THE CURRENT WAR 2.8***

At first the title to the movie was strange and confessing. What the heck was a current war ?? Well soon after getting into the movie the title quickly makes sense, like a light bulb coming on. The movie is about the battle between Thomas E, Edison ( played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and his “direct current” (DC) for electricity and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) and his “alternating current” (AC). Edison’s DC was weak in strength and could only cover a small area so there had to be lots of generating stations to provide the power. Westinghouse’s AC current was much stronger and could cover a large area but required big generators to produce the AC current. As it turns out Nikola Tesla becomes an important key player in the story. Although he started off working for Edison he become dissatisfied with him and felt under appreciated. So he quit and joined Westinghouse and was the genius who invented the large generators needed to power the AC current. With that accomplishment, Westinghouse had the far better and cheaper AC current for the nation’s electrical needs.

However Edison was quite the competitor and used his showmanship to promote his weaker DC current. Edison also continually attacked AC current as being dangerous. This was somewhat confirmed when Westinghouse’s AC was used for the first execution in an electric chair.  As Edison and Westinghouse grapple for who would power the nation, they sparked one of the first and greatest corporate feuds in American history, establishing for future Titans of Industry the thought  that sometimes you need to bend or break the rules to win, i.e. “the end justifies the means”.

Their current war came to a conclusion with the two men competing for the same prize: a contract to illuminate Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893, a full 13 years after the film's event-packed story begins. Edison wants to win so badly that he's prepared to electrocute large animals to demonstrate AC's dangers. As for who  is the victor, you’ll have to see the movie. I don’t want to spoil the outcome.

"The Current War" is a fascinating story but badly told. And even more badly edited. It is a casualty of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that caused this movie to languished on the shelf for two years. The story isn't nearly as illuminating as it should be, despite a good cast .The film's release is being billed as its "Director's Cut," but cutting -- and editing -- is a big part of the problem. As constructed by Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon  the scenes are so short and choppy -- it's as if there's a 30-second limit on them -- as to undermine the performances, making the high-wattage actors looking little more than the players in dramatic reenactments on some National Geographic special.

I still enjoyed the movie for it’s historic value and good acting. But it could have been SO much better,

Rated PG-13 for some disturbing/violent images,