Before we begin, I want to clarify that this is all just my opinion
Because I know people get really riled up about their favorite movies. And I do too which is why I'm making this video.
Also spoilers for every movie I mention here. So to explain why The Prestige is Christopher Nolan's greatest film first
I have to explain why I personally don't think it's some of his other films, namely Memento and The Dark Knight.
I'm not at all disputing that these are great films
But what I am disputing is the extent of their greatness. So we all know Christopher Nolan has trouble with women in his films
I'm not going to pretend
it's not a problem in its own right when the wives and love interests in his movies die over and over again only to add depth
to the leading man, but I think it's also indicative of a larger problem in his work
which is that he doesn't tend to write characters as people
but as symbols, pawns, and plot devices. This might just be a me thing because I like character-driven films
but it bothers me that a memento Nolan removes any potential for the film to be character-driven
Leonard's character is about survival, whether that means literally surviving or surviving his trauma, but his identity is necessarily removed.
Do I lie to myself to be happy?
In your case teddy
Yes, I will
And in the end nobody is what they say
they are, including Leonard. cool twist crazy theme definitely a mind bender.
But the twist ending of memento isn't really something you're led to be able to figure out
Which is sort of frustrating given how closely related Nolan's films are to the neo-noir genre
Especially his early work. With neo noir being closely related to the detective genre,
I want to cite film critic Roger Caillois who in his essay
"The Detective Novel as Game" said that
Well in memento we open with the disturbing consequences
Check. the imposter or at least the fact that there is one is unmasked in the end, check.
We realize, arguably, that we have been tricked, at least by someone, check. but everything is not set up in advance
Thematically, since we're dealing with such an unreliable narrator, it makes sense that we would have this specific betrayal of expectations
But it really does feel like that, a betrayal. because there's nothing tangible in the film's hint that Leonard has lied to himself
It's basically an "it was all a dream" ending
We can't guess the ending by paying close attention or at least there's no real reason for us to be able to. this is in
stark contrast to The Prestige where every truth is foreshadowed.
I'm sorry, I just don't know
It has no trick
We should've told Fallon
No one cares about the man who disappears, the man who goes into the box, they care about the one who comes out the other side
It's as bad as the day it happened.
The prestige explicitly informs us at the start of the film that we should watch closely.
Are you watching closely
It just obscures its truth adeptly enough towards the start and makes it's disturbing consequences feel motivated enough without even more extraordinary
circumstances. when the truth is finally explicitly revealed, when we discover that Borden is using a double, his twin
And Angier is cloning himself
It's difficult to feel cheated and in fact, these are probably the most simple assumptions we could have made
simple maybe but not easy
Everything has been set up in advance
This is perfectly illustrated in the scene between Borden and Sarah where Borden is showing Sarah the bullet trick
First of all, it's interesting to note that this isn't the Borden twin who loves Sarah in this scene
He was dressed as Fallon and just left
It's the other twin the one who's more concerned with magic who at other points in the film seems genuinely disdainful towards Sarah
tell me how you do it
i can't
Well, then you can't do it
I can't Do it?
I'm sorry Alfred but I can't raise a child on my own.
You don't tell anybody that I told ya, okay
gunpowder
and the bullet ramrod
Hold out your hand
The bullet is not even in the gun when the charge is fired
once you know it's actually very obvious
For just a moment. She's this Borden twin's equal. she's along for the ride with him
Even if he's not thrilled to have given up his secret, and though she is happy to be assured of her husband's safety
She really does take joy in understanding the mechanics of the trick
Particularly poignant when you realized the sheer extent of how much she is being tricked.
In The Prestige as a whole once you know
what's really going on
it's actually very obvious
So The Dark Knight. the Dark Lnight is obviously a cultural milestone
It paved the way tonally for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to revolutionize the superhero genre by saying we can take superhero movies
seriously
We can use them to say what we value, and while there's been plenty of controversy over the political messages the Dark Knight trilogy
Dark Knight Rises in particular which feels very
Anti Occupy Wall Street, but it also pissed off Rush Limbaugh
So I think what that really speaks to is Nolan's messy use of political imagery
It does seem like the main message of the Dark Knight at least is that people kind of inherently value community and really are willing
To be good to each other
this city just showed you that it's full of people ready to believe in good
Which is a wonderful message and it's a really good movie
But it does kind of suffer from this characters as symbols thing but so prevalent in Nolan's films.
