The Current War: Director's Cut

Name: The Current War: Director's Cut
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Released: October 25, 2019
Duration: 108 min
Rating: 55
Cast: Abigail Johns, Amy Marston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benjamin Schnau, Celyn Jones

2019

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Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Ratings

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6.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Ratings

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The Current War: Director's Cut: Tuppence Middleton On The Modern Elements Of Mary's Character

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Movie Details & Credits

The Weinstein Company | Release Date: October 25, 2019 | PG-13

Starring: Abigail Johns, Amy Marston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benjamin Schnau, Celyn Jones, Conor MacNeill, Craig Conway, Damien Molony, David Morley Hale, Emma Davies, Katherine Waterston, Liza Ross, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon, Nancy Crane, Nicholas Hoult, Oliver Powell, Robert Jezek, Simon Kunz, Simon Manyonda, Stanley Townsend, Tim Steed, Tom Bell, Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton, Woody Norman

Summary: Three brilliant visionaries set off in a charged battle for the future in The Current War, the epic story of the cutthroat competition that literally lit up the modern world. Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) is on the verge of bringing electricity to Manhattan with his radical new DC technology. On the eve of triumph, his plans areThree brilliant visionaries set off in a charged battle for the future in The Current War, the epic story of the cutthroat competition that literally lit up the modern world. Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) is on the verge of bringing electricity to Manhattan with his radical new DC technology. On the eve of triumph, his plans are upended by charismatic businessman George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), who believes he and his partner, the upstart genius Nikolai Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), have a superior idea for how to rapidly electrify America: with AC current. As Edison and Westinghouse grapple for who will power the nation, they spark one of the first and greatest corporate feuds in American history, establishing for future Titans of Industry the need to break all the rules.… Expand

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 108 min

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Critic Reviews

Soren Andersen

Oct 24, 2019

Conversations about competing business strategies, which take up a great deal of The Current War, would seem to be a recipe for a dull movie. But the fervor and intelligence Cumberbatch and Shannon bring to their roles make for a gripping experience. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Oct 22, 2019

The Current War is even better than it has to be. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung give the film a swooping elegance, so that shots that start as close-ups gracefully glide into medium shots, and medium shots give way to vistas. The camera is always moving in a way that suggests grace and flow. Read full review

Andy Howell

Oct 30, 2019

The director’s cut of The Current War moves at a faster pace than the original, the characters are better fleshed out, and the drama is more focused where it needs to be. The new cut has elevated the film from mediocre to interesting. Read full review

Empire Dan Jolin

Jul 22, 2019

A stylish portrayal of a literal power struggle based on truly interesting historical figures and events. But it tries to take in too much in too little time, when all it needed was to centre on Edison and Westinghouse. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Oct 24, 2019

Any curiosity surrounding the film may have been misplaced – it’s a bit of a bore. Read full review

David Fear

Oct 25, 2019

It’s not a bad film, just a generically bland one. Read full review

Pat Brown

Sep 29, 2019

The film falls back on the myth of modernity being born in the laps of practical, native-born American ingenuity. Read full review

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User Reviews

NikolaTesla13

Oct 29, 2019

I love this movie! It's the best one I've ever seen. It has a lot of small details that make it great. Again, I love it. It's my favorite movie, surpassing Goblet of Fire and Alice in Wonderland.

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

tropicAces

Oct 31, 2019

I think there is a great movie buried somewhere in here. The script is sharp and has some great lines of Sorkin-esque dialogue, and the performances are solid. As far as historical perilous dramas go, you can do far worse.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

HollywoodGlee

Nov 27, 2019

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, The Current War is the story of the rivalry between the greatest inventors of the industrial age over whose electrical system would power the country's economic engine in the coming century. DirectedStarring Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, The Current War is the story of the rivalry between the greatest inventors of the industrial age over whose electrical system would power the country's economic engine in the coming century. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and written by playwright Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of our Parents), The Current War also stars Katherine Waterston as Margurite Westinghouse, Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla, Tom Holland as Samuel Insull (Edison's personal secretary), Matthew Macfadyen as J.P. Morgan and Tuppence Middleton as Mary Edison. The acting is as good as any I've seen this year. An easy comparison is an upcoming film December 20th, 2019 release date), The Aeronauts, with Oscar-winner, Eddie Redmayne, and Felicity Jones as the leads, in a fun, entertaining historical drama about hot-air ballooning in the 1880s. Moreover, after seeing The Current War, I'm looking forward to the "in-production" biographical work, Tesla, starring Ethan Hawke.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison in The Current War. (Photo Credit: Dean Rogers)

But, first, let's return to the electrical Current War. Backed by J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison dazzles the world by lighting Manhattan with his patented bulb. Westinghouse and Tesla light the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, sparking the infamous war of currents. Westinghouse and Tesla bet everything on what Edison called "risky and dangerous" alternating current. Edison plotted to poison the public's mind by associating Westinghouse with a new form of humane capital punishment - death by electrocution - powered by Westinghouse Electric. More on that, later. Astonishingly, Benedict Cumberbatch channels Edison with such grace and ease, I found my self suspending disbelief. Cumberbatch's performance reminded me of his captivating impersonation of Sherlock Holmes in the TV Series, Sherlock (2010, 15 episodes).

