Film: The Prestige

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The Prestige – Perception and Identity Introduction The Prestige is a 2006 film directed by Christopher Nolan. The background is set in London in the late 19th century. Rupert Angier (played by Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale) originally are the shills of a magician. Angier’s wife is drowned in a show and he blames Borden for that. Since then they are rivals and start their own careers as magicians. Angier becomes ‘The Great Danton’ while Borden becomes ‘The Professor’. They try to sabotage each other’s show. Borden loses two fingers in a bullet catch trick while Angier loses some reputation in bird cage trick. Later Borden starts to perform a new trick called ‘The Transported Man’. Angier is impressed and obsessed to find out how Borden does it. But he is unaware that Borden simply does that with his twin brother, whom Angier (and everyone else) does not know about. Angier sends his assistant to learn Borden’s secret but she falls in love with Borden’s brother (the twins share the same identity). Together Borden and the assistant deceive Angier by giving him Borden’s notebook, telling him the key to the secret is an inventor called Tesla. Angier believes it and starts the journey to find Tesla in America. Out of Borden’s expectation, Tesla does build a machine for Angier. The machine can create duplicate of whatever put inside it. Angier then returns to London and starts a trick called ‘The Real Transported Man’, which Angier is vanishing in the machine and reappearing at the back of the hall. In reality, Angier drops to a water tank from the machine and drowns while his duplicate appears and finishes the performance. In one show, Borden appears in the backstage to find out how Angier does his trick and ... ... middle of paper ... ...ple, studying a subject because parents want us to and we pretend that we like it but actually we do not. We still choose to do that because we want to reach our parents’ expectation. The sacrifice is that we lose the chance to learn what we really like. Sometimes we may not want to do this. It is better for us to be the real ‘me’. We are not the ones whom other people think we are. We do not let other people decide who we are. We choose to be what we are and who we are. (Word count: 2890) Reference 1. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Meditations on First Philosophy.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 12 May. 2014. 2. René Descartes. “Meditations on First Philosophy.” 3. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 12 May. 2014. 4. John Locke. “Essay Concerning Human Understanding.”

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