Tajna Nikole Tesle

This could have been a 10 rating if it were not for the amateurish production quality.

Tesla's genius is the stuff of science fiction where a being of superior intelligence finds its way to earth. But it isn't fiction at all. It is a story based on highly documented work and interviews with people who knew Tesla personally and observed, first hand, demonstrations of his concepts put to work.

I would recommend this movie to those who have a natural curiosity about technology as well as to those interested in human behavior and the potential for new ideas to be thwarted by vested financial interests.

One cannot see this film without thinking about the multi-billion dollar coal and oil businesses that would be impacted by the development of clean and cheap alternative energy sources.

Given the fact that government is in the pocket of big money, the chances of another Tesla revolutionizing the energy industry must now be near zero!

The movie's English title, "The Secret of Nikola Tesla" alludes to goofy claims made by Tesla in his declining years. In his 80s, Telsa made claims that scientists now doubt were valid. For example, Tesla claimed to have solved the unified field theory of gravity, but never published it. Other claims, like a death ray that could bring down enemy airplanes hundreds of miles away, gave Tesla the reputation of being a mad scientist.

But Tesla should not be remembered for the eccentricities of his later years. As a young man, Tesla was indeed an amazing genius of electricity and magnetism who was eventually honored on the cover of Time Magazine. He designed in his brain a thing that every person reading these words has used every day of their lives, the electric AC motor. (Until this, alternating current couldn't run a motor!) Before the year 1900, he had invented the first radio transmitter, invented the spark plug, designed a radio controlled torpedo, created several kinds of fluorescent tube lights, designed generators for Edison, and created images of the bones of his hand prior to Röntgen's discovery of x-rays.

I would encourage readers to see this movie about a very unique scientist. Particularly since every other comment here ignores the movie to make partisan political claims. Apparently this is why Yugoslavia was plunged in a bloody civil war.

The Movie's English title "The Secret of Nikola Tesla" is misleading, but the amazing accomplishments of Tesla himself make this movie worth seeing.

I was suprised they had made a Tesla movie. The beginning is interesting because it is like a documentary of what different people think of Tesla now. Then the movie starts and it is pretty good. It drags a bit though. The actor who plays Tesla does well. I don't recommend it to people who don't know anything about Tesla, but I think people that know about Tesla and his work will like this

I'm certainly no expert on Tesla, which is one reason I tuned in- (There's an irony here that I'll explain in a footnote). Initially I was dubious about tuning in since the production crew was full of Slavic names that led me to think I would have to put up with subtitles. Nonetheless, I'm really glad I went ahead anyway. Of course I can't make comparisons with any other Tesla document, as other reviewers do. But, whatever the case, in the movie Tesla, the man, comes across as an emotionless, unsociable personality, suggesting that maybe he's in steady contact with a somewhere else. Of course, given the depth of his thinking that was perhaps the case. At the same time, he appears to harbor a deep sadness over his family and boyhood days in Croatia (I believe). Anyway, his movie persona comes across as enigmatic at best, though understandably boring to many viewers. Nonetheless, the rivalries and relations with such giants of his time as Edison, J.P. Morgan, and Westinghouse are fascinating, to say the least, lending the film real interest.

The production recreates the time period well, the costuming, the street scenes, the electronic gizmos. Then too, there's Orson Welles resting comfortably as millionaire financier J. P. Morgan, along with the always reliable Strother Martin as supportive entrepreneur George Westinghouse. So there are familiar Hollywood figures among the cast. And though it's underwritten, the clean, low-cost threat that Tesla's alternating electrical current poses to higher-cost dirty energy, such as coal and oil, illuminates an ongoing problem that's mounted into a current day crisis. I had no idea the energy rivalry went back a hundred years or more. All in all, there's much food for thought here, so it's a movie well worth taking in for both Tesla afficianadoes and novices like me.

(Footnote- I was born and reared in Colorado Springs where, as the film indicates, Tesla coducted many of his experiments. For years we lived on Nob hill from which Tesla apparently conducted short-range experiments eastward onto the great plains. Then for one summer I worked in the summit house atop Pikes Peak where the genius apparently conducted longer range experiments. My experience was in the 1940's and 50's, and believe it or not, I'd never heard during that period of Tesla or his experiments. Why, I'm not sure, given his current well-deserved recognition. But judging from my Colo. Sprgs, upbringing his renown wasn't always the case, even though he'd proven himself not that long before. So, as they say, go figure! At least, for me, it won't happen again.)

Tesla also applied his resonance engines in bizarre forms of physical therapy. He created machines that flooded the human body with electrical currents and strong vibrations, intended to soothe aches and promote healing. And Tesla wasn't just the inventor of the "electrotherapeutic" device -- he was also a client. He reportedly became somewhat addicted to administering the treatment to himself, insisting that a session with the machine rejuvenated him on his long stretches of work without food or sleep. Tesla once let his friend Samuel Clemens try out the healing machine. The author is said to have enjoyed the experience tremendously -- until the vibrations brought him a case of spontaneous diarrhea. Tesla marketed this invention, and the Tesla Electrotherapeutic Company was one of the few commercial enterprises of his old age that was marginally successful.