User Reviews

Painful. Nothing worse than a one-sided, sensationalized documentary...except when narrated by the most melodramatic voice ever. And while I am no fan of the power that big business and $ hold in the US, work product created while an employee of a company is pretty standard. The tradeoff is a comfortable salary and zero risk while losing the chance at big money should the IP become profitable. On the other side, companies are willing to eat the salaries of R&D employees whose research leads to little or no profit, with the idea that others' will generate enough profit to make up the loss and then some.

First, no credible reviewer could rate this 9 of 10, assuming that 10 is reserved for the finest films of all time, like Citizen Kane. There are too many imperfections to wedge into a single point demerit on a 10-point scale. Second, the movie is a bait and switch, of sorts, promising the inventor, and delivering a whole lot of his errant son, who apparently made a name for himself as a convicted thief/burglar. The ad and trailer do not fairly portray the movie, so be forewarned. Third, the lack of visual material on the inventor himself, in particular, the lack of video, and even the relative scarcity of photos, stands out negatively, when juxtaposed with the copious footage of interviews of shabbily dressed unknowns attesting to various points in the narrative, or interpretations of U.S. economic policy (AT&T was a monopoly, don't you know?). Fourth, many of these shortcomings could have been overcome by a tighter timeline, and sharper focus on what motivated the man himself. Some context on the significance of the patents would have been quite helpful, as well. We never get much sense of when the patents for various devices were issued in relation to when the inventions themselves were first commercialized. As you can read, I left quite disappointed, although no less interested in the man himself.