Significance of the Bird Trick

The 2006 film about rival magicians desperately trying to learn the secrets of each others tricks.
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Z. Cobb wrote:
trevelyan wrote:I didn't remember that line, but it certainly fits. :)
When Borden is talking about some new fresh... like a Bullet Catch.

the Bird trick is a metaphor, like where's the kid goes... where's his brother?? those references are hinting ever so slightly to the revelation.
Still don't see what it has to do with Julia's death...

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ballet_ag wrote: Still don't see what it has to do with Julia's death...
Indeed I would agree with you...
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Well... the magic tricks all disguise death and sacrifice in order to amaze us, and the death of the showgirl fits this general pattern.

What I meant about the audience complicity thing is that The Prestige is self-referential in the sense that the film itself has a pledge, turn and prestige (the prestige being Borden's return from the grave -- when that which has disappeared reappears). This is the same trick Nolan repeats in Inception, where the rules he outlines for how to create dreams apply equally well to the film itself (make the plot a paradoxical maze, get the audience lost in it while you play with ideas, and make the message stick by having a positive core emotional message, etc.)

If we believe the film is intentionally comparing itself to the magic tricks within it, the bird metaphor doesn't just foreshadow the ending on a plot level so much as provide a signpost for how to interpret what the film is saying about itself. And I think the logical conclusion is that it is asking us to consider our complicity in all of the violence put on for our entertainment. The audience is - after all - looking for an accident, right?

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trevelyan wrote:Well... the magic tricks all disguise death and sacrifice in order to amaze us, and the death of the showgirl fits this general pattern.

What I meant about the audience complicity thing is that The Prestige is self-referential in the sense that the film itself has a pledge, turn and prestige (the prestige being Borden's return from the grave -- when that which has disappeared reappears). This is the same trick Nolan repeats in Inception, where the rules he outlines for how to create dreams apply equally well to the film itself (make the plot a paradoxical maze, get the audience lost in it while you play with ideas, and make the message stick by having a positive core emotional message, etc.)

If we believe the film is intentionally comparing itself to the magic tricks within it, the bird metaphor doesn't just foreshadow the ending on a plot level so much as provide a signpost for how to interpret what the film is saying about itself. And I think the logical conclusion is that it is asking us to consider our complicity in all of the violence put on for our entertainment. The audience is - after all - looking for an accident, right?
But Julia DID die- that was not an illusion...

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I always thought there was a meaning to that scene. Now I know there is.

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OP:"Are there any other ways in which the bird trick holds significance in the film?"

I think Borden says it best, "Today, you're the lucky one."
This relates to Angier as to which one will live. Do we only care about the one who survives?
I haven't heard of anyone who cried when the first Angier double was shot.
However, when the bird trick is done and the little boy cries, it was very sad.
Worse yet, in the end, when the little daughter applauds, it is even sadder that she doesn't realize one just died.
(Some people think that he didn't kill that bird, but then you only need one or two, not several dozen birds.)

Is it the same with her dad's twin? Does she know he's dead?


Also, as to foreshadows in the film......I thought the two black cats fighting amid the pile of hats was a view of the future Angier's fighting one another for supremacy.

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author wrote:OP:"Are there any other ways in which the bird trick holds significance in the film?"

I think Borden says it best, "Today, you're the lucky one."
This relates to Angier as to which one will live. Do we only care about the one who survives?
I haven't heard of anyone who cried when the first Angier double was shot.
However, when the bird trick is done and the little boy cries, it was very sad.
Worse yet, in the end, when the little daughter applauds, it is even sadder that she doesn't realize one just died.
(Some people think that he didn't kill that bird, but then you only need one or two, not several dozen birds.)
This is really what sets Angier up a failure. Look earlier in his career where they have that whole segment of him and Cutter trying to find a way to do that trick without killing the bird. Angier wants to master something great and to do it cleanly. As the story progresses, he obsession with Borden leads him on to the point where he no longer cares about killing the bird (himself). The epitomy of his success (the real transported man) was little more than a surrender to the methods he sought to avoid. IRONY!

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Great thread!

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The metaphors and philosophy in this thing are insane!! I could do nothing but rant about it all day! :lol: :twothumbsup: :goNF:

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It's all about the Illuminati... eye of Horus... Rothschilds and Jay Z...

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