The Current War

The reviews for "The Current War" make me tired.

This is NOT the story of Nikolas Tesla. This is, in fact, an accurate depiction of Westinghouse vs. Edison and the AC vs. direct current. As far as what I've read, the story, though a dramatization, is a decent telling of this.

Reviews here say oh, Tesla got the short end of the stick. Yes, he did, and the movie certainly indicates this. And by taking the focus off of him, one certainly sees that yes, he was an unsung hero. But the story is about Westinghouse and Edison fighting for AC vs. DC. If you want to do a story about Tesla, make your own movie. This is NOT about the invention of the AC. Hello.

Another criticism of this film is that Edison is shown as a victim. I don't know if that was the intention, but if it was, they missed. I certainly didn't think he was a victim. Yes, there was a great tragedy in his life, but he was pretty darned ruthless when it came to trying to destroy Westinghouse. Ruthless and unfair. He was that way in many of his business dealings, including going up against the Lumiere brothers in the invention of motion pictures.

I thought the film was beautifully photographed, I liked the music, and I thought some of the dialogue was very beautiful and emotional, particularly the monologues of Tesla and Edison. The acting was superb. And to me anyway it was evident that Tesla got the shaft big time. Except that's not the story.

I found The Current War fascinating, and it made me want to learn more about all three men.

One thing that's always been true - it's never the person who thinks of an invention or even invents something -- the star of the show is ALWAYS the person who commercializes it.

To criticize a film because it's not what you think it should be about, frankly, is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous - people who get their history from movies instead of using them as steppingstones to learn more about the actual story. Elisha Gray invented the telephone. So did Antonio Meucci. So did Johann Philipp Reis. While we're at it, why don't we do a film about Joseph Swan and John Wellington Starr and their work on the lightbulb before Edison. They probably all deserve movies, but they don't belong in this film, which is the story of Westinghouse versus Edison.

An upcoming director whose previous film was the indie darling Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, producing work by Russian film heavyweight Timur Bekmambetov and Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese, a cast of some of the most respected talent working today and a true story at its disposal that is loaded with ripe potential, The Current War should have been a contender.

Finished way back in 2017 and scheduled to play out in the awards season period, this one time Harvey Weinstein backed project became an unfortunate victim to the downfall of the big-time producer, given a lifeline years later in what became a low-key cinematic release, anchored down by mediocre reviews that lamented director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon emotion free affair.

To my surprise, The Current War is far from the failure as a product many would have had viewers believe, it surely jams too much content into a brief 100 minute run-time, with Nicholas Hoult's Nicola Tesla given a particular short straw in regards to screen-time and development, but Rejon's energetic direction and constantly moving narrative is never dull and a fine reminder to us all that the technology we take for granted today was at one-time in history a magical invention.

A story that would've been perfectly suited to a mini-series treatment, The Current War examines the life and times of esteemed inventors Tesla, Benedict Cumberbatch's Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon's wealthy businessman George Westinghouse, who all found themselves in the late 1800's competing against one another as humankind discovered the power of electricity, both good and bad.

Throwing us headfirst into the race to light up America and the world, Rejon wastes little time as we find Edison showcasing his significant discovery to an unsuspecting population, with Cumberbatch's finely attuned portrayal of the well-known historical figure one of the highlights of the film and from there we are in the whirlwind of activity as these various men push forward with their ideas and pursuits, often no matter the cost that may be associated with that.

There's some fascinating aspects of this time and movement explored in the film, Edison's reluctance to develop something that may take human lives and Tesla's battles to be taken seriously such elements but nothing is given too much room to breathe by Rejon as he constantly pushes us forward, a reason no doubt why many critics were left unimpressed with a film that stylistically and aesthetically is above average but fails to ignite the heart.

When it comes to the big screen treatment of this subject, The Current War remains one of the more memorable offerings, one that could've been something special but still not the dull mess many would've had us believe it to be.

Final Say -

A solid drama about a fascinating series of subject matters and historical events, The Current War is far from the failure it appeared to be, even if it is unable to become something downright special.

