the differing personalities of the twins, as well as which brother is on-screen doing what, you'll come to realize that Alfred was basically a victim of the pettiness between Freddy and Robert.
I think they are missing the point of the movie. No one “wins”. One man dies, they other one loses his brother to a crime he didn’t commit. They both lost everything. One lives but with what?? Being the last to live isn’t a “win” in this case.
@@FortheLoveofMonsters He gets to reunite with his daughter, at least. But yeah, it is pretty much just survival because he now has to hide for the rest of his life. Then again, that is also what Angier planned to do.
@@FortheLoveofMonsters He lost even more than that. He lost his fingers, his wife, his brother and business partner, his career, his identity and freedom. And on top of that, he was driven to murder. Absolutely agree that being the last alive isn't a win.
This movie really shows the destructive path of obsession and revenge.
It's the old adage "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig _two_ graves" writ large (i.e. multiplied by - potentially - hundreds). Borden at least survives but everyone ultimately loses.
@@anonymes2884 Mr. Miyagi: "Daniel-san, you look revenge that way, start by digging two graves."
David Bowie's voice sounds almost identical to Pierce Brosnan's in this movie.
@@lukeizabelle2131 Totally, what's weird is I don't think David Bowie normally sounds like Pierce but for some reason he was channeling him in this performance, if you close your eyes and just listen you'd swear it was Pierce.
It's so freaking weird to me that this is like sitting in 2011 and watching a movie from 1996. Holy shit time flies
Hahaha I was born in 97’ so yup. Time is flying like crazy!
@@JamesVSCinema So you were 14 in 2011... Damn. 2011 feels like the present to me still. Enjoy your 20s cause they will FLY by!
Eratosthenes Yeah, now that I’m in my 50’s, it’s crazy how I look at time. 2005 feels like ‘pretty recent’ to me. It takes a sec for me to realize that it was 16 years ago. I can’t even imagine how my dad, who’s 82, looks at it. All I know is it keeps going by faster & faster as I get older. I’ve heard it compared to a roll of toilet paper...At the beginning it seems like it’ll be endless, but as you get near the end you see how quickly it starts to go..
@@susanmaggiora4800 LOL that's a great ANALogy!
the film: *cuts*
James: Yo, shout out to the editor.
It's honestly a movie that you can figure everything out after 3 to 5 viewings but then still spend the rest of your life studying this film. Truly a perfect 10 out of 10
By far my favorite Nolan film. So brilliant in so many ways. I can watch this movie over and over again and still find new things. The cinematography, scale, foreshadowing and transitions, score, sound mixing... just everything. Hard to find a flaw in this film. Glad you reacted to it.
Just noticed another thing.... at 16:07 of your video... the shadow in the spotlight... never noticed that before. But it means so much.
This movie really rewards a rewatch, it blows you away again by how perfectly everything fits together.
how not to forget when Batman and Wolverine were rivals doing magic tricks with the help of Black Widow
😂😂😂
And Alfred
with the help of Gollum and The Goblin King :)
All while The Mandarin's assistant was married to Batman.
Or P.T. Barnum and Patrick Bateman
Or Jean Valjean and Trevor Reznik
Or that guy in Australia and whoever Chiristian Bale played in Empire Of The Sun
Man, it’s been years since I watched “The Prestige”. But when you James said the word “Twin” I felt like a Cold War Sleeper Cell being awoken by a code word
One of the brilliant but overlooked things about Hugh Jackman’s character sacrifice is how it can’t be known if he’s still the original or just a clone at the end! It’s impossible to know if the machine teleports a clone away from the machine, or if the original is teleported away and a clone is the one standing in the machine. In literally every situation, the one being drowned at the end of the trick believes he himself is the original that’s dying. The one that survives has no proof if he’s the original or just a perfect clone, so it absolutely takes everything for him to step in that machine never knowing for sure if he’s stepping into his death.
Nolan's earlier stuff is his best stuff. The Prestige and Memento>>>
Insomnia was also great
@@matthewmciver7615 Agreed. Criminally underrated. I don't think it's on Memento or The Prestige's level though
Personally disagree, i think he was always constantly great, just because you personally love his older stuff doesn't make them actually better, i still think the dark knight and inception are his best movies but that's just my point of view
Its such a rare thing to have each of his movie a masterpiece and all completely different from other!!!! Nolan is the G.O.A.T or is about to be in coming years.......
