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List Price: $29.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Salesrank: 658
Released: February 20, 2007 |
| Our Price: $11.49 |
| Used Price: $3.86 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A Friendship That Became a Rivalry...A Rivalry That Became a Battle.Rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London battle each other for trade secrets. The rivalry is so intense that it turns them into murderers. The title refers to the product of a successful trick.DVD Features:Available Subtitles: Spanish FrenchAvailable Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1) French (Dolby Digital 2.0) Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)The Art of the Prestige GalleryThe Director's Notebook: The Cinematic Sleight of Hand of Christopher NolanSystem Requirements:Run Time: 130 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 786936705157 Manufacturer No: 05065100
Description of The Prestige:
The Prestige attempts a hat trick by combining a ridiculously good-looking cast, a highly regarded new director, and more than one sleight of hand. Does it pull it off? Sort of. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play rival magicians who were once friends before an on-stage tragedy drove a wedge between them. While Bale's Alfred Borden is a more skilled illusionist, Jackman's Rufus Angier is the better showman; much of the film's interesting first half is their attempts to sabotage--and simultaneously, top--each other's tricks. Even with the help of a prop inventor (Michael Caine) and a comely assistant (Scarlett Johansson), Angier can't match Borden's ultimate illusion: The Transporting Man. Angier's obsession with learning Borden's trick leads him to an encounter with an eccentric inventor (David Bowie) in a second half that gets bogged down in plot loops and theatrics. Director Christopher Nolan, reuniting with his Batman Begins star Bale, demonstrates the same dark touch that hued that film, but some plot elements--without giving anything away--seem out of place with the rest of the movie. It's better to sit back and let the sometimes-clunky turns steer themselves than try to draw back the black curtain. That said, The Prestige still manages to entertain long after the magician has left the stage--a feat in itself. --Ellen A. Kim
The Prestige Reviews:
Very Well Done 
2008-08-19 -
I'm an avid movie fan and was not at all disappointed with this one. I like stuff with twists and turns that keeps your imagination and intellect busy and reeling. This was a fantastic movie and I have literally thought about it over and over. It's definately one to watch many many times. Do not blink or go to the bathroom. Definately enjoyable and twisty.
BN
It Takes Two
2008-08-14 - NOTE: If you're wondering whether the Blu Ray purchase is a worthy one over the DVD, it is. The picture quality is consistenly completely smooth with a wonderful sense of depth that really shines through. The audio, meanwhile, is subdued but wonderfully so. The uncompressed surround is terrific. Now that the tech specs are out of the way, onto the bulk:
Ever since Christopher Nolan's little seen movie entitled Following, I knew we had a director worth keeping an eye on. Following that up with Memento was perfection and then there was the oft overlooked Insomnia. Then, he reinvented the Batman saga. However, scrunched between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was this little movie about magic, named The Prestige. Actually, it wasn't really about magic. It's about obsession, misdirection and mysterious plot twists...pretty much par for the course.
Nolan has crafted a fine story that runs like a trainwreck. From the first death in the film, you know that things can't end happily. At every corner, each magician tries to top the other, but neither is strong enough to know when to stop. And what happens when someone has a trick that is utterly impossible to pull off? How do you top it? By doing the unimaginable.
And it's the unimaginable that will either make you love or loathe this film.
When I saw The Prestige in the theatres back in 2006, I left feeling a little bit cheated. After a pitch perfect first two acts, in which Jackman's Angier and Bale's Borden continued to try and upstage/get back at each other, Christopher Nolan (and brother Jonathan) threw an utter curveball that seemd to not only stretch my belief in what I was watching but completely seemed out of place. I thought about the movie for a long time and decided that I ultimately didn't like it.
The other day, it was playing on a movie channel and I managed to catch it just as the opening credits were running. "I'll just watch a little bit of it," I thought and ended up staying for the entire runtime. I bring this up because what I find so thrilling and interesting about The Nolans is just how well-constructed (to a fault) their movies are. The continual moving back and forth in time is nothing new to them (Following, Memento), but the way it's constructed, perfectly, as the three acts of a magic trick is pure...well, magic.
