In this episode of Popcorn Politics, Carmine Savastano and I debated the best method of changing the government, third parties, or reforming one of the two major parties.
My argument was that a third party would not be feasible on any level within 50 years. Meanwhile reforming one of the two parties, in my opinion, has worked in many ways.
Carmine argued that the two parties are so inherently corrupt that they can’t be saved, but I argued that the parties are such informal structures that you can slowly shift the parties over time.
My example was Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Party. This party, with the backing of a former incumbent President, lasted 3 election cycles until they disappeared into the dustbin of history.
We talked about various solutions to the problem of corruption and inadequate representation across the system.
In Hour 2, Daniel Louis Crumpton and I discussed Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. The film is about dueling magicians who fall into obsession. The structure of the film is what I appreciate most.
In the opening scene, Michael Caine tells the audience about the three stages to a magic act, the pledge, where something ordinary is shown, the turn, where the ordinary thing does something extraordinary, and the Prestige, where the action is explained.
That’s the structure of the film. Much like a magician, Nolan shows you everything you need to figure out the trick, but he distracts you from it. The plot twist is plain as day, staring you in the face through the entire act.
The Prestige is a masterful story about obsession and vengeance, and how vengeance never ends well. I believe this is Nolan’s finest work as it uses narrative deflection better than any other Nolan film.
The acting is flawless and the final twist takes an annoying trope and uses it perfectly.
You can listen to the all of this in the latest episode of Popcorn Politics at this link.