He still hasn't made a bad film.
You should watch the Illusionist (2006), It's also about magic and it has superb cinematography. Really underrated.
Man great film
I feel like these movies were compared rather unfairly to each other since they came out around the same time with magician theme. I'd seen the Prestige first and then watched the illusionist and didn't like it the first time but went back without trying to compare it with the Prestige and really enjoyed it. I feel like as long as you just watch the two movies without comparing them they are great
Prestige / Illusionist was one of those weird times where two very similar movies come out, but they're both great.
This is easily my fav from Nolan
I immediately watched this movie again after my first viewing. That final scene always squeezes my heart.
It's not just the juicy twist, it's how everything is parallels on top of parallels on top of parallels. A *tesseract* of parallels!
Abracadabra
The most underrated movie of the 2000’s
It’s crazy people don’t know about this film
Could be Nolan’s best
@@grantterlecky1248 I agree. Very underrated movie. Its actually the best Nolan movie so far in my opinion. Its kind of funny how some old so called classic movies are extremely overrated. And this one is just the opposite. Its very underrated i think that some people are just not understanding this movie at all.
@@issi529 agreed
@@grantterlecky1248 👍
This is one of my favorite films ever. As a magician, I really appreciate how they stayed true to a lot of the methods (minus the cloning, obviously) and the history between feuding magicians like P.T. Selbit and Horace Goldin though obviously, liberties were taken. Definitely one of Christopher Nolan's best films.
I liked how the story tells not just the rivalry between two magicians: Borden and Angier, and two wizards: Edison and Tesla
I am so devastated that I remembered the ending from when I was a child. The literal only thing I remembered from this whole movie was that scene where Christian Bale shoots Hugh Jackman and literally explains the whole twist. I've just finished watching it, for what I consider the first time and it was so obvious to me that the man was Bale in makeup. It's actually miraculous to me how people can NOT immediately notice that, but I understand that they don't, which makes me incredibly sad because I understand I will never experience this movie how it should be experienced. Nolan is a genius for fooling the first time viewers.
This is one of those movies you don’t really understand the narrative fully until you’ve watched it multiple times
You know it's good when your reaction to this in your sub box is "OOOOOO"
😂😂😂
Borden just had a twin brother, but Angier couldn’t accept such a simple explanation (a double). Borden gave him the Tesla name just to mess with him and send him on a wild goose chase, but Tesla found a way to replicate (literally) the trick.
Based off a book, this only adapts part of the book, not the whole thing. The book is even more horrifying, though it’s a while since I read it.
More than that Angier couldn't accept the devotion and commitment they had to the craft that they were willing to share one life between the two of them, even loving two women and not letting them in on it at all. It's like when he couldn't believe the old Chinese guy could commit to having a giant bowl between his legs all the time, he just couldn't imagine having the sheer will to pull something like that off.
@@craigo1981 Angier didn’t know about any of that, all he had was the suggestion from Michael Caine that it must be a double.
I saw this in theaters & it blew me away. I was excited to watch it a second time & see how much I missed. And there is a TON that you miss the first time. Glad you liked it!
I love that this is the way Chritian Bale understood the Chinese musicians trip and dedication.
A thing that’s heartbreaking in this movie is that Angier didn’t even need to kill all of his clones and could just have performed the trick with the original close, just like Borden did.
But Angier was obsessed with vanity. He never wanted to be “the man in the box”.
Borden didn't have a clone; it's his twin.
@@Deimos2k5 I am aware, that doesn’t change the fact that Angier could have kept the first clone instead of killing dozens of them.
@@kathulhurises well his first clone killed original him...but you're right. Had he been less negligent with his gun he could have done that.
@@Biggiiful - or the "original" him killed his duplicate. They are the same man.
If only Hugh Jackman's character had thought about using his first clone as his partner.
Then again that was his downfall, as he only cared about him being in the spotlight and getting the applause.
That but also I think that first time Angier has something of an instant existential crisis - his clone is a direct attack on his sense of identity and he panics about who's the "real Angier" and kills him. Borden on the other hand, since he came by his "clone" the old-fashioned way (by being born a twin) doesn't have the same problem.