3 1/2 globes out of 5

I see here some very offended people among the reviewers who claim that the real story was ignored due to some adversity against the "non-american" inventor Nikola Tesla, who actually invented the AC. They seem to be confused by the fact that the movie doesn't depict the invention of the AC but rather the so call "current war" that took place between two american companies that tried to impose their own vision and business model of how the current should be delivered to the consumer, as DC or as AC. And the two companies involved in this had indeed nothing to do with Nikola Tesla. It is pity that people can't get beyond their obviously biased feelings when it comes to matters of nationality and rather let themselves slip into the the quicksand territory of the conspiracy theories. So, the movie doesn't do injustice at all to anyone it just tells the story as it is supposed to. Go see for yourselves.

Little did I ever think I would enjoy a movie about Thomas Edison, (Benedict Cumberbatch, very good), and his 'discovery' of electricity but "The Current War", which pits Edison against the industrialist George Westinghouse, (an even better Michael Shannon), is a real surprise with a smart, witty and engrossing script by Michael Mitnick and fine direction from Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. It's certainly not a film that will find a mass audience but it's one of the better biopics, though strictly speaking it isn't really a biopic and if it is, it's the biography of electricity and not its inventor and it's constructed like a thriller and a chase movie and even though we may know how the chase ends there are enough ups, downs and diversions along the way to keep us entertained. It's also beautifully designed and acted and, no pun intended, it moves at the speed of light and all lovers of cinema will surely get a little lump in their throats by the end.

A lot of these reviews seem to come from Tesla fans who really misunderstand what I took to be the point of this movie. I don't think the movie is trying to portray who should have gotten the most credit or who was the most moral person or intelligent inventor of this era.

If that was the film's goal, then Tesla would have been the protagonist of the film and the central character.

It seemed to me that the movie's goal was to tell the story of how these inventors lived and how they were perceived by people within their time period. And how those perceptions impacting their goals to not just invent the best products, but get their products out and accepted within society.

Edison was perceived by the public as a star long before he ever invented a solid lightbulb for the time. Tesla wasn't a known entity. Westinghouse was successful, but not much of publicly known name to the public as Edison.

Edison and Westinghouse were the two big figure-heads of the AC and DC battle of the late 19th century. Even though Tesla is really the one who contributes the importance finding to give AC the edge, at the time, virtually no one knew who Tesla was or had good merits for taking his genius seriously. Tesla didn't demonstrate a lot of his ideas which were correct and didn't seem to understand how conmen could manipulate people by making the same kinds of claims as him without a model that actually would work.

Tesla worked for Edison, Westinghouse and independently over the course of his career. Tesla was probably the most visionary and innovative thinker conceptually among all of the characters in the film. But Tesla was an immigrant, which made it difficult for his ideas to gain traction within a racist and nationalist time for America. Plus Tesla was arrogant and the least practical or compromising in his aspirations, which made it even more difficult for his ideas to manifest themselves within society as he wished they would. Good intentions and correct ideas aren't enough if they don't get implement within one's culture.

What Tesla really had going for him was that he was really smart and he could figure out solutions that the other inventors couldn't figure out.

For all of these reasons Tesla couldn't be accurately portrayed in a manner that a lot of reviewers seem to have preferred and expected.

This movie's goal wasn't to orchestrate some narrative about what should have happened in the past. It's clearly more about showing what did or didn't happen back then and why.

And I think the story the movie tells is very interesting and provides for a lot of relevant lessons and understandings for people today. Even if it doesn't support Tesla's genius in a way that a lot of people were hoping for. Ultimately, its good to remember that even if one is a genius like Tesla, that doesn't mean that Tesla's didn't have some personal flaws that got in his way of achieving his own goals for the specific type of better future world.

I also don't really understand the common opinion from other reviewers that Edison was over-romanticized within the movie. Perhaps they could have made him seem more like a scumbag, but I easily was on Westinghouse's side and liked Tesla more as well.

If anything Westinghouse is the main character who is portrayed with the fewest imperfections. They show a lot of issues in Edison's persona. Not just in his invention, but in his interpersonal, business and family decisions.

I think one of the things that I liked the most about the movie is that it never shows the two main characters together in the same scene until the memorable scene at the very end.