And watching through it a second time illuminated just how early they set up the events. The twisting third act no longer seemed utterly incredulous (only just semi-incredulous). The other not-so-out-there twist seemed incredily "duh!" but what was perfectly appropriate was simply how well a fairly obvious answer is hidden in plain sight and yet, not seen.
In the end, the final lines speak volumes: "Now you're looking for the secret. But you wont find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be...fooled."
The Masterpiece set in Steampunk ... 
2008-08-06 -
What can be said so early in the game about one of the greatest films ever made? Are you watching carefully? Did you miss something? Yes ... you heard right.
The Prestige is not the greatest film ever made, but it does belong in that special group of films that breaks the mold, sets a framework to be emulated and creates something within the film that is greater than the film itself. More questions than answers are put to the viewer as the movie progresses and the film has qualities that stay with the viewer long after the film has ended, creating debate. As simple as an order as this may seem to fill, it is not simple by a long shot, as even subjectively, a lot of film, both modern and classic, can be completely forgettable.
Often, during the initial release of a film, it can be grossly overlooked and treated so unfairly that the rancor and the bitterness that precedes it can often overshadow the film for some time, often decades or longer. This has been evinced numerous times in the last 75 years of filmmaking, and more so when a film is made that has all the qualities of a workman-like production. Casablanca was a film that was one of many projects that the director Michael Curtiz was working on at the time and one of a total of one hundred and seventy two productions during his career. It has been often stated that when the film was made, no one thought much about the gravitas, or the film as being special or even close to becoming the classic that it now is.
The Prestige was met on a lot of fronts during its release to a sharp rebuke and then a continuous and growing wave of criticism. It didn't help that The Illusionist was also released during the same period, thus giving the viewer a large dosing of Victorian era magic and prestidigitation. Woody Allen's Scoop also made its presence known but was probably the most forgettable Allen film to date. One wonders if these things are a matter of coincidence or strong wrangling of studio one-upmanship. The kind of rivalry that is all too spelled out in the film and leads each party down a dark road. It makes a viewer wonder how much money was lost by trying to overwhelm an audience rather than growing an interest and feeding an audience slowly, much in the way of J. K. Rowling. Who as we know, hasn't done very well with her book to screen adaptations and the revenue that's been collected.
The Masterpiece set in Steampunk ...
Steampunk is a subversive and somewhat underused term that describes a genre of film, writing, sometimes music and art. Steampunk is usually defined as:
works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used--usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England--but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.
In general, the category includes any recent science fiction that takes place in a recognizable historical period (sometimes an alternate-history version of an actual historical period) where the Industrial Revolution has already begun but electricity is not yet widespread, with an emphasis on steam, or spring-propelled gadgets. It can also be defined as Psuedo-Victorian, neo-Victorian, retro-futurism and multiple other variances.
The first usage of the word was in 1987 by K.W. Jeter while discussing his ideas about `Victorian fantasies' during an exchange with Locus magazine for his 1979 novel Morlock Night and the debate over who was the first author to step into the genre. That discussion aside, Steampunk references can easily be found in earlier works such as The Wild Wild West Television series and a few select novels. Although alternate history and merging timeline tales regarding Sherlock Holmes have been around for the last forty years. K.W. Jeter though is graced with the honor of having coined the phrase and establishing the genre past something vague and indescribably uncanny.
During the late 1990's and well into the next century, film makers began to fully realize the genre and embrace it with both hands. Twenty five films or more can be found in between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and The Prestige.
