I pick up new things each time I watch The Prestige. We're talking about Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the book of the same name by Christopher Priest- I'm afraid I have yet to read the book, as I can't seem to find any library that stocks it, (though I do know some things about it- the characters have somewhat changed, for instance, and that it switches between Victorian and modern-day England instead of two journals.)
It had always bothered me how the dove gets his guts smashed out. Far from being concerned about the life of a fictional bird-- just, did we have to see its tiny little roadkill of a carcass? But I realized today that that scene is essential to the film. That bird sacrificed his life for the art, while the double, his twin brother, "took the bows" above the stage. This foreshadows almost the entirety of the rest of the movie and gives a new perspective on the characters therein.
Viewed in the context of birds as a metaphor for the human spirit, things present themselves almost at once. Birds in cages are present throughout, a pretty obvious metaphor. It's slightly less obvious that this idea is visually echoed by the Nicola Tesla designs of the fantastical cage-like machines of The Disappearing Man acts, so that when Man's Reach Exceeds His Imagination, Angier is freed from his cage, while... Well, you know. It also explains why Borden is initially attracted to Sarah's not-son, and thus to Sarah.
Maybe these things were obvious to everyone else, but, like I said, I just got it today.
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