as a symbol I can be incorruptible
while again, the Dark Knight is a much less egregious example than the Dark Knight Rises
It's still present. the Dark Knight trilogy was in a complicated position on our cultural timeline. before this
The Batman franchise was just full camp full irony not even a note of sincerity
Michael Keaton was I guess the closest thing we had to a sincere Batman
But Tim Burton's Batman still wasn't a sincere movie. still
Batman was such a cultural symbol already before the Dark Knight trilogy that in our cultural consciousness
It would have been hard for us to picture him as anything else. Batman is the masked vigilante that represents goodness and justice
It's just that in every Batman film leading up to the Dark Knight trilogy that innate connotation of goodness and justice was satirized
wherein the Dark Knight. It's played straight
so Nolan was already beginning to do something drastically different from the superhero movie zeitgeist when he made Batman Begins
(and nobody even likes Batman Begins) what he didn't change, true to form, was that character of Batman slash Bruce Wayne being a symbol
and if anything, he leaned even harder into it because again
Nolan has a record of writing almost all his characters as plot devices, pawns, and symbols rather than real people
Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne has a lot less wisecracking, though
there still is some, a lot of self seriousness and just kind of, this face in just about every situation
I think the standout role of the Dark Knight by far is Heath Ledger's Joker
You could argue that
He's a symbol of the apathetic postmodern hellscape that the franchise was trying to break out of which basically means he's a symbol of not
giving a darn about anything which basically means he can just go balls to the wall with the character which he did
Christian Bale though who usually does go balls to the wall with his characters kind of ended up stuck within the confines of Bruce as
a symbol so he couldn't do that this time around - the one thing he did get to do was the voice!
Everyone hates the voice. I love the voice
while I like that we're taking goodness and justice seriously, even with some irresponsible political connotations
The voice is the one fun aspect of silly campiness that we really get to keep! and while
I like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne even in spite of all this
Even he agrees that Heath's Joker stuck out a lot more than his Batman. now you might be saying Oh Charlotte you just don't appreciate
Christian Bale. NOPE! WRONG! I LOVE Christian Bale. He's my favorite actor. I think he's an absolute genius
Which is why my favorite Christopher Nolan movie is the one that doesn't under-utilize him! The Prestige let Christian Bale work his magic
 
I think Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan working together is kind of like an unstoppable force meets an immovable object (an unstoppable force meets
an immovable
object) an actor known for his incredible
ability to transform himself and take on a life meets a director known for his tendency to simulate things including simply simulating life because his
Characters are just symbols
I think the Dark Knight trilogy is a meeting of these two minds that for me kind of leaves something to be desired
But The Prestige works incredibly well mainly because the character (characters?)
of Borden manages to be so true both to the work of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale. in both Borden and Bale
We see a man who clearly enjoys challenging himself and has proven willing to put himself in the way of physical harm for his art
whether that means cutting off his hand for a trick or
Losing 62 pounds for a role. in film critic max O'Connell article "Obsession and The Void: The Performances of Christian Bale"
he suggests that
Nolan says in an IGN interview that Bale expressed interest in the role before Nolan even considered reaching out to him
But now it's hard to imagine anyone else as well suited to play Borden. Now Nolan's films are usually speculative or science fiction
driven by what-if questions in other words they're
simulation-based. this is clearly the kind of work
He's fascinated by and where his talent shines through the most--speculative fiction with a shocking twist.
And The Prestige obviously is a beautiful instance of that (his best in my opinion)
But not only does it emphasize his strengths in that way
It also self-reflexively
comments on Nolan's love for analog film and practical effects. because in both Borden and Nolan we see someone who does things the way
that's, well, the simplest but not the easiest. someone who does things kind of the
old-fashioned way and doesn't want to rely too heavily on novelties.
in a playboy interview for Dunkirk (over ten years after the prestige was made)
He says
But the characters in The Prestige like Borden are so strong because Nolan himself doesn't really do much with them
I've mentioned how unparalleled Christian Bale's character work is and as Borden
he doesn't disappoint. Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathan Nolan co-wrote the script for the pro stage with him and based on his work Jonathan seems to
Lean more towards writing in general
Chris actually said in a 2017 interview with playboy South Africa that he never wanted to be a writer and only started writing because he
needed to have the material to be a filmmaker. And then The Prestige of the film is based on The Prestige of the book by
Christopher Priest, so Chris doesn't have to invent any new characters or adapt them all on his own. Bale, Jonathan and Christopher Priest
carry the character work
So Nolan has left to do what he does best. mess with the plot. play tricks on us. Ask weird
fascinating questions and give us weird
fascinating answers. and of course emphasized the staying power that he attributes to analog film and practical effects.
