The Prestige Critical Essay – due Friday 20th January 2012
Not Another Essay! – It’s The Prestige This Time!
Choose a film or TV drama which involves the pursuit of power or the
fulfilment of an ambition. Show how the theme is developed through the
presentation of character and setting.
This is a fantastic question for “The Prestige” as both magicians are extremely
ambitious and the power they hold over one another is also very important.
Let’s come up with a plan.
Paragraph 1 – Introduction…
Same as usual, folks. TART (Title, Author – or director in this case – Refer to
Task. Make sure you mention the words pursuit of power or fulfilment of an
ambition. Here’s a little hint… “The film ‘The Prestige’ by Christopher
Nolan is one which deals with two extremely ambitious characters.
Nolan presents the themes of ambition and pursuit of power through…”
Simples as a meerkat might say.
Paragraph 2 – Angier [1]
Take Angier at the start of the film. Think about what motivates him and what
he wants to achieve as a magician. The scene where he and Julia are
discussing the fishbowl trick is a good one to look at for this. Or even the
scene where Cutter makes the apparatus for the bird release trick. Focus on
his career for this paragraph. When writing a media essay, you don’t have to
follow a PCQE structure. Instead try ATE – Action, Technique, Evaluate. Say
what you see, say how the director achieves this (techniques such as camera
shots, mise-en-scene, voiceover, etc…) and then analyse in the same way as
you would a quote. So to summarise, focus on Angier the Magician in this
paragraph. For a topic sentence, try something along these lines… “Nolan
highlights the theme of ambition through the character of Robert Angier,
who is the better showman of the two characters…”
Paragraph 3 – Angier [2]
Another Angier paragraph, but this time I want you to focus on how ruthless
he can be. This is the paragraph where you should discuss his obsession
with magic. He reaches a point where he will do anything to be the best, find
that and discuss. Scenes you might want to discuss: shooting Borden during
bullet trick, burying Fallon alive, going to Colorado, killing his double every
night. Pick one scene and show how this demonstrates the way Angier is
willing to do anything in his pursuit of power (that sounds a bit like a good
topic sentence, too!). Remember to discuss how Nolan uses cinematic
techniques to show these things!
Paragraph 4 – Borden [1]
Follow the same structure as your first Angier paragraph, here. Focus on how
good a magician Borden is. He is much better at coming up with tricks than
Angier. Find an example of this and discuss it. For example, he is willing to
try riskier tricks in his pursuit of being the best magician. Think of the bullet
catch.
The Prestige Critical Essay – due Friday 20th January 2012
Paragraph 5 – Borden [2]
Go for the twin angle here. The fact that Borden “lives his act” *hint – find
this quote – hint* hugely contributes to the themes of ambition and the pursuit
of power. (There’s a good topic sentence there, too!) Consider the little
montage (collection of shots, images and short scenes all played together)
we are shown when Borden reveals his secret to Angier. This shows us all
the things he had to go through whenever the twins swapped over. It shows
us him chopping his fingers off, going through fights with Sarah, conducting
an affair with Olivia – all things that both men had to experience when living
as Alfred Borden. This will be a good paragraph that will answer this question
well. Give it your best shot.
Paragraphs 6 and 7 – Setting
Remember the question asks you about how the director presents character
AND setting, so don’t forget to write about one of them! For setting, you
should focus on the theatres. The theatres are important to this theme,
especially when you think about how Nolan presents them. Consider the
differences between where the two men perform, the shots of the audience,
mise-en-scene, the lighting (think about spotlights), etc, etc. Do not forget
that you should always be linking back to the pursuit of power or the
fulfilment of an ambition, so really think about how the theatre settings show
the audience this. Some good scenes to consider would be when Angier is
performing his first version of the Transported Man with Root, his double. He
takes his bows under the stage, every night (the scene where we see this is
spectacular, TALK ABOUT THIS!). Also think about when Borden humiliates
him – he does this on stage and in front of hundreds of people (a bit like when
Angier shot him, hmmm, that seems important enough to write about).
Split this section into 2 clear paragraphs. I’m not going to tell you how to split
them, that’s your call, but remember; new point, new paragraph.
Paragraph 8 – Conclusion
Back to the easy part now. TART as per usual and then sum up what you
have said. Try to write a brief sentence on each thing you’ve talked about –
Angier, Borden and the settings – and summarise how Nolan uses these
things to present the audience with the ideas of the fulfilment of ambition and
the pursuit of power. All done! Superb!
Well done, folks! Hope you all have a super break and enjoy yourselves
ridiculously so. See you back in class on the 10th of January. And, oh yeah,
supported study starts back on the 9th 