A Batalha das Correntes

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.

In the late 19th century, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were the two titans of American innovation. With the country modernizing at a rapid pace, both realized the need for a better way to power society beyond candles and gas.

After some years of development, they both discovered different ways to transmit electric current. Edison stood behind his Direct Current (DC) and Westinghouse championed his Alternating Current (AC). They were similar designs, each with their unique benefits and costs.

But the country wasn't big enough for both of them and only one method could prevail. Out of this situation sprang a fierce competition between the two men, a rivalry labeled "the war of the currents." This war lasted years as they battled endlessly to see whose technology would be the one to forever power and illuminate America.

After having a tumultuous time getting to theaters (that's a whole other story to look up), "The Current War" finally arrives two years after intended.

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the film moves like electricity, zipping from scene to scene. The use of sharp camera work and montages oozes kinetic energy that keeps everything moving at a frantic pace, never ceasing to slow down or end. You're gripped within the race and linked to the main characters as they tirelessly persist to be the one on top.

If you're not a natural history lover, this technique will keep you endlessly entertained without boring you with historical details. If you are a fan of history, this technique will still entertain you, but leave you disappointed as moving the film at the speed of light (or current, for that matter) doesn't allow for deeper learning about the events or people attached to them. Anything that is learned is only surface level as there just isn't enough time to develop any factual depth.

It also doesn't help that these shallow details become increasingly difficult to keep straight, especially as the years go by in minutes and characters are split up into several intertwining storylines.

While a mini-series would be the better way to tell this story, "The Current War" is an exciting way to convey history for the screen.

Just like Gomez-Rejon's use of rapid pacing, writer Michael Mitnick's screenplay is expeditious and Sorkin-like. The rivalry between our two main giants is fierce as they snap dialogue to beat each other in the labs and the presses.

And just like the outcome of the directing, the writing here is entertaining but difficult to follow. Mitnick tries to do too much in too little time as he crams the script to the brim with historical facts. As more information is heaped on, it becomes an information overload that is increasingly impossible to keep straight. By the end, you'll feel like you've read a Wikipedia page and will only be able to remember fragments here and there.

Also, Nikola Tesla shows up in the story and participates in the race. While Tesla does deserve to stand with Edison and Westinghouse in the history books, he doesn't belong in this already overly-stuffed movie.

Starring as the brash Thomas Edison is Benedict Cumberbatch, whose American accent isn't as convincing as one would think. Like most of Cumberbatch's performance, you can see the genius of the character within his speech and mannerisms. Thankfully, the genius he plays here isn't as cold as Sherlock Holmes or Alan Turing. There's some warmth under Edison's surface that you can sense through Cumberbatch's performance.

Michael Shannon plays the opposite of Cumberbatch as he is calmer and calculated in his performance of George Westinghouse. He's the more businessman-like of the two as he carries himself more professionally.

Nicholas Hoult plays Nikola Tesla. Just like Cumberbatch, Hoult's eastern European accent isn't on point, but it's fine enough to pass. Hoult does well at making you see the frustration within Tesla as his brilliant ideas are never allowed to flourish.

Lastly, Tom Holland does supporting work as Edison's secretary. As it was filmed before his star power ballooned from Spider-Man, Holland's role is minor and doesn't give him much to work with.

"The Current War" is the most entertaining and needlessly confusing movie of the year. All the talent involved makes a great effort, but their good intentions just come up short of making a great movie. But it's still quite good and deserves to be seen, even if you'd be hard-pressed to absorb and remember most of what it's trying to teach you.

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.

Hollywood always makes movies that represents Americans (or in this case born-American-capitalist) as a heros, whether that's true or not...Real hero in this "current war" is undoubtedly biggest mind in history of humankind - Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla, who's totally sidelined in America's educational system, while Edison (who stole from him) is a God...This movie doesn't help...Sportswise saying, it's like it you're comparing Jusein Bolt and Justin Gatlin...First one is obviously the best, second one is two-times (caught!!!) cheater, but he's an American, so I doubt that in, say, 15 years from now, if Hollywood decides to make movie about their rivalry, Gatelin would be shown as a villain...I really hope that some day someone will make movie that Tesla really deserves.

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.