the secret impresses some: the prestige

I believe the secret impresses few. With that being said, the secret impresses me. Knowing the secret takes away from the “AW” moment but I think it lets me know how simple or complex a trick can actually be. If I see an amazing illusion and find out the secret to doing it is actually very easy then it amazes me even more that something so simple can create such a spectacular thing makes the trick even cooler, especially seeing the look on peoples face when you know the trick and they don’t it makes them wonder. For example in the prestige Angier went to great lengths to discover Borden’s trick for the transported man but found out it wasn’t as spectacular as he had imagined. And the same with Borden when he found the truth to Angier’s trick, when Borden discovered that the “magic” was actually real science he was amazed. So I truly believe that knowing the secret doesn’t take away from the trick, it takes away the mystery sure but sometimes the trick of doing something might be more jaw dropping than the actual illusion itself. A lot like Angier’s machine, the science behind it is way more fascinating than thinking he used a double

highnoon

I think it was interesting that the townspeople would not help Kane even after everything he has done for them. From what the movie says Kane has done just about everything he can to make this town better. He put Frank Miller in jail because he murdered someone. You would think that the townspeople wouldn’t want frank back in their town regardless of the type of business he brought with him. Also when they were in the church and one of the men stood up and said that “if the people up north heard about the violence Frank and Kane would cause that they wouldn’t send companies down to their town because it might be too dangerous” was a dumb comment to make because clearly when frank was in the town it was already dangerous to begin with when he’s out getting drunk and obviously killing people. I don’t think anyone in this town had very many morals or respect for Kane at all. He asked for their help in his time of need and they were nowhere to be found but they were perfectly okay with having him clean up the streets for him prior to all of this.

definition of obsession

                I believe that the line between obsession and commitment is at the discretion of the observer. For example, in sports many people train hours and hours every day to get better, trying to make it to the next level, some might think this is obsession but to the person putting in the time to get better it’s just his or hers own commitment to the sport. Many think that obsession occurs when you sacrifice your own family for the thing that you are doing, but to some people family isn’t the most important thing in their lives, to some family comes a close second to other maybe more important things.

                When you look at the movie The Prestige, you notice that the two main characters are going to great lengths to perfect what they do. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 19^th century. With the goal of creating the best stage illusion, they engage in a competitive warfare of magic with tragic results. The rivalry started when both of these men were working for the same person and Angier’s wife was killed by Boren when and allusion went wrong because Borden tied the wrong knot in a water cell trick causing Angier’s wife to drown. After this event Angier discovers Borden doing some low end magic in a saloon. When Borden’s assistant Fallon is choosing a helper from the crowd a disguised Angier is selected to help Borden by shooting an un loaded gun at him so he can perform a bullet catch. Angier knowing of the unloaded gun slips a projectile down the barrel to fire at Borden blowing his pinky and ring finger off of his left hand. This is when you could say the rivalry began because here after, they both attempt to sabotage each-others illusions and one-up each other.

                We start to see the true dedication of these two men when Borden and Angier begin to perfect the illusion of the transported man, but both have different methods of preforming it. When Angier first sees Borden perform the trick he vanishes in one cabinet and his double (later found to be his twin) appears out of another.

Angier picks a person off the street who looks remarkably similar and cast’s him to be his double so he too can perform the trick. After Borden corrupts Angier’s double things in Angier’s show begin to go wrong. One thing that happens is the bad to catch Angier when he vanishes below the stage is missing and ends up hurting his leg severally causing him to have a limp. Another thing that happens is when Angier vanishes below the stage, he sees Borden standing in his doubles place to go out before the audience and when Borden does he promotes his own show while displaying a trapped Angier (his double) hanging from the ceiling.

