Derren Brown, the pretty renowned magician and psychological illusionist, and this is one of the quite ambitious one-off specials he made. He was fascinated by people having beliefs, that he decided to put his skills to the test and try to convince people, including "experts" in a field themselves, that he has got a gift. He travelled to America, posing as five characters meeting "experts" in the fields of Christian evangelism (instant conversion), alien abduction, psychic powers, New Age theories and mediums (people who contact the dead). He said he would admit he is fake if they asked any questions as to whether what he was doing is real, and he carried off all five "performances", and none of the "experts" questioned or stopped him, they totally believed it, a couple even invited him for more exhibition, he declined all. Very good!
3 Reviews
His Masterpiece
velvoofell5 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Derren Brown's 'Messiah' sees the "Psychological Illusionist" travel America, exhibiting his NLP and sleight-fo-hand based methods as the talents of a true miracle worker to various secular and religious groups.
Two stand-out segments include his display of cold-reading where he demonstrates arguably the finest mediumship ever shown on television to a diverse group and his turn as a faith healer at a Baptist church, where his impact is equally successful. Brown advises the viewer before the programme that none of what they are about to see is truly magical or truly miraculous - unless Brown's painstaking talent can not be explained in any other way.
Brown has said in print and audio-visual media that he was once a devout Christian and has experienced the psyche of someone who pursues such vehement faith.
'Messiah' could be taken as an attack on religion, shoring up the ease with which believers are, well, willing to believe anything. It also revealed that cold-reading (the skills used to achieve the effect of a medium) and auto-suggestion (ultimately, the skill of the faith-healer) can be learned and honed and that the charlatanry of mediums and faith healers is exposed, not just in their passing off illusion as miracle, but in being too lazy to hone such skills. the argument might be construed as a magician's - revel and marvel in the wonders of people such as the skilled illlusionist rather than wave oven-ready philosophies in the air or kill for them.
Two stand-out segments include his display of cold-reading where he demonstrates arguably the finest mediumship ever shown on television to a diverse group and his turn as a faith healer at a Baptist church, where his impact is equally successful. Brown advises the viewer before the programme that none of what they are about to see is truly magical or truly miraculous - unless Brown's painstaking talent can not be explained in any other way.
Brown has said in print and audio-visual media that he was once a devout Christian and has experienced the psyche of someone who pursues such vehement faith.
'Messiah' could be taken as an attack on religion, shoring up the ease with which believers are, well, willing to believe anything. It also revealed that cold-reading (the skills used to achieve the effect of a medium) and auto-suggestion (ultimately, the skill of the faith-healer) can be learned and honed and that the charlatanry of mediums and faith healers is exposed, not just in their passing off illusion as miracle, but in being too lazy to hone such skills. the argument might be construed as a magician's - revel and marvel in the wonders of people such as the skilled illlusionist rather than wave oven-ready philosophies in the air or kill for them.
Brown is impressive but the film is not what it proposes to be
bob the moo15 October 2008
In an attempt to explore how easy it is to accept particular faiths without questioning, Brown travels to the US to pose as a series of characters proclaiming to have gifts ranging from the psychic to someone who can convert to Christianity just by touch. His goal is to find out how easily experts in these fields can take to his "gifts" (which are totally illusion it must be noted) and agree to publicly endorse him. From the start he acknowledges that, if anyone asks him directly "is this a trick" then he will fess up.
I've not seen much Derren Brown mainly because, with watching so many movies all the time it doesn't leave a lot of time for watching television and I do tend to be picky, preferring dramas to "light entertainment" style programmes. This sounds very snotty I know but it just means I don't watch a lot of Brown. Messiah sounded interesting though and I checked it out. The previous time I had seen Brown, it was a broadcast version of his live show and I had found it very impressive in what he does. This is the problem with Messiah though, because the "tricks" are not "performed" so much as they were in that show. Instead he plays it straight and he is not only very convincing in his characters but also impressive in his skills and in this way the film is still engaging in a "how does he do that" way. The central argument about us accepting spiritual ideas without questioning is a fair one but not one that he really makes that well by never confronting anyone with the news that he is totally a fraud or by having any discussion around the subject.
Of course he never had this in his act I saw but by putting this film up as an exploration and discussion, it is a problem then to leave the only "discussion" to a guy driving a horse and cart over the end credits. Otherwise though, the film is still engaging to see Brown at work and fans of his will love it for me though, it did not have as much substance as it suggested it would and it does feel like an excuse for him to do his thing rather than the film that it proposes to be.
I've not seen much Derren Brown mainly because, with watching so many movies all the time it doesn't leave a lot of time for watching television and I do tend to be picky, preferring dramas to "light entertainment" style programmes. This sounds very snotty I know but it just means I don't watch a lot of Brown. Messiah sounded interesting though and I checked it out. The previous time I had seen Brown, it was a broadcast version of his live show and I had found it very impressive in what he does. This is the problem with Messiah though, because the "tricks" are not "performed" so much as they were in that show. Instead he plays it straight and he is not only very convincing in his characters but also impressive in his skills and in this way the film is still engaging in a "how does he do that" way. The central argument about us accepting spiritual ideas without questioning is a fair one but not one that he really makes that well by never confronting anyone with the news that he is totally a fraud or by having any discussion around the subject.
Of course he never had this in his act I saw but by putting this film up as an exploration and discussion, it is a problem then to leave the only "discussion" to a guy driving a horse and cart over the end credits. Otherwise though, the film is still engaging to see Brown at work and fans of his will love it for me though, it did not have as much substance as it suggested it would and it does feel like an excuse for him to do his thing rather than the film that it proposes to be.
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