Edison versus Westinghouse

Originally slated for release back in 2017, ‘The Current War’ (as in electric current, not “now” current), was unfortunate in having its distribution rights owned by The Weinstein Company at a time when Harvey's "casting couch" activities finally caught up with him in our enlightened Hollywood.  So when the final theatrical cut of the film hit cinemas at last on October 25 two years later, it did so with little marketing or fanfare.  I wouldn’t even have caught on to it had I not browsed through my weekly list of potential movies to watch on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

For those of you who know your scientific history, the movie’s subject should be familiar.  In the late 19^th Century (a mere coincidence that the other movie reviewed this week was also set at that time), brilliant – how many times have we heard that pun - American inventor Thomas Edison (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) perfected the incandescent light bulb and went about setting up a network of DC power generators to light up American homes.  A rival in the form of entrepreneur/industrialist George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) emerged, propounding his own ideas based on AC power, which has more potential and eventually became the winner of the so-called “War of the Currents.”  Key to Westinghouse’s efforts was the famous European scientist and engineer Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), a legend in science (and science fiction).

‘

The Current War’ could easily have fallen into the trap of being just another boring lesson from the dusty annals of history, but director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon manages to give the movie a brisk and snappy pacing pitting the two men against each other while highlighting (and at times embellishing, no doubt) actual historical events.  This film is far from perfect, but it’s more than illuminating enough for us to give it a watch.

Grade: B