Tesla (2020) Review

While browsing through the movie community a while back, I read a review from @netflixr that was writing about Tesla. Well, it’s not referring to the car or the company that Elon Musk owns but about a mysterious scientist and genius, Nikola Tesla. There’s not that many notes about him more than Thomas Edison but Tesla deserves a lot more recognition for his invention. This film also stars Ethan Hawke which if you're a fan, it's a must-see film. I wonder why this doesn’t get much rep just like @netflixr said. I also agree with him that it deserves a lot more recognition. After all, The story of this mysterious man is pretty fascinating and he's one of the reason of we have electric power that we have today.

The film starts with a narrator explaining the childhood of Tesla and how he was amazed by what he saw when he was petting his cat.Then the scene shifts to time when Tesla was working with Edison and eventually leaving Edison and pursue his idea of AC (alternating current) that Edison though was not feasible. It was not an easy road and Tesla was relatively painless compared to Edison. It is also mentioned that Edison spends a lot of money while actually struggling to break even. The movie moves back and forth between the narrator who are in the present time to the Tesla era. That goes on until we are shown the end of Tesla at the age of 87.

In my opinion, the movie, though boring at some parts, the biographical aspect of Tesla kept me going. It was also weird to see the time jump from present to past and how Tesla(Ethan Hawke) was singing that everybody wants to rule the world. The screenwriting though was forgivable more than the whole film. There were a lot of worthy quotes and I love the part where the narrator mentioned “ a man who said he doesn’t care about money can find himself tormented by the lack of it, whereas Edison. Edison values money but spends it faster than he makes it but he’s always making it, in great quantities.” This film also shows how persistent Tesla was with his idea and it’s really sad to see him less recognized than other scientists at his time especially when compared to Edison.

If you’re curious about this mysterious scientist Nikola Tesla, this movie is insightful to watch. It also shows another side of Edison and how Tesla might have viewed him as a person. I know it’s not the most satisfying work of cinematography but the biography and the story behind it are worth following and learning about. After all, just like the narrator said in the film, there are even only 4 pictures of him that are repeated all over again.