The premiere of the film "Current War" was scheduled for 2017, when the tape was presented at the Toronto festival. However, due to the scandal involving producer Harvey Weinstein, production was not completed. In some countries, the film was released in the unfinished version. The final version was eventually produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Martin Scorsese.
In Russia, the launch of the new Alfonso Gomez-Rehon tape (American Horror Story, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl) starts on December 5. Viewers will see the film exactly as the director intended.
The Current War describes an important episode from the biography of Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and another electric power pioneer, entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon). They almost simultaneously took up the development of a lighting system and became irreconcilable competitors.
Wanting to bring light to the cities, local authorities signed a contract with either Edison, who used direct current, or with Westinghouse, whose system worked on alternating current. Since the latter offered a cheaper way to transfer energy, his opponent had to fight with unscientific methods.
However, the confrontation is only part of this story, as the filmmakers decided to show the heroes as individuals.
Edison Cumberbatch resembles his Sherlock Holmes - the same genius with the features of a sociopath. Shannon’s character is his complete antipode: he is more an entrepreneur than an innovator, but he perfectly balances considerations of profit and human feelings.
The image of Edison is revealed in, it would seem, not the most significant events. So, a great scientist pays an autograph for a doctor’s visit - he glorified his name, but did not make a fortune. The way the inventor endlessly puts off walking with children for the sake of work shows his obsession with science. Even his son’s and daughter’s home nicknames sound like Dash and Dot — that is, the dash and dot used in Morse code.
The film shows the evolution of the character of the protagonist. If fictional characters often acquire qualities unusual to them before, then Edison’s traits become even brighter after his wife’s death: he ceases to show any emotions, and from an ambitious person turns into an unprincipled one, breaking his promise to never develop a murder weapon.
Another important character is Nikola Tesla performed by Nicholas Holt. By the way, Timur Bekmambetov admitted that he dreamed of filming a film about the life of this scientist, but he did not have a suitable scenario: the inventor, as a rule, is portrayed as a “freak” with whom viewers cannot associate themselves, and in this case the picture will not successful.
Tesla in The Current War is a young immigrant, dreamer and visionary. He is not aggressive, like Edison, and not practical, like Westinghouse, but it is this character who expresses the key idea of the film: great ideas are much more important than material objects.
It is interesting that the theme of the film echoes the personal experience of Timur Bekmambetov. He himself, as well as his father and brother studied at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute.
“For me, amperes and networks are very personal experiences,” said the filmmaker.
In a conversation with RT, the producer said that creative understanding of the images of historical characters does not contradict the reliable statement of facts, since the scriptwriter of the picture Michael Mitnik had enough time to study and process the material.
- Producer Timur Bekmambetov - about the script of the film "Current War"
The producer also regretted that the specificity of film production rarely allows filmmakers to adhere to a similar approach to work.
“Today, at our pace of production of films, content, creative people do not have enough time to plunge into this world - the world of their heroes,” said Bekmambetov.
The visual component of the film is also meticulously worked out. The spirit of the era (80s - early 90s of the XIX century) is reflected not only in costumes, hairstyles and other details of the appearance of the characters: a calm impression of the frames and autumn landscapes supports the whole impression. The footage of cameraman Chon John-Hoon, who previously shot the Ono horror and the action movie Oldboy, looks dynamic, compensating for the slowness of the narrative.
The “current war”, perhaps, was exactly between independent and commercial cinema. The film was made with high quality, at the level of a blockbuster, influential filmmakers are involved in the production, the cast consists of famous actors. Moreover, in the history itself, cliches and cliches were avoided, the conflict takes place on an intellectual level, and the drama of the situation lies in the clash of morality and obsession. Perhaps this is the right approach when working with similar material.