The Prestige Critical Essay – due Monday April 15th 2013
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. TARTSL (Title, Author – or director in this case – Refer to Task, Summary, Link). 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 PATE – Point, 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.
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 15th of April. And, oh yeah, supported study lunch club starts back on that day J