“Are you watching closely?” asks the devoted magician Alfred Borden. Are we really watching closely the things happen around us? Do we really want to know what real is? Or we just want to be happy in our illusion of reality?
“The Prestige”, a movie directed and written by Nolan, shows us how people wants to be fooled. Though the events takes place in 19th century London, it is easy to see people’s tendency never change. People have still same manners, same emotions such as greed, rivalry, deceit, revenge and sacrifice. There is a show world, which is filled with illusions, desires and eyewash, trying to deceive people for making them enjoy the life. When we adapt the situation in our century we see that there is still a show world, in which people are deceived and supposed to be happy.
The show is divided into three phases. The movie begins with Cutters introduction “Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts”. So we can say every deceitful act and ideology is also a trick and that’s why it consists of three parts. “The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary”. Let’s adapt the acts for ideologies such as capitalism. The government, the seller or an advertisement shows you something ordinary such as a shaver, toothpaste, you name it. When you first see the item you cannot see any difference between that toothpaste and the other toothpastes.
“The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary”. So the seller says you this is not an ordinary toothpaste. It helps you to have something extraordinary. It is going to make your teeth the brightest teeth in the world. And the seller or the advertisement goes into the third part; “prestige”. While you are looking for the difference, the secret that makes the toothpaste better than others, you cannot find it. Why? Because “You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled.” You want to be fooled, because you want to believe the idea that you are going to have the brightest teeth. Or the canned food you saw in the advertisement must be the most delicious one. You want to be fooled, and you already make your comment before you eat it. With your first bite, you say “I have never tasted such delicious food before”.
And the seller or the advertisement goes into the third part; “prestige”. You watch everything like a magic in the TV screen. “But you wouldn't clap yet” he must prove you how useful the toothpaste is. And right at the moment, the whitest teeth appear on the screen. Now you can clap, now you can believe you will have exactly the same bright teeth if you use this brand.
People do not want to believe in reality. They want to believe in what makes them superior. They believe in that if they use this brand of perfume they will attract females or males. Have you ever thought that how easy to fool a person who is ready to be fooled? The people, who are ready to be convinced, want to believe in something. And that something must make them the happiest person in the world. Isn’t the American Dream is nothing but an illusion. Yes it is a dream, but nobody wants to wake up in the middle of a beautiful dream.
This is a show business and you must be careful with decoration and the scene to make people feel shocked. Remember the movie; Alfred Borden’s disappearing trick is much better than Angier’s is. However, Borden cannot attract as many spectators as Angier does. Why? Because he does not know how to make up and dress up the scene. No matter how perfect is trick is, people would not believe it as it is too perfect. For audiences, there must be something mystic; there must be something to hang up a question mark on your brain. Anger does not really have a talent, but he knows how to deal with the spectator. He uses a beautiful assistant for twisting the audience’s attention. Isn’t it the same in daily life? In every advertisement don’t we see a hot female showing the product? The type of product does not matter. It might be a shaver, a liquid, a food, a car. But the common point is there must be a beautiful actress.
Every magic was started to make people happy, communist magic was for equality, capitalist magic was for prosperity, and Nazism was for superiority. But all those were cheap magic, just a trick. In the end, some people clapped them. Some did not. And some keeps clapping.
All Pharaohs have been trying to cheat people with their magic for centuries. But when real magic come, “we will see that King is naked”
“Moses prayed to his Lord for help. The Lord told him not to lose nerve, and commanded: Throw your staff down and it will swallow everything which they have faked here; theirs are only magic tricks, what you have is real. No magician ever thrives, whatever he may do or wherever he may go.” [20:69]
