Blog #6

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
March 3, 2009
I quite enjoyed the movie “The Prestige” and it was my first time watching that movie. I did find some aspects of it mysterious and mind boggling. In terms of the death of the wife of Angier, I found it quite sudden and I felt that one minute underwater is not quite enough to kill someone. Could the movie be creating an effect that life is quite fickle. The incident also sparked the rivalry of the two main characters. I felt that the rivalry erupted between the two so suddenly.
Another aspect of the movie which I felt was interesting was the way in which they portrayed the rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. At Tesla’s display of his electrical invention, people are shown to panic and leave the building. This was due to the influence of Edison who declared that Tesla’s alternating current was dangerous and it was very interesting that the movie chose to address this. There are more instances which depict this rivalry such as when Angier threatens Tesla that he would go to Edison and also when the innkeeper informs Angier that Edison’s men are outside the hotel.
Angier and to some extent Boldon go to such lengths to get back at each other and for the sake of magic. Both men become so obsessed with the stage and with tricks that they compromise anything to achieve their goals. Angier drowns himself on every performance and recreates himself. This is in my opinion a very horrendous thing to do. Could the movie be suggesting that humans are selfish and competitive by nature? I did feel that the movie portrayed the dark side of humans to show the true character of people.