Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Macfadyen, Damien Molony, Craig Conway, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Simon Kunz, John Schwab, Amy Marston, Woody Norman, Celyn Jones, Colin Stinton, Conor MacNeil, Simon Manyonda, Joseph Balderrama, Tom Bell, Evy Frearson.
The race to be remembered for one’s achievements is one that normally never truly won, it can also be one that causes a degree of self-harm on the protagonist, especially when it drives them to the point of exhaustion, and the possibility of neglecting loved ones and the thoughts of the wider community.
We see visionaries and inventors in a light perhaps not afforded any other profession, especially in the age of 19th and early 20th Century enlightenment when human thought was thrust forward in expansion in a way previously unheralded. We have learned about the great designs, of tremendous leaps in technological advantage, but we also find ways to decry the spirit of the man or woman who pushes the idea and gives themselves over to the pursuit of the obsession, which in turn can lead to a sacrifice few would ever entertain.
Obsession is arguably the root of all invention, fame, fortune, the knowledge that your name might be used to describe an object in the future, a kind of immortality through the mass means of production. Yet, as The Current War shows effectively and almost brutally, obsession can also be a device in which relationships can be seen to tear lives apart, that thanks to capitalism and greed, shown perfectly through Matthew Macfadyen’s portrayal of the banker J.P. Morgan, the name in the end means nothing, subsumed and incorporated into somebody else’s vision of the future.
The Current War looks at how rivalry plays into the hands of those with only a monetary interest in the invention’s future profit; and whilst Edison’s name has endured, and Nikola Tesla’s name has become revered quite rightly for his genius, it is perhaps to Michael Shannon’s sympathetic role as George Westinghouse that catches the immediate eye, that underlines what the historical biopic dressed up as film entertainment strives to show, that we have limited understanding of history, of purpose and drive to make a truly informed conversation or proclamation about someone’s life.
The Current War is a film that finds that drive and purpose, that defends the tenacity of three men caught up in a battle for influence and idealism, which in the end is removed from their control. Our world, for now, has been shaped by their vision and the debt owed is perhaps greater than we care to admit.
Ian D. Hall