Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton
Distributor: Lantern Entertainment
Runtime: 102 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2020
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This American historical drama, inspired by true events, is the story of the conflict between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison as to which electric delivery system is better for the United States of America. Martin Scorsese was an executive producer for the film.
The film was originally scheduled to be released by The Weinstein Company in 2017. The sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein, however, delayed release of the movie two years until 2019.
The movie delves into the history of lighting, and accentuates the personal power struggle between Edison and Westinghouse. It pointedly explores the issue ofwhich electrical system is best to light the modern world and emphasises the cutthroat politics that drove two ambitious men to bring light to America at the end of the 19th. century. Their battle was to power the US with electrical lighting that was cost-effective.
In 1880, Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) introduced his electric light bulb which relied on Direct Current (DC) as a cheaper and cleaner way of providing light, and he worked to bring electricity to Manhattan with the DC technology. At the same time, a successful businessman, George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), a person with considerable entrepreneurial skill, entered the fray and engaged with Edison on the eve of his triumph, determined to prove that Alternating Current (AC) was the better technology. Edison and Westinghouse competed with each other by trying to get US cities to use their technology.
A Serbia-born engineer, Nikolai Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) arrives in the US and joins Edison’s team, but exits it after Edison showed he was unwilling to learn from Tesla’s expertise. The conflict between Edison and Westinghouse heated up, as they struggled to assert their supremacy, and Edison endured the tragic loss of his beloved wife along the way. The competition between the two men became especially fractious when the media played up the conflict that existed between them, and the feud between them escalated to a major corporate struggle.
The film sheds light on a fascinating period of American history, and throws up a range of insights about the financial risks associated with grand technological schemes. The acting performances by Cumberbatch and Shannon are compelling, and the film uses stylised, patterned set designs to illustrate its technological points. The film is elegantly mounted, and demonstrates excellent, brooding cinematography, and engages the viewer on three main fronts – the challenge to light the world, the impact of personal ambition, and how best to use emerging innovative technological developments.
This is an impressive period-piece with attractive costuming that combines corporate history with a story about human intent. It is unclear whether the film is about personal rivalry, a story about wiring American cities for electricity, or one to provide substantial comment on the future of lighting technology. Significant social questions remain unanswered, especially when the film links the lighting of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with the creation of an electric chair for human execution – the power of AC volts to kill people provides some of the film’s more sinister moments. Edison, who doesn’t want inventions to hurt or kill people, was compromised by Westinghouse’s electric chair which won brief fame for Westinghouse. History, however, suggests that Edison won the final battle: he moved to other inventions, and Edison Electric merged with other companies to form General Electric, which became an influential global corporate company.
This is a stylish movie with extremely fast editing that has eye-catching photography, and good acting performances. It is attention-getting, and historically interesting, but its momentum is affected by the complexity of its plot line, and the multiplicity of the significant issues it raises.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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