You're giving the "everybody has a different view so there could be many themes in a film" argument which is a disturbing and false thing.
No offense, I mean this in the most sincere way, but that is an extremely ignorant thing to say. We are discussing the literary aspects of films, literature is a form of art, and one of the greatest and most crucial parts about art, interpreting it and analyzing it, is that the depth within a work of art can be seen differently by various people. There is a reason why scholars spend years debating and discussing themes with other scholars, it's because there are aspects to certain literature that can be found by one person, and overlooked by another. Everyone has their own perception, and with literature, the natural result is that they will be able to see certain aspects that another person may overlook upon first reading/seeing.
Not everything in literature is spelled out for you, therefore it is always open for interpretation. To say that a film being open for interpreting themes for people with varying views is "a disturbing and false thing" is an insult to people who dedicate their lives to interpreting literary and artistic works. As long as literature remains the result of a person's expression, there will always be an abundance of themes that can be found from people with different views. We are not discussing science and facts, we are discussing fiction, which means that people will always have different views on films, and there is nothing wrong with it at all, on the contrary, it’s encouraged and makes the act of analyzing literature so much fun.
Though I will make myself clear, that over analyzing literature isn't exactly the best thing either. This is from another forum in which we discussed the "Was Edward sane or insane in Shutter Island?"
I agree, both sides are possible, but here's the things about films, more specifically, literature. When you analyze a deep novel for example, you can literally make an endless amount of assumptions and theories based on the extant of the substance that has been given, but at the end of the day, it's just assumptions and theories, they aren't facts. If you're going to determine the meaning of a novel from a strict perspective, the only thing that holds any weight is the actual pieces of information that has been stated in the novel, not what "could be" or "what may be implied" Of course, you can't dismiss the possibilities of these things, but against literal facts of the novel, they just don't hold up.
With literature though, the theories and assumptions, despite not being as valid as facts, are equally important in another aspect, which is that literature is an art, and art is supposed to be up for interpretation, for the viewer to go deeper than just what is there to find what may possibly be a greater meaning. I think that’s what makes literature, poems, and films so great, which is that everyone can have their own theories, which is what scholars spend countless years doing while they study classic literature.
With Shutter Island, it's possible that there really is some kind of brain washing conspiracy, and I do appreciate that people are willing to dig deeper than what most audiences will do, but then again, with that same type of analyzing, one could make countless other theories that are just as possible. My opinion is, while these theories are possible, I trust the literal pieces of information that has been given to us, which is that Leo's character did kill his wife. As I said, with a movie like Shutter Island, one can go really deep down the rabbit hole, but this hole has no validity compared to what the movie literally implied.
A theme must represent and cover the whole plot of the movie (or at least half of it.)
I disagree, that’s why there are things called “minor themes” “secondary themes” “implicit themes” and “underlying themes”
-hatred isn't a theme in the prestige. it's just a feeling that is explored like in any other movie.
-fidelity isn't a theme in the prestige. fidelity alone is barely a theme in any movie.
-loss isn't a theme in the prestige. it's a fact of life that is explored in any movie including Memento, TDK, BB or Following.
-guilt isn't a theme in the prestige. it's again just a feeling that is explored again in TDK, Memento, BB or Insomnia.
-narcissism is hard to be a theme for any movie because on narcissism alone you barely can develop any strong story.
I’m re-reading Great Expectations as we speak, so I’ll use this as an example. Scholars agree that some of the main themes in the novel are Ambitions, Love, Crime, and Innocence. Let’s use your method of disregarding the Prestige’s themes, and apply it To Great Expectations…
Ambitions? Every work of fiction portrays a character who desires something, and wants to achieve a goal, all people have ambitions, so it can be applied to anything, therefore by your logic, it can’t be considered a theme. Love? Almost every work of fiction has love, love is just a feeling, a feeling all people have, so it can’t be a theme. Crime? If you read any crime novel, it would be redundant to say that crime itself is a theme, therefore that can’t count. Innocence? Any novel that contains a child is obviously going to have innocence as a theme, its merely a part of childhood, it isn’t a theme. By using your way of disregarding themes, I disregarded the most crucial aspects of Great Expectations, the very core of the novel.
You don’t seem to be willing to give the Prestige a chance. Hatred is a crucial theme in the film, and one could make a well written thesis just on that alone. Fidelity and loss can be argued that it is this which is what drives Hugh Jackman’s character, and creates the real tension within the novel, as it opens up so much psychological aspects to the film. Guilt and narcissism I only consider minor themes, but to disregard them entirely is just silly.
Now you’re probably going to ask me something along the lines of “If The Prestige is such a deep film, list all its themes that cover half/all the story” And to be quite frank, I don’t want to. There’s so much underlying relevance going on in this film, that for me to go into detail of what the themes are and why they are important, would just turn into one big essay. I’m sure that plenty of people here though will be more than happy to explain how the film portrays a great deal of themes.
I do agree with you though, The Dark Knight (imo) is a deeper film with more themes. The Prestige itself though is still an insanely stunning film in terms of depth.
That's what people did here.