When Angier learns of Nikola Tesla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla) he travels to Colorado Springs in America to have this man make a machine that can truly transport him. Nikola is successful in this attempt at such science but the machine makes a duplicate of the object and either transports the duplicate or the original which we may never know, either way this is some crazy stuff. Anyway, Angier brings this machine with him back to London and demonstrates it to a theatre owner. The owner agrees to allow him to do his show here. Angier has a trap door set up right under the machine so that when it is finished making a duplicate or original the “thing” standing on the trap door will disappear into a glass box full of water and left to drown, Angier gets away with this by hiring a blind stage crew and never reveling his secret to anyone. When Borden is at one of his shows he notices the trap door and goes back stage to confront Angier or maybe sabotage it (we may never know) and see the duplicate or original in the locked glass box. Seeing what he assumes is Angier he tries to break the glass box and when people hear it they rush back to see a dead Angier and a guilty Borden. Borden is then put on trial and sentenced to die for murder. Borden is given Angier’s journal to translate his trick and then he discovers it was Angier’s plan all along to frame Borden for his death so he would hang, while the duplicate or original Angier is out running around. Borden is then hung , but his twin brother is still left and he shows up to an all alone Angier and shoots him.

                I believe both of these men were border line obsessed with magic. I understand that they wanted to be the best but they took being the best to an extreme. I don’t think Angier would’ve done any of this had Borden or his brother not killed Angier’s wife. However Borden was also playing a double life the entire time he was in London. Both of the twins were in love with different girls to the point where the double life began to conflict each other. In this case these two men were trying to be the best they could be. So I personally don’t believe they were obsessed.

 

 

Did Catherine write the proof?

The question of whether or not Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) wrote the mystery proof that mathematicians have been trying to solve for years is answered clearly in the movie. The proof found in a locked drawer in the desk in Robert’s (Anthony Hopkins) room after Catherine gives Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) the key (this is extremely important because Robert is now dead and was crazy for his last five years, and to find that he had written an important proof during his last few years would’ve been huge). As Hal rushes down stairs exclaiming how important this proof is and how it could change their lives, after a dispute with Hal and her sister we find out that Catherine claims that she wrote the proof. Due to a flashback during the movie it shows both Catherine and her dad, Robert, working on what seems to be the proof. When Catherine thinks she has figured everything else she runs up stairs to her father’s room where he too is waiting with a “proof” in hand telling her it’s some of his best work. After Robert hands the proof to Catherine demanding that she read it, she finally reads his proof out loud. The proof that Robert has written has nothing to do with math at all, only proving more to him and Catherine that he is extremely crazy. This shows that Catherine wrote the proof because it is in her hand writing and she can explain the whole proof in detail, as she begins to do at the end for Hal. So the question of whether or not Catherine wrote the proof shouldn’t be asked because the movie clearly shows that she does. That being said I hated this movie and thought it was extremely boring.

The "Broadway melody" portion in singing in the rain was both relevant and unneeded in this movie. In the beginning of this section it starts out showing his trip to Broadway and how he got his chance with being a star. But after that, all of the other scenes I felt were useless and hard to follow. Like the scene with the gangster and the lady in green and the lady in white, I saw no need for that in the film. I think it was just used for extra dance scenes for the movie so Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) could show off his dancing skills or to possibly add another 20 minutes to the movie. Overall I thought this was a well-made movie. I personally liked how they incorporated the difficulties of getting the sounds correct with the positioning of the microphone, and how they ended up using Kathy Seldon’s (Debbie Reynolds) voice for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) so that she wouldn’t sound all high pitched and annoying.

harvey's truth

In the beginning of the movie Harvey is doing good things and helping out the city but when the things that mean a lot to him are taken away I believe that is when he becomes corrupt. He was a good man and he wanted to clean up his town, to he started putting the mob in jail and doing it in bulk. As the movie progressed and he was targeted by the joker, and his fiancé was killed and his face was burnt off, he sat in his hospital bed wanting revenge. When the joker came to his room with answers and a solution Harvey thought it best to let the joker go because in the end he wasn't "fully" responsible for her death because he wasn't the one who picked her up. Harvey goes out of his way to kill or hurt these people and he puts innocent people in danger just for his revenge. I believe that Harvey was good but through a series of unfortunate events he was corrupted into becoming a villain.

sorcerers apprentice

I really liked the concept of this movie and how they put it together. However, I think it was very unfortunate that the magician had to die all because his "wife" was evil. I can’t believe she would cheat on a magician for an acrobat, it’s not like the acrobat can pull a rabbit out of his hat. That’s the only thing that is unrealistic about this movie but i am glad that in the end Hugo killed her because that was highly ironic that she said the wand would give him power and in the end it was the cause of her death. Well the saw killed her, but the thought that the wand would save her killed her.