Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  I always disliked the punny title of this film – oh it’s a current war and also about electric currents! Maybe raisins are involved too? I’m sure a better title would have helped, but I did enjoy this film despite some eccentric direction and some miscasting.   The film opens on some figures surrounded by mist. It’s not clear what’s happening but we soon dissolve into 1880 where electricity is starting to be developed. In the lead is Thomas Edison whose direct current is the market leader. It does however require a lot of wire and substations, but he is fixated on making it work. He’s assisted by Tom Holland who looks about 14 with a stick-on moustache. The pair later team up to greater effect as Dr Strange and Spider-Man in the MCU.   Edison’s rival is George Westinghouse , played by our Mr Shannon with a slightly more believable moustache, and he’s all about alternating current. He made his fortune in train brakes and sees electricity as the way to light up th...

  Sadly this offering doesn’t include Neil, Rik, Mike or Vyvyan – not even Cliff Richard! It is instead a sci-fi western, with a lot to like but a bit thin on plot. The film is set in a future America which has been decimated by drought. The settings look Australian but the film was shot in South Africa. Shannon plays Ernest Holm, a homesteader with a young family and a disabled wife. There is a suggestion that his wife’s injuries came from a drink involved accident for which Ernest was at fault. She stays in a care facility and can only walk via a high tech mechanical apparatus. Throughout the film there are well realised examples of technology that is just a bit more advanced than we have, such as a fan like mobile phone and a paper video card that you can watch funerals, and presumably other events, on. When we fist encounter Shannon he is dealing with two men who are trying to break into his hut. Both go for their guns but are cut down by Ernest’s nifty shotgun. We...