After each performance it is the clone who survives
@@paulcooper8818 Nope, The version of Hugh that enters the cage is teleported, and the clone appears in its place in the cage. So the first time he performs the magic, the original version of Hugh is killed (which is why, when he is about to be shot, he exclaims "No I'm the real one..."), then all subsequent times the trick is performed by the first clone
@@lucamagic7676no one is teleported. One is cloned into existence. The other stays in the same place
@@paulcooper8818 - Nope. He is duplicated. So the same man is "transported" AND drown each night.
Another fun magician movie to check out is "The Illusionist" with Edward Norton.
Such a great movie. It seems no matter how many times you watch it, you see something new.
OH wow, I never even noticed the similarities to the bird cage and the device!
Happy I was able to highlight that then!
@@JamesVSCinema This is one of my all-time favorite movies, I've watched it dozens of times, and the comparison never even occurred to me. Love watching your vids! Anxious to see what else you see in this. :)
Lol this movie is like the magician's version of a rap beef lol
I watched this with my nephew for the first time. After finishing we immediately watched it again!
Bale is always so unreal how good he is. Try Equilibrium if you haven’t, another amazing movie he’s in.
The addition of David Bowie, one of the greatest Magicians of the 20th century, is simply fantastic.
The illusionist with Edward Norton. Great film.
Oh boy, I can't wait for you to get to his adaptation of Insomnia. Arguably one of Nolan's most underrated/understated movie. Its honestly so good and would love for more people to know/see it.
I’ll have to add this to future patreon polls!
I friggin love that movie. Underrated aaaf.
That movie is so good! Robin Williams is chilling in it
It is an OK movie with a great villain performance. But the original Norwegian film is waay better.
Love that movie, it's probably in my top 3 Nolan movies
James’ reaction for 99% of the video: WHAT? 🤯🤯🤯
the fact that the first brother “alfred” (the guy being played by christian bale) didnt actually know which knot was tied is so ironic
One brother doesn't know. The other does
Yeah...I meant the first brother
not only is this easily one of my favourite movies of all time, but it was the one that REALLY got me into cinema. i saw it when i was young, too young to understand it all really, & yet i knew i had just experienced something that changed me.
I think I will say it... this is my favorite Nolan movie. I know most, if not all his movies you can rewatch and see new things that add to the story, but this one is top tier on the rewatches.
I don't think anyone had mentioned it yet, but the Chinese magician with the fish bowl was based on a real magician in London around the same time, Chung Ling Soo. Just as Borden suspected, he did the act the whole time. He also had a rival magician and died doing the bullet catch where he spoke in English on stage for the first time, "Oh my God. Something's happened. Lower the curtain."
This is my #2 all time largely due to how fun it is to share with people. Excited to watch along
Yeah I had no idea this would be the path of this film hahaha
I highly recommend his brother Jonathan Nolan’s show Westworld if you haven’t already seen it!
Hey James, all I've got to say is that "The Prestige" is my favourite film of Nolan's, after "TeneT" now though, i thought the concept in "TeneT" was excellent.!!!, The Prestige is just like all his other films, more excellent upon multiple watches.
His films are great, love the way he plays with time in almost all his films, he's a great Director.! 👍
This film has a cloning machine - I think in Tenet the bad guys invent a machine to help them moonwalk?? I need to watch that one again...
what i love about this film is the parallels it make between magicians and filmmaking...you want to be fooled
On second viewing, I was absolutely devastated for Rebecca Hall's character, even more so than the first time through.
Oh man... What a film.
Excellent video, as per usual. Keep up the good work.
So great to find a Movie channel that does commentary on literally all my favs
The biggest plot twist of The Prestige for me was that it's actually a Sci-fi movie
great video!! super glad you liked it, man. this is maybe my favorite film of all time.
