The Current War by Michael Mitnick - Nine out of 10

The Current War by Michael Mitnick

Nine out of 10

This motion picture has been at least as satisfying for the undersigned as the Golden Globes nominated Knives Out (http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/knives-out-written-and-directed-by-rian.html), even Pain and Glory (http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/pain-and-glory-written-and-directed-by.html) or the one that has most impressed the Hollywood Foreign Press and so many others, Marriage Story - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/marriage-story-written-and-directed-by.html.

The plot of The Current War is captivating and instructive, educational and far superior to the ones guiding the films aforementioned, with three exceptional characters, not just one or two – actually five if we add J.P. Morgan in the mix and only one of the spouses, Mary Edison or Marguerite Westinghouse, or perhaps an assistant – towering over the rest of the people, one could arguably consider all three geniuses, unless we consider what one personage in a book – memory fails as to the title – argued, which was that we should limit ourselves to naming Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci as geniuses and not debase the word by throwing it with laxity around.

Benedict Cumberbatch is formidable, self-assured, able to portray nuances in a very complicated man, changing between wrath and kindness, selfishness and supreme assuredness, in the role of a phenomenal outlier, probably the most efficient inventor of all, for although his personage, Thomas Edison, would have to admit to losses and perhaps eventually even defeat in The Current War, he would be the one who would give the world the phonograph, the Dictaphone, electric lamp, the kinescope among others…

As for one of his inventions, the light bulb, according to Harvard Professor Tal Ben-Shahar, he was asked about the many failures and the scientist supposedly answered that he had not failed ten thousand times in trying to get the electric bulb, right, he just proved ten thousands versions that are wrong and the psychology professor uses this outstanding example for his leitmotif: ‘Learn to Fail, or Fail to Learn’.

The incandescent light bulb is also part of a scene in the movie, wherein the competitor in The Current War, George Westinghouse aka the splendid, haunting, mesmerizing – and yet such a late discovery, was it after The Revolutionary Road that this actor would be really set on the present successful trajectory? – Michael Shannon asks Edison about the moment when he knew that he has the secret of the bulb…

Thomas Edison recalls how they had tried so many alternatives for the filament and they had all burnt out within minutes and when finally, ten, fifteen minutes passed without the now expected phenomenon taking place, they would wait for one hour, then two, and then seven hours have passed and a little later, the inventor would know that he has just found what is needed for the coveted incandescent light bulb.

For most of the film, Edison is fighting the War against Westinghouse, whose alternative current is gaining more clients, for it is seventy percent cheaper and simply works better, or at least this is the argument of Westinghouse and many others – at one point, when he presents his case for the Chicago Exhibition, a massive, fantastic event and the best opportunity to advertise and launch the ‘product’ in so many markets, George Westinghouse makes the briefest of possible speeches and just states that his offer is simply working better and costs much less and then…goodbye to the gentlemen of the jury that would decide the fate of the bidders.

Edison pushes the idea that the Westinghouse alternative is dangerous and could kill multitudes, given that so many people now use his source of power, he presents such a danger that he should be stopped and in arguing this case, the inventor gets involved in the move to use electricity (the competitor’s) for an execution that would be humane – there had been so many cases in which hanging had been botched, with victims having heads cut off or having to be hanged twice or thrice – for it would kill the man on death row immediately and for that, a horse is electrocuted in front of the press.

Nonetheless, when the first execution takes place using the new method and the argument against Westinghouse would have been so severe, it turns out to be a horror show, in which the poor man – who had admitted to killing his wife and thus had been sentenced to die – would suffer agonizing pain, he would be burned and tortured beyond belief – one reason why today they try the sedatives and then execution with a syringe that poisons the man – rarely a woman – and then death is declared.

Throughout this Current War, Thomas Edison is mostly the negative character, albeit the audience learns, if they had not known already, how admired and celebrated the inventor had been, with people asking for his autograph while almost nobody knew who Westinghouse was, and for good reason, for outside this conflict, in which the competitor had the better solution, the inventor would gain so much more fame and honor, because he would invent so much more…

Nikola Tesla aka the excellent Nicholas Hoult – who seems to specialize lately in roles of iconic, legendary figures such as Jerry Salinger in Rebel in the Rye and J.R.R. Tolkien in Tolkien – works for a while under the supervision of Edison, but the latter seems to have offended the bright Tesla, when he joked about paying him $ 50,000 and Tesla took him at his word…

As one ironic twist of The Current War, George Westinghouse would be honored with the most important award…The Edison Medal.