The Current War (2019)

Plot of the Current War: In 1880 Thomas Edison invents the electric light bulb and initiates the process of illuminating the United States using Direct Current. But unexpectedly he finds he is opposed by George Westinghouse who is also trying to illuminate the country using Alternating Current. So it is AC versus DC. Despite the fact that AC appears to be more efficient and cheaper, Edison is set in his ways, and hits on the possibility that AC may be more dangerous than DC. He electrocutes a horse with AC. Meanwhile an entrepreneur has constructed an electric chair, intending to use AC as a means of execution and is helped by Edison, but the system is less effective than anticipated when it is used for the first time. Meanwhile Westinghouse’s partner has been killed in an electricity accident. It all comes to a head as the inventors compete to illuminate the Chicago World Fair.

Content: No sex or nudity, or drug taking or even smoking I don’t think. Surely there must have been a bit of social drinking. The inventors go about their tasks. Edison is sufficiently driven so as to be away when his wife dies. There are a lot of scenes in laboratories and workshops, where generators are shown being built and light bulbs screwed into display boards to show which towns are being lit up.  We see the man building the electric chair, and the man who is going to be electrocuted being arrested, although we do not actually see the failed operation. The financier J.P.Morgan is involved with Edison and we see money discussions. People travel about in trains a lot.

A View: Well, I remember this film coming out, and thinking that it was not for me. Lets face it, the competition between AC and DC would be difficult to dramatize. Most of us have to try to remember how our school physics lessons went to even have an idea what it is all about. Despite last minute intervention by Martin Scorsese and some reshooting the film fails, in my view, to come to life. So not really a watch, even for nothing.

Fun Fact: Or maybe not fun. This film was caught up in the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations which delayed its release from 2017 to 2019.