The film is structured like the process of a magic trick. Act 1 ends with the wife drowning or the pledge, Act 2 ends with Angier stepping into the machine for the first time ("and here at the turn, I must leave you"). The ending of Act 3 is the reveal of Borden to Angier, or the prestige. The Borden twins actually have distinct personalities. The first of them (who loved Scarlett Johansson) is obsessed with performing magic tricks and is loud, confrontational, and quick to anger. He's the one who tied the double knot and killed Angier's wife in the process. He's also the one who got his fingers shot off by Angier and was ultimately jailed and hanged at the end. The second twin (who loved Sarah) is much more quiet, measured, and approachable. His talent is he's really good at deciphering how other magicians perform their tricks. Chronologically, we first see him when he and Angier go to figure out how the fish bowl trick is done. He is also the one who shows up at the funeral to pay his respects and says he doesn't know which knot was tied (he really didn't know and was telling the truth!). Tesla did build a machine for Borden when he and Angier's rivalry over the transported man trick started heating up, but it was just glorified set dressing, a machine that gave off electricity overhead. The trick was still performed by the twins as usual, there were no clones involved. Angier still believed Borden was just one man and that Tesla really had built Borden a teleporting machine. Angier asked Tesla to build one that could do the same thing, but better. Since Tesla was staring his last financial resource in the face he agreed to do it. Tesla did in fact succeed in building such a device for Angier, with the unintentional side effect of creating copies of beings or objects ("These things never quite turn out the way you expect them to"). Through science, Tesla inadvertently created a machine that could do REAL magic and you could calibrate how close or far away to send the duplicate. Tesla wanted Angier to destroy it because, well think about it: creating endless armies, endless resources to invade the world with if it fell into the wrong hands and such. Lord Caldlow is actually Angier's real name. Angier is his stage name. He came from a wealthy family who didn't approve of his interest in magic. He was a great showman but to fellow magicians his methods were amateur at best ("I can spot Angier's methods from the back of the theater"). Borden was good at magic tricks, but terrible at selling the crowd on them ("He's a wonderful magician, he's a terrible showman"). The first time you see Angier and Borden as magician's assistants walking up on stage you'll notice that Borden just walks up the stairs directly over to Angier's wife, whereas Angier faces the crowd, smiles and bows, putting on a show.
this has been my favorite movie for 15 years now and every time i re-watch it i love it even more. truly a masterpiece.
I'm only here for the moment James realizes it's Bowie playing Tesla.
I was not disappointed. 🤣🤣
Love this channel man, The Prestige was one of the movies that inspired me to start a movie review article for my High-school newspaper years ago.
“I love how that gadget matches the bird cage”
Me in the future: “oh you have no idea my guy”
I loved that you can understand almost all of their motives until their vendetta takes over and how they learn from each other with out even realising through their vendetta. They are stealing each other's tricks, it's the same as stealing someone else work and livelihood in the process, petty or not it's incredibly damaging to the other artist. Alfred has the dedication and is ready to sacrifice his life from the beginning to get what he wants but lacks the persona. Robert has the panache and charisma but isn't as committed to the craft to do what ever it takes to wow the crowd (like getting his hands dirty). By the end of the movie, the roles have almost reversed in the sense that Alfred's character is the entertaining persona and Robert is sacrificing himself every show.
It’s an incredible story that goes deeper into the human psychology. It really complicates (in a good way) the characters in this film and then adding the sci-fi elements just enhanced the viewing. Loved it!
@@JamesVSCinema Couldn't agree more. Glad you enjoyed it, really really looking forward to Big Lebowski, it's one of my favourites!
One of the most stacked casts ever
James “oh my goodness man” vs cinema
Love your appreciation for the costumes and set design! The lighting and editing is amazing as well! One of the greatest lesser known movies ever!
The Prestige and Inception are actually metaphors for filmmaking
That's right. Also TENET in some degree, but more like the way an audience experience a film. We're the protagonist trying to figure out what is going on, supporting character just know part of the truth (knowledge divided) and he (you) needs to put the pieces together in order to complete the mission and funfill his destiny and since we're in a unknown territory with time inversion the protagonist ask the question that the audience wants to know.
@@foglias Great point. I actually saw Tenet as having more in relation to video games hence why didn't mention it but since games are more cinematic now than ever, it can work both ways.
One of the better 2006 movies about Victorian stage magicians.
This is one of my top 5 movies. Absolutely love it. So glad you took the time to check it out.
My second favorite film ever made! (#1 is Blade Runner 2049)
Its a constant thrilling and suspenseful tragedy with a shocking but relieving ending.
Its a film about why we are making and watching films. People can forget the world around them for a moment and see something truly special and wondrous.
Beside Prisoners an epic performance by Hugh Jackman!
