- Joined
- Jan 8, 2012
The 2019 film version of the best selling book, "The Professor and the Madman" is now available on cable starring Mel Gibson, Natalie Dormer, and Sean Penn as the insane Civil War surgeon:
If you can look past the film's troubled history and bad reviews, it tells the fascinating story of the development of the Oxford English Dictionary, which includes the true character of Dr. Minor, "a millionaire American civil war surgeon turned lunatic, imprisoned in Broadmoor Asylum for murder and yet who dedicated his entire cell-bound life to work on the English language." (See also the related book, "The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and Love of Words" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140271287/?tag=civilwartalkc-20).
I actually enjoyed the movie, although there were so many issues surrounding it's production that Mel Gibson apparently called it a "bitter disappointment" and along with the director refused to even participate in promoting the film. There was a limited theatrical release earlier this year, then straight to cable.
OK, it wasn't a stunning cinematic tour de force, but it wasn't all that bad. I found it watchable and engaging, with excellent performances by a talented cast. If you subscribe to a cable network that includes recently released films you can watch for free, it's definitely worth the price. The Civil War connection is interesting--although it's not clear in the movie what drove Dr. Minor insane, it's entirely possible that the horrors of Civil War battlefields and primitive medical care might have had something to do with it.
Period photo of Civil War surgeon Dr. William Chester Minor holding an early edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which only included the first part of the alphabet. He made thousands of contributions to the effort from his cell in an English insane asylum. The entire dictionary wasn't completed until 1928.
If you can look past the film's troubled history and bad reviews, it tells the fascinating story of the development of the Oxford English Dictionary, which includes the true character of Dr. Minor, "a millionaire American civil war surgeon turned lunatic, imprisoned in Broadmoor Asylum for murder and yet who dedicated his entire cell-bound life to work on the English language." (See also the related book, "The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and Love of Words" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140271287/?tag=civilwartalkc-20).
I actually enjoyed the movie, although there were so many issues surrounding it's production that Mel Gibson apparently called it a "bitter disappointment" and along with the director refused to even participate in promoting the film. There was a limited theatrical release earlier this year, then straight to cable.
OK, it wasn't a stunning cinematic tour de force, but it wasn't all that bad. I found it watchable and engaging, with excellent performances by a talented cast. If you subscribe to a cable network that includes recently released films you can watch for free, it's definitely worth the price. The Civil War connection is interesting--although it's not clear in the movie what drove Dr. Minor insane, it's entirely possible that the horrors of Civil War battlefields and primitive medical care might have had something to do with it.
Period photo of Civil War surgeon Dr. William Chester Minor holding an early edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which only included the first part of the alphabet. He made thousands of contributions to the effort from his cell in an English insane asylum. The entire dictionary wasn't completed until 1928.
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