Steampunk on film is usually represented with mechanistic devices that appear new to the eye and in perfect working order and placed in a setting that does not seem out-of place or intentionally out-of place. The meat of the sub-genre is that the reader and the viewer both have to believe that the Steampunk elements are perfectly sewn into the fabric of the world being presented. In the film Van Helsing, Steampunk artifacts run headlong into the decrepit world of Gothic Europe where mechanistic objects take an incredibly rugged and utilized look. The Back to The Future series raised the bar on presenting Steampunk in both a used and new environment, especially the third film which is set in the Old American West. The storyline of Back To The Future however, allowed the deviance into a decrepit depiction of the objects as the DeLorean time machine, the flux capacitor and the repetitive models and other home-made devices had already been established. The items that get presented for the first time, like the brass scope on Doc Brown's large-bore rifle, are shown as new. This is a minor distinction for the viewer and may seem tedious to read, but it is an important point and widely argued by the artists and craftspeople that spend their time making said objects. The difference between new and used is as important for effect as moonlight and sunlight. The two are distinct and both have their own place. Overlooking this fact is often done in cinema, does currently go unnoticed by many, but noted by those watching for it. Recent Steampunk attempts include The Golden Compass, which failed miserably at the box-office despite much fan-fare and J.K. Rowlings' film adaptation of The Order of The Phoenix, which continually delves deeper into the genre as each film progresses.
The Prestige shows a world where the exterior is run-down and over-advertised. Flyers, advertisements and printed paper abounds in almost every corner of the film in the outside world, painting a bleak and burgeoning depiction of the Industrial Revolution that was all around them at the time. In some instances, the idea of Steampunk is necessary to cast a more progressive light on a bleak situation, thus upping the dramatic ante.
Typically, period film is often devoid of such intense detail as it comes across as distracting and cluttered. Also, from a film-maker's perspective, often the only thing that is important is where the camera will land and be focused. Unfortunately, too many directors lead set-dressers and prop-masters to believe that extra-ordinary detail is unnecessary. But time, and the workings of the last decade has changed these ideas much.
Thus the Industrial Revolution will undoubtedly be one of the most visual influences upon film that ever was. Future filmmaker's will most likely depend upon it heavily as the information age wanes and something newer emerges. Drawing from established mythology is a habitual practice of the workman like mentality of both apprentice and master craftsmen in all trades.
On some level, The Prestige, for all intent and purpose, does fit the criteria of the later defined sub-genre of Gas-light romance, which is specific in centering on already established figures in history. The inclusion of Nikola Tesla in the film would meet the requirement for such a re-labeling, but the point would be lost as Gas-light romance is newly defined and the protagonists are amalgams of people that once lived and made their fortunes like the fictional Robert Angier and Alfred Borden.
Undoubtedly, as all new ages emerge, they are often met with both wonder and fear as it is the unknown that approaches and the unknown being man's greatest fear.
A strange, but not-so singular case against Roger Ebert ...
The reason for the cold reception of The Prestige can not just be put squarely at the feet of one man, but can be utilized to show a pattern of behavior. Some may read this a think that I'm being unnecessarily harsh on Roger Ebert, but let me explain. While Roger Ebert has enjoyed a very distinguished career in the public eye as a film critic and probably the only critic within the culture that has risen to such a height doing so, thus far, he has an uncanny ability to see past some of the greatest films released on his watch. Dismissing a film so outwardly, barely even mentioning the film within the review, as if the attempt was a complete disappointment and a waste of effort, speaks volumes of the type of disdain Roger Ebert has for the work of a certain type of film ... namely, masterpieces. The reason why this chapter deals squarely with Roger Ebert, is in part that it is wise to deal with the detractors honestly.
In 1984, Roger Ebert gave the same type of treatment to a certain Science-Fiction classic that ended up proving to be seen as the most perfect Science-Fiction film ever made and also one of the best films of all time. Blade Runner was panned by Ebert and he ripped viciously into Ridley Scott being the vanguard for a wave of negativity to quickly follow. Roger Ebert slammed Ridley Scott and the film during the first theatrical release by stating that `Scott cared more about the lush environment of the film than he did of the story', which as we all know - and even Ebert now, in hindsight, has stated that he was unkind and grossly unfair to both Scott and the film. The same exact thing repeats itself with Christopher Nolan and his film The Prestige, where he barley makes a single mention of the film, except in passing but gushes profusely and lovingly at its lesser counterpart The Illusionist and dotes upon the graven image of Edward Norton and his `Van Dyke' beard. While the community at large, often prides itself on promoting themselves as individual thinkers, if Ebert had not been so flippant toward The Prestige, it is easy, and simple, to surmise that the others would have followed suit as is often the case with mainstream reviewing. Ebert's own site has all three versions of his reviews on Blade Runner, which are interesting to read in context to the passage of time.