Tom Holland, left, as Edison's secretary, Samuel Insull, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison in The Current War. (Photo Credit: Dean Rogers)
Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse in The Current War. (Photo Credit: Dean Rogers)

While Edison loses out to Westinghouse in the end, Edison simply moves on to his next project - motion pictures! Meanwhile, Michael Shannon's formidable impersonation of George Westinghouse is nothing short of spectacular. Shannon returns to form that garnered an Oscar nomination (Nocturnal Animals) as Westinghouse, who despite his intimidating presence simply wanted to create something that would benefit the public saying, "If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied.” With his back against the wall, Westinghouse is forced to reveal Edison's attempt to discredit the Westinghouse and the superiority of alternating current as opposed to Edison's direct current.

Katherine Waterston as Marguerite Westinghouse, left, with Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse in The Current War. (Photo Credit: Dean Rogers)

While the two don't appear on screen together very often ( I believe it's twice), the connection between Edison and Westinghouse is undeniable. Each backing his current of electricity. To me, this is the artistic essence of the film. Gomez-Rejon melds the human and electrical stories into one in a seamless fashion. It is remarkable. The Current War is highly entertaining, informative, and polished with a compelling narrative. The costuming and makeup speak for themselves - delectable. The ensemble cast is exquisite. The production design is excellent. The lighting and sound add a powerful context and a balanced emotional heft. And, the mise-en-scene is captivating. Very, very warmly recommended!… Expand

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Bertaut1

Oct 26, 2019

Well acted and reasonably engaging, although there's a significant disconnect between form and content

When The Current War debuted in a near-completed form at TIFF in September 2017, it was considered a major contender for the 2018 Academy Awards. Scheduled for a prime awards-seasonWell acted and reasonably engaging, although there's a significant disconnect between form and content

When The Current War debuted in a near-completed form at TIFF in September 2017, it was considered a major contender for the 2018 Academy Awards. Scheduled for a prime awards-season release and with a number of heavyweight producers, Harvey Weinstein was overseeing the assemblage of the final cut in October when he was accused of sexual assault, and when he abandoned the project, the November release was shelved. So now, it's finally been released with director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon re-editing it, adding five additional scenes but trimming the overall run time by 10 minutes. Is it worth the wait? Well, it's competently acted, reasonably entertaining, and moderately informative, but.... It's certainly not as bad as a lot of critics have made out, but there's no denying that Gomez-Rejon over-directs, with a lot of the aesthetic drawing attention to itself, primarily because the elaborate direction is so out of sync with Michael Mitnick's by-the-numbers script.

Telling the story of the "war of the currents", the race between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch proving once again that he can't do an American accent) and George Westinghouse (an uncharacteristically non-psychotic Michael Shannon) to "light America". Whereas Edison favours large-scale low-voltage direct current (DC), Westinghouse favours high-voltage alternating current (AC), using transformers to step down the voltage. Edison's is the safer of the two systems, but so too is it more expensive, with a limited range compared to AC. The rest of the film takes place over the next 13 years as the two men come into direct conflict, culminating in 1893 as each attempt to secure the contract for the Chicago World's Fair.

The most immediately notable aspect of The Current War is Gomez-Rejon's direction. Watching the film, I was reminded of Adrian Martin's 1992 article, "Mise-en-scène is dead, or the expressive, the excessive, the technical and the stylish", in which he divides mise-en-scène into three broad categories: classical ("in which there is a definite stylistic restraint at work"), expressive ("general strategies of colour coding, camera viewpoint, sound design and so on enhance or reinforce the general "feel" or meaning of the subject matter"), and mannerist ("performs out of its own trajectories, no longer working unobtrusively at the behest of the fiction"). The Current War is a good example of mannerism.

