Tesla in "The Prestige"

[libertango]

tesla in prestige
Originally uploaded by halobrien

I was watching The Prestige tonight, when I started looking up more info on Nikola Tesla (as you do).

As I pulled up the Wikipedia page with the image on the right, the scene with the shot on the left played, with David Bowie in the role of Tesla.

Until now, I had no real appreciation just how closely they'd made Bowie look and dress like Tesla. But I think this side-by-side shows what a meticulous job they did.

Comments

[zannah.livejournal.com]

That's funny, I just watched the Prestige on Wednesday night!

[mcjulie.livejournal.com]

There should be more movies where David Bowie plays Tesla.

[samildanach.livejournal.com]

All right, it's "just a movie" -- but the presentation in this film of Science As Shamanism really bugged me. We know Tesla was crazy-smart, but he probably wasn't as smart as he thought, and much of his success was the same sort of smart-kid bluster that many software types get away with today. Science isn't magic, and Tesla wasn't a wizard, and it's arguably damaging to promote the mad-scientist archetype for historical scientists.

(Though it is disquieting to find oneself, inescapably, one of Edison's men. As we say, The Meatball Is Watching.)