In Ebert's Review of The Prestige, he talks long and hotly about Harry Houdini and his love of magic. The review of the film just seems like the vehicle in which he makes his rant, thus trying to land a fatal blow upon the neck of Christopher Nolan.
Some readers may now lay this down as they cannot bear the humanizing of their movie-reviewing idol, but the real message of this essay would've quickly been lost upon them. Roger Ebert is not the message here, just a final footnote.
One of the best movies of 2006
2008-07-22 - I read quite a few other reviews, and from what I could gather is the people that had a problem with this movie are those who do not like to think at a movie and let the movie do the thinking for them. Don't get me wrong, that is all well and good. A lot of people either like this movie or The Illusionist better, and, no offense to these people, are not deep thinking people, at least to the ones that I know. (And most of them admit to being so). This movie is a great mystery movie, and I recommend it to anybody who likes mystery movies.
When I first saw this movie in the theater I did not feel lost at all, but felt more enlightened to the story as it went by. The movie has good twists all the way through it, and the overall theme is great: obsession will eventually consume you.
Batman v Wolverine? No, But a Magic Storyline
2008-07-20 - Sorry kids, I still liked The Illusionist better. The Illusionist (Widescreen Edition)... Great to see Hugh Jackman in something other than X-Men. X-Men Trilogy (X-Men/ X2 - X-Men United/ X-Men - The Last Stand)
Even so, I've been looking forward to this film, written by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan, based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Priest The Prestige. Naturally I knew the actors from their Batman Begins feature, and wanted to see how they'd act. Batman Begins (Widescreen Edition)
Two young magicians at the end of the 19th century work together on magic acts when tragedy strikes and Robert Angier's (Jackman)wife dies, and he suspects Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) of killing her by tying Robert's wife's hands and dunking her in a tank of water (as part of the act).
The story has plenty of flashbacks, so many I had to rewind a bit or ruminate over the storyline to follow closely. Ain't easy. The film slows in parts, especially the romance parts which is a side story (mistresses, intrigue, etc.) and not as interesting as each magician stooping to anything to discover the secret of teleportation on stage.
A side story in Colorado Springs (awesome photography by the way) with the famous scientist Tesla (inventor of DC current, etc) and some hint of Thomas Edison hiring thugs to destroy Tesla as a competitor (not sure if history was being rewritten here a bit, but I digress). Anyway, Jackman hikes up here, finds a wild electric machine that throws off sparks which, it turns out, may hold the secret to teleportation.
The sci-fi angle is nice and offers a didn't-see-that-coming twist at the end. Scarlett Johansson The Nanny Diaries (Widescreen Edition) is hot as the "other woman", Michael Caine brings a stability to the film, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, well I could not decide who was more of a "bad" guy, Hugh or Chris -- English accents were a bit overdone.
Chris Nolan put together a pretty film, dark and moody colors, brought in the wonder of the Victorian Age without the usual cliches, tight writing though a bit slow at times. The back and forth flashback was necessary but at times annoying.
The DVD itself has a great 'making of' section, explaining Victorian Era morals, their entertainment industry and marketing, who was Nikola Tesla and what a 19th Century magician could really do.
The DVD then is a great package of entertainment and to see Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale outside their comic book element is a sight to see.
As far as magic films, The Illusionist kept me more riveted. As far as murder or sci-fi, it's a three star special. One more star because it's a Christopher Nolan film. Oh boy! Rent today!
