The Professor and the Madman | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | P. B. Shemran |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Kasper Tuxen |
Edited by | Dino Jonsater |
Music by | Bear McCreary |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Vertical Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 124 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $25 million [1] |
Box office | $5.1 million [2] |
The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Farhad Safinia (under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran), from a screenplay by Safinia and Todd Komarnicki based on the 1998 book The Surgeon of Crowthorne (published in the United States as The Professor and the Madman) by Simon Winchester. It stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O'Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, and Steve Coogan.
The film is about professor James Murray, who in 1879 became director of an Oxford University Press project, The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (now known as the Oxford English Dictionary ) and the man who became his friend and colleague, W. C. Minor, a doctor who submitted more than 10,000 entries while he was confined at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Crowthorne after being found not guilty of murder due to insanity.
Shot in Dublin in 2016, the film became part of a legal battle between Gibson and Safinia against Voltage Pictures, delaying its release until 2019 and resulting in the pair disowning the final product.
In 1872 London, retired United States Army surgeon William Chester Minor suffers from hallucinations in which he sees himself being persecuted by a soldier he had to brand for desertion. During one of these visions, he mistakenly chases and kills innocent stranger George Merritt: for this crime he is deemed insane and sent to Broadmoor. Meanwhile, Professor James Murray is admitted by Oxford University Press to the commission responsible for drafting what will be the Oxford English Dictionary, an impressive dictionary capable of listing every term of the English language and explaining its etymology and variations of meaning, with literary citations to support. The work began twenty years earlier, but completing it is difficult given the amount of work and the speed with which the English language changes. Murray thus has the idea of launching an appeal to the English people: he asks anyone who wishes to send the commission a postcard bearing a word reference. This earns Murray the post of commission director.
In Broadmoor, Minor alternates between moments of madness and lucidity; in one such episode, he saves the life of a guard by amputating his leg in an exemplary manner. For this reason, asylum director Richard Brayne decides to experiment with new techniques of psychological support: he allows Minor to keep a small library and to be able to paint. Minor also asks to donate his army pension to Eliza, the widow of the man he killed, but she initially refuses due to the hatred she harbors for him. Minor learns of Murray's initiative and begins to send him several hundreds of entries, complete with quotes and examples.
Minor's contributions salvage the work of the commission and of Murray, still judged too slow by the patrons. Murray goes to meet Minor and discovers his condition, and a strong friendship is immediately established between them. Murray decides to keep silent about Minor's condition from his Oxford colleagues and his wife Ada. Meanwhile, Eliza desperately accepts Minor's offer and goes to Broadmoor to face her husband's killer. However, Eliza finds herself pitying him and begins to visit him often, bringing him books as gifts; Minor reciprocates by teaching her to read so that she can pass it on to her children and allow them to have a better future. Brayne decides to let this relationship evolve as part of the healing experiment.
The first volume of the Oxford Dictionary is released, but some colleagues of the commission contest Murray that the work is not precise and lacks many commonly used words. Behind this protest is Henry Bradley, who wishes to discredit Murray and take his position as project manager. Meanwhile, the relationship between Minor and Eliza becomes increasingly close: Eliza introduces Minor to her children, but her eldest daughter slaps him, aware that she is facing her father's murderer. Shortly after, Eliza kisses Minor, asking him what he would do if the feeling she feels is really love. Minor's psyche is destabilized, and he has hallucinations of Eliza's husband; in a crisis, he proclaims he has "killed" him twice and severs his penis. Brayne ascertains the failure of the experimental therapy and revokes Minor's privileges, subjecting him to more violent methods.
