The Current War. Edison, Westinghouse, Tesla.

[scotrace]

​

Trailers are out for this, which has a dismal IMDB meta score of 42. The story of the beginnings of the electrification of the world. Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, Nicholas Hoult is Tesla, and Michael Shannon plays George Westinghouse.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140507/

 

[Just Jim]

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll have to watch it when it reaches DVD status. I've long thought Cumberbatch would be well-suited to play Tesla in a biography.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We'll likely get this, but I'm always wary of anything dealing with Tesla because if it doesn't treat him just-so, his modern cult of followers will have a fit. I suspect they're already bombing it with unfavorable reviews even before it's out because they think it might treat their hero as a flawed man and not a misunderstood god.

As for DC vs. AC, say what you will about the "current war," but we'd never have had the electronics revolution without alternating current. Nobody liked running radios off an acid-leaking storage battery and a stack of expensive dry-cells in the living room. AC made it possible for radio to become a fixture in the home instead of a novelty plaything for Gernsbeckites, and then television, and so on and on and on.

 

[3fingers]

As much of a pain and as inefficient as DC current transmission would have been in urban areas, rural electrification would not have happened without AC.

 

[Edward]

I'm largely ignorant on the technology, but the human interest aspect of the story intrigues me. SAw the trailer the other night, and it certainly looks good.