The Prestige ends up exemplifying all his strengths while his weaknesses are largely
diminished. There are plenty of other reasons why I find The Prestige brilliant
I haven't really mentioned Hugh Jackman yet
mainly because Nolan and Bale had already cemented their reputations a lot more than he had but this really did turn out to be a
Career defining role for him too. Mr. Greatest Showman. Mr. Hugh "Pizzazz Boy" Jackman. That's what they call him. Yeah, I suppose. Um,
Well, my character's a more
More of a natural I suppose showman, fair to say? I think fair to say not as good a... not as good a magician
Right. I've got the magic down. Yeah, but I've got no idea
(what to do on stage) how to communicate
what I'm doing and you are brilliant showman (with average) who absolutely can bring people in, draw 'em in, and you can do that yourself
I mean that was the truth and that is the difference between the two of us. And there's that! not to mention The Prestige is
Entertaining. It's fun to watch
while
I feel that some of Nolan's other films can get bogged down by their own convolution, The Prestige actually
Benefits from it, mainly because the premise, while never quite reaching the level of ridiculous, borders on it sometimes. Borden kills (sort of)
Angier's wife, so that's legit (a dead wife? in MY Christopher Nolan movie?
it's more likely than you think) but it just
Spirals so hard from there and become so fully about their egos that it's almost funny at points (without diminishing the stakes of course)
It's like oh, what shenanigans will our wacky magician boys partake in next? It's like Tom and Jerry. at points
You kind of want to shout. "It's just magic tricks you dweebs." But of course, it's not wholly unrealistic or unearned
there's absolutely emotional payoff in the end for their constant competition and struggle. magic-obsessed Meanie Borden meets his unkind fate and
Nice Borden and Angier have some words... while Angier dies
but if you could fool them
even for a second
If you could make them wonder
then you got to see something very special
You really don't know
It was
It was the look on their faces
There's more emotional weight right there than every other Christopher Nolan film combined (okay, maybe not Interstellar obviously I cried at interstellar)
What
Magnificent tragic endings for poor Angier and mean Borden, done in by their own hubris, and what a bittersweet ending for nicer Borden, able
To return to his beloved daughter, but only having lost his wife and brother along the way
(ANOTHER dead wife? in MY Christopher Nolan movie?!
It's more likely than you think) and what a beautiful examination of the nature of performance and competition
Who are we keeping up the illusion for?
Who are we trying to impress? to beat? Is it for our peers? the public? ourselves?
Does it lead to our downfall or is it raw noble human aspiration? Can it be both? speaking of performance
I think Nolan's casting of David Bowie as Nikola Tesla is not only
legendary, but his reasons for doing it are spot on too. in the same IGN interview, He says that he needed someone with an "extraordinarily
charismatic and noticeable presence"
But who wasn't a movie star
Someone with a different kind of charisma and cult following, a lot
like Tesla himself has become in the digital age. basically in my opinion
the whole film is perfectly casted, brilliantly self-reflexive, and actually entertaining. I'm not saying the prestige is a perfect movie
It does fall into some of the typical traps that Nolan films tend to fall into. while
I do think the complex plot is largely to its benefit
I'll admit there are moments where it gets in the way. like I still don't totally get this line-- it took courage to climb into
that machine
every night
not knowing
if I'd be the man in the box
Or in the prestige
He'll always literally be the one in the prestige
First and then going into the box at the next show because that's how the trick works
I don't know. and his treatment of female characters is still kind of abysmal
Although I think Sarah is treated with a little more empathy than most of his women...
even though she kills herself... and Olivia doesn't even die and she isn't even totally portrayed as an evil Jezebel seductress--and she even seemed
Kind of sad about Sarah's death... even though we never saw them speak to each other...
It's a low frigging bar.
But I think if you want to get an idea for where Christopher Nolan's brilliance really lies, and Christian Bale's and Hugh Jackman's for that matter,
The prestige is a solid bet. If you made it all the way through this, thank you
And if you enjoyed that video
I'd love it if you drop a like and subscribe and I hope to keep making similar
content and I'd love to have a small audience to make that content for.
Anyway, thank you for watching. Have a lovely day. Bye
The real reason the prestige is the best Nolan film?There's two Christian Bales!
