The Current War: Director’s Cut – 2019
The challenge when producing any film with technology as a central theme is to keep the audience in the know. For this film the Director needed the script in one hand and “Electricity for Dummies” in the other. No ticket holder left behind. But, didn’t happen. Lots of us non-nerds were stuck in an AC/DC luminary gap. Consequently when direct current proponent Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and alternating current advocate George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) engaged in high stakes exchanges—alerted by dramatic music cues—I had only the dimmest notion as to what electrical quirk was under scrutiny. Circuit confusion wasn’t the only issue. Introduced as an ethical thread we witness the consternation around America’s first electric chair execution but, surging away from morality as the focus, it was reduced to an Edison v. Westinghouse blame and shame public relations game. In the meantime, to prove a point, Edison wired a horse and in front of a gaggle of eager press zapped it dead. “He would be slaughtered anyway.” Shrug. A selection of human hangings were featured as morbid comparisons of capital punishment techniques. Finally the condemned man was strapped in and, according to press descriptions read aloud, slowly roasted in a botched electrocution. Harsh. It didn’t sit well with me that the death penalty theme was relegated to a subplot, condensed into a tit-for-tat “war of currents” pawn between two egotistical alpha males. That’s still not all. With zero analytical treatment, we witness Civil War flashbacks of Westinghouse outwitting a Confederate combatant. And? No clue. Nikolas Tesla (Nicolas Hoult) popped in and out of the movie at strategic intervals. As is becoming my theme here, I only recognized the intervals, not the strategy. With a crescendo of music, he’s left standing by Niagra Falls. Don’t exit when the credits start or you’ll miss the explanation flashed on the screen. Shoehorned in between AC/DC current wars and the tag-you’re it grisly dead man walking abomination was the untimely death of Mary Edison (Tuppence Middleton). Mary leaves deeply grieving Thomas as the suffering single parent of two beautiful children. And? No time! We have to learn who wins the race to electrify the nation. Here’s the deal. We all know electricity reigns supreme. Ask any Californian. From sea to shining sea, America is lit up. (Well, unless PG&E is in charge but that’s a different story). I don’t care who gets credit. I don’t care how alternating vs. direct current works. All I need to know is when I flip a switch up, light on. Down, off. On-off. Got it. Show me how relationships of wealth and power weather or wither under competition and conflict. Help me understand why an illiterate, impoverished New York peddler, suffering a torturous death, emerges as the poster boy for new, “humane” executions. Illuminate me as to how death emerges as the ultimate power move, overshadowing fame, fortune and status. In 2017, disgraced Harvey Weinstein released The Current War and, combined with shamed Weinstein’s ignominious Me Too demise and the film’s lackluster audience reception, the film was pulled and shelved. Shake up the production line, discover a “director’s cut” clause and try again in 2019 with The Current War: Director’s Cut. Sorry, it’s a mishmash mess that runs amok. My suggestion is pull the plug and power down.