Some of Gomez-Rejon's aesthetic choices are definitely justified, but a lot are in the service of nothing but themselves. An early example of a justified decision is a shot looking directly down on an elaborate circular light demonstration by Edison, instantly showing us his theatricality, plus the effectiveness of the demonstration. Introducing Westinghouse, a lengthy single-take shot follows him as he weaves his way through a throng of guests at a ball, with virtually everyone trying to catch his attention. This establishes him as a man of influence, but one who abhors the spotlight. In a later scene, Gomez-Rejon shoots Edison and his family in a train carriage using a fisheye lens. With Edison on one seat and his wife and two children facing him, the wide lens distorts the space between them unnaturally, mirroring the theme of Edison neglecting his family.

On the other hand, so many of his choices are hard to rationalise. In their 2001 book, Studying Contemporary American Film: A Guide to Movie Analysis, Thomas Elsaesser and Warren Buckland say of the mannerist style, "style is autonomous, for it is not linked to function, but draws attention to itself. In other words, style is not motivated or justified by the subject matter, but is its own justification". This is as apt a description of large portions of The Current War as you're going to find. The plethora of Dutch angles, for example, are more often than not arbitrary. So too the use of split-screen, which is used without rhyme nor reason.

The handling of the characters is also problematic. Cumberbatch plays Edison as virtually identical to his portrait of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014), and the film has a habit of downplaying the supporting characters. The worst example is Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), who is very much an afterthought, so under-developed that one wonders if it would have been better to leave him out altogether.

Nevertheless, as serious as these problems are, I rather enjoyed The Current War. It was never going to be the kind of Oscar contender that was intended, but the behind-the-scenes turmoil and the critical mauling are not necessarily indicative of an inherently bad film. Sure, the script is weak in places, and Gomez-Rejon employs every camera trick known to man, more often than not without knowing why. But for all that, it kept me interested, and I did, for the most part, enjoy it.… Expand

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fgallindo

Jan 25, 2020

Which electrical system will light up the United States? Westinghouse and Tesla’s AC system, or Edison and Insull’s DC? A great story capable of illuminating the steps of future entrepreneurs on how to deal with the government, the financiers and the great public of their future innovations,Which electrical system will light up the United States? Westinghouse and Tesla’s AC system, or Edison and Insull’s DC? A great story capable of illuminating the steps of future entrepreneurs on how to deal with the government, the financiers and the great public of their future innovations, however the script does not have a point of gravity, runs around many attractors and ends up as an Internet search with many keywords.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

BHBarry

Nov 1, 2019

“The Current War: Director’s Cut” was originally made in 2017 for release that year by The Weinstein Company but when allegations against the company’s President surfaced, the release date was tabled and, in the course of the bankruptcy, the film was modified and sold to another distributor.“The Current War: Director’s Cut” was originally made in 2017 for release that year by The Weinstein Company but when allegations against the company’s President surfaced, the release date was tabled and, in the course of the bankruptcy, the film was modified and sold to another distributor. The phrase “Director’s Cut” was added to the title of the later version to distinguish it from the original which was shown in 2017 at the Toronto Film Festival.

This is the story of how electrical power came into being in the country in the latter part of the 19th Century and tells the competitive and almost cutthroat efforts of Thomas Edison (played by Benedict Cumberbach) and George Westinghouse (played by Michael Shannon) to fight for their respective Direct Current vs. Alternating Current means of supplying light and power to an anxious populace. The film also brings into play the role of Niklas Tesla, the visionary inventor who promoted his AC theory, as well as J.P. Morgan who served as the financial backer to the winning process. The acting of Michael Shannon is the only redeeming quality in the film for it, as written by Michael Mitnick and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, is, quite frankly, a complicated and boring film. With such a powerful story and historical importance, one would expect that those factors alone would carry the film but the script is so confusing and uneven that it makes it hard to follow and understand and, in many instances, leaves the viewer“in the dark”. I give the film a rating of 5.0 with one of the points going to Mr.Shannon for his fine performance.… Expand

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JEsFsF

Apr 4, 2020

I really wanted to like this film. I saw the poor critical reviews, but thought that, being a fan of science, it couldn't be worse than a middling documentary...

My takeaway feeling is: how could they have made such an exciting scientific slugout so DULL? And how did I learn NOTHING overI really wanted to like this film. I saw the poor critical reviews, but thought that, being a fan of science, it couldn't be worse than a middling documentary...

My takeaway feeling is: how could they have made such an exciting scientific slugout so DULL? And how did I learn NOTHING over the course of 100 minutes.

I couldn't figure out what each scene was for, the conflict they were trying to resolve at any given point (other than AC vs DC). Some beautiful scenes. Some earnest effort. Completely wasted opportunity. If you're looking to learn about this "war", I'd bet KhanAcademy would be more dramatic. Definitely more informative.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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