Loved your reaction! Totally underrated film 🎥
Honestly, when people say they find Tenet too complicated, it reminds me of The Prestige. I was completely lost the first time, but this movie has an insane rewatch value. I would say no matter how sharp you are, The Prestige is a different experience alltogether for 1st, 2nd AND 3rd time.
I would say the same for tenet, but to a lesser degree since it lacks emotional complexity of this one
Honestly, Tenet is on a completely different level compared to Prestige and Inception. Like it's 10 times more confusing trying to follow the time line but so good when you understand and it comes together near the end.
Tenet did lack alot of emotion right? Did anybody else feel it lacked any?
Ive rewatched Tenet several times and I could care less. And I mean any of it. The characters, the plot the way it's told.
Its an exceptionally well shot and made film, but the film feels so hollow on every other level
@@stevetoth7136 Yeah I get what you mean. It's like the emphasis was put so much on threading all the notes of the narrative together that everything else was forgotten.
@@stevetoth7136 Kinda with you unfortunately. It's a criticism of Nolan i've seen quite a lot (that his films are cold, too technical etc.) but 'Tenet' is the first time i've agreed.
_Technically_ it IS astounding IMO (not just the VFX but the filmmaking itself, slotting the pieces together etc.) but I came away pretty much totally untouched by the characters and story. Basically I admired it rather than loving - or maybe even liking - it (kind of like a well told, well constructed joke but rather than laugh you nod in appreciation and say "That's funny").
Maybe it'll grow on me over time though.
True Romance starring Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, James Gandolfini, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt and many others. Directed by Tony Scott. Make it a must! Written by Quentin Tarantino! Its one of the best films with the one of the best ensemble casts of stars and character actors. Love your videos!
When Borden recognises the method to the fishbowl trick and describes his total devotion to his craft and that his life (pretending to be decrepit) is the act - he was describing himself.
I wish I could see this movie for the first time every time I rewatch it.
I'm so happy I found this man's channel last year. Great insight. Great movies. Keep it up James.
Borden’s twin that died also represents the dead bird. The brother that lives represents the prestige bird that lives.
What an awesome movie. Its clearly a movie about obsession and the blind persuit of it but also, to me it's a metaphor for addiction and the destructive affects it has on the addict and his life and family and career etc.. The idea of the bird in the cage and the man in the box is that nobody really cares about as you preform when you are needed to
The Dark knight trilogy was based on the three acts. The Pledge (Batman Begins), The Turn (The Dark Knight), and The Prestige (The Dark Knight Rises).
Hugh Jackman is EXCELLENT in the movie The Fountain, too! It’s by Aronofsky and is visually and emotionally stunning.
I love how you remarked upon how they both seemed to enjoy magic at the beginning, but it became poisonous as we moved on. The consistent message in this film is the danger of obsession - overtly stated by Tesla when he meets Angier. We get to see the price as their rivalry escalates - with both men losing their health, sanity and loved ones. Each event reinforces the central conceit, like waves lapping the shore as the tide comes in. That is how you write a good story!
Well it's actually the cost, not price, as Bowie so aptly put it.
My mind was so blown watching this
The magician that they both work for in the beginning is played by Ricky Jay, the absolute legend in magic biz and arguably the best card mechanic/magician who ever lived.
Oh nice!! Thanks for sharing that!
@@JamesVSCinema he also starred in Boogie Nights and Magnolia.
a rewatch really changes the entire movie.
"Man just tell him the knot!"
He doesn't know! Haha
Me and my brother just watched this movie last night, and I went to check if you had reacted to it and then I saw this video upload at that exact same time. Those odds are crazy.
This is honestly one of the best reactions to this movie that I’ve seen. What a good movie
Not only "freakin' Tesla"...😱😱😱, the best option to play him. I like that Nolan used real facts about Tesla (the lights on the snow, the fact that he used so much energy in his experiments that the nearby town went lightless and his laboratory being burned down by Edison's people). One of Nolan's bests, imo.
the definition of the Prestige is the one by david blaine with ricky gervais.
"Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".
Christopher Priest
Bale is amazing in this film. It’s super subtle, but he has different mannerisms and slightly different accents for the twins. Sometimes great performances take multiple viewings.
on a rewatch, you'll notice so many clues that christian bale has a twin, and you try and figure out which one tied the fatal knot, etc. fantastic movie.