The Current War (2019)

[Robert Crawford]

Title: The Current War (2019)

Tagline: Power changes everything

Genre: Drama, History

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Release: 2019-10-04

Runtime: 105

Plot: Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.

Any film that has Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Nikola Tesla and J.P. Morgan in it as major characters is at the top of my "must see" list. The film is getting mixed reviews, but with Movie Pass I can't wait to see it.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents

 

[Jake Lipson]

Th question here is: with TWC in its current state, who will end up releasing this, and when?

 

[ScottJH]

Slated now for this October.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This movie opens this weekend.

 

[benbess]

I'm seeing this on Thursday.

 

[benbess]

Saw this last night with A-list. The main issue for me is that it's trying to cover c. 15 years and three complex inventors in 1 hour and 45 minutes. All the actors are good in it, the production design and cinematography are also good, and I really liked the brief scenes of the recreation of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, but a lot of it feels rushed, which weakens the emotional impact and makes less detailed the explorations of things. Also, it pulled punches in some places visually in a way I don't want to describe because it might be considered a spoiler. Anyway, in spite of all that, I like most movies on historical subjects that really try to capture something about an era, and I think this one does that. And so with some grade inflation I'm going to rate it a "B+," but overall I think this same team would have worked with this material better if it had been a big budget miniseries of, say, 6 or so hour-long episodes, rather than trying to get everything they wanted into one relatively short movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Saw this last night with A-list. The main issue for me is that it's trying to cover c. 15 years and three complex inventors in 1 hour and 45 minutes. All the actors are good in it, the production design and cinematography are also good, and I really liked the brief scenes of the recreation of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, but a lot of it feels rushed, which weakens the emotional impact and makes less detailed the explorations of things. Also, it pulled punches in some places visually in a way I don't want to describe because it might be considered a spoiler. Anyway, in spite of all that, I like most movies on historical subjects that really try to capture something about an era, and I think this one does that. And so with some grade inflation I'm going to rate it a "B+," but overall I think this same team would have worked with this material better if it had been a big budget miniseries of, say, 6 or so hour-long episodes, rather than trying to get everything they wanted into one relatively short movie.

That was my first thought based on your comments. This should have been a mini-series.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm going to see this movie tomorrow as well as "TWOO"

 

[Scott-S]

I need to know if they show a scene that depicts the danger of current by killing an elephant? (spoilerize if necessary)
I am interested in seeing this but I can't if they show this.

 

[benbess]

I need to know if they show a scene that depicts the danger of current by killing an elephant? (spoilerize if necessary)
I am interested in seeing this but I can't if they show this.

What they mainly show is a horse in relation to what you're talking about, although they cut away before the key "moment" if that makes sense. There was so much going on in the movie that maybe I missed it or am forgetting, but right now I'm not recalling an elephant.

 

[Mike2001]

No elephant

 

[Edwin-S]

I kind of have an issue with period pieces using words that seem too modern for the time period. I mean, did the world "automation" even exist when Edison used it in that trailer?

 

[benbess]

By the way, there's a 2-hour PBS documentary on Thomas Edison available for "free" watching if you have Amazon Prime. It fills in some of the parts of the story missing from the Current War movie.

 

[Sam Posten]

My buddy saw this yesterday and was raving about it, he reallly liked it.

 

[Sam Posten]

By the way, there's a 2-hour PBS documentary on Thomas Edison available for "free" watching if you have Amazon Prime. It fills in some of the parts of the story missing from the Current War movie.

I see the Tesla one on prime but not Edison:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Exp...rican+experience+edison&qid=1572271217&sr=8-3

Here's the disk:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Edison/dp/B00QMD2UKC

 

[Robert Crawford]

My buddy saw this yesterday and was raving about it, he reallly liked it.

I meant to see this on Saturday, but something came up. I'm going to see it this week before it leaves the theaters.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Saw this yesterday during my trip to Reno, only to find out afterwards that my wife wanted to see this, too. Oops!

I enjoyed, it, but was a bit distracted by the theater's presentation, which seemed very low resolution, as if they were projecting a DVD. I complained, but none of the staff seemed to understand what I was saying. I kept telling them it looked more like they were showing a DVD, even the trailers looked that way, so it wasn't an "artistic choice." Severe aliasing issues, particularly in titles. The guy on the walkie kept telling the "projectionist" that I didn't think it looked right, low resolution." No mention of DVD versus 2K or 4K projection.

"Thank you, sir, for bringing this to our attention. We will look into it. Have a nice day."

I'm also a bit biased on this film, as it was edited by David Trachtenberg (older brother of Dan), who attended an after-school film making program with me way back when. He also confirmed with me on Facebook that something obviously was wrong with the way the theater was projecting the film.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

While it wasn't a bad movie, it fell below my expectations. I think the script could have been better.

3/5

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Around these parts, it’s been billed as “The Current War Director’s Cut”.

I can’t recall ever seeing the first released version of a first run movie billed that way before.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Around these parts, it’s been billed as “The Current War Director’s Cut”.

I can’t recall ever seeing the first released version of a first run movie billed that way before.

This is just a guess......but I'm thinking part of it has to do with the Rotten Tomatoes score. The original Harvey Weinstein cut of the film that played the festival circuit a few years ago was sitting at 31%. I think by changing the title slightly, it allowed it to be revisited and is now at 60%.