A crisis is reached when a journalist commissioned by the Oxford Press to investigate Minor discovers the truth about him. However, moved with compassion, the journalist discusses the article with Murray, who thus comes to know what is going on. Bradley takes the opportunity as a pretext for Murray's ouster from the dictionary project, also ensuring that Minor's name is removed from the list of collaborators. Ada, initially shocked by the omissions, soon realizes how much she cares about her friend and the dictionary, so she intercedes on his behalf before the commission. Murray arranges a meeting between Eliza and a catatonic Minor, who benefits from knowing that he has been forgiven and slowly improves. Murray, with the help of his patron Freddie Furnivall, manages to obtain a review of the trial in the hope of removing Minor from the asylum. Although Eliza intercedes on his behalf, the jury cannot withdraw the insanity diagnosis. Murray and Furnivall thus appeal to home secretary Winston Churchill. Hearing how passionately Murray defends Minor, Churchill decides to deport Minor to America as an unwanted alien. Minor and Murray say their final farewell before he leaves. Meanwhile, Furnivall obtains Murray's reinstatement as director of the commission for the Oxford Dictionary and the reinstatement of Minor's name among the collaborators in the drafting of the first volume.
Murray dies of pleurisy in 1915 after being knighted, while Minor dies of pneumonia in 1920. The Oxford English Dictionary is completed in 1928, 70 years after its conception, consisting of twelve volumes instead of the initially planned four, and composed of more than 400,000 words accompanied by over a million citations.
French director Luc Besson handed Mel Gibson the project, saying, "It isn't my first language. Maybe you can do something with this". [3] Gibson, who originally intended to direct, hired his Apocalypto co-screenwriter Farhad Safinia to replace him, while he remained in the role of James Murray. Sean Penn entered early talks to join the film as William Chester Minor in August 2016. [4] In August, Natalie Dormer signed on for a role. [5] In September, Ioan Gruffudd joined the cast. [6]
In July 2017, Gibson and his production company Icon Productions sued the production company Voltage Pictures over their desire to control certain aspects of the production. Among other things, it was alleged that Voltage Pictures refused to schedule a "critical" five days of filming in Oxford and that the director was denied final cut privileges. [9] [10]
On June 19, 2018, Judge Ruth Kwan of the Los Angeles County Superior Court denied Gibson's motion for summary adjudication. [11] The multiple lawsuits were the subject of a confidential settlement in April 2019. Gibson and Safinia issued statements distancing themselves from the project and calling the version released by Voltage "a bitter disappointment". [12] They did not participate in the promotion of the film. Safinia was not recognized for directing or co-writing the film, being credited instead under a pseudonym, "P. B. Shemran". [13]
Theatrical release in markets outside the U.S. began in March and April 2019. In January 2019, Vertical Entertainment acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. [14] The U.S. release date was May 10, 2019, with simultaneous limited theatrical release and video on demand. [15]
The film was released in the United States through Vertical Entertainment on digital download on May 10, 2019, and DVD on August 13, 2019, by Lionsgate Films. [16] [17] It was released through the movie rental company Redbox on Blu-ray Disc. [18] It was widely released on DVD in the United States on the same date. [19]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 41%, based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. [20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [21]
Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the film one and a half out of four stars, calling it "the latest fiasco in bad movie history... the presence of Gibson and his co-star Sean Penn give the project a stuffy sanctimoniousness." [22] Likewise, Jay Weissberg, reviewing for Variety , was more critical and stated: "For those that have been anticipating this curious, much-delayed oddity, the good news is that Gibson is fine; it's everything else that doesn't work." [23]
In contrast, Tara McNamara, writing for Common Sense Media, said that: "Despite the fact that both the star/producer and the director have disavowed it, this isn't a bad film; it's beautifully shot and sensationally acted, and it tells a fascinating real-life story." [24]
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a comprehensive resource to scholars and academic researchers, as well as describing usage in its many variations throughout the world.
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson is an American actor and film director. He is known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic action series Mad Max and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop action-comedy film series Lethal Weapon.
The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words is a non-fiction history book by British writer Simon Winchester, first published in England in 1998. It was retitled The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary in the United States and Canada.
William Chester Minor was an American army surgeon, psychiatric hospital patient, and lexicographical researcher.
Hamlet is a 1990 drama film based on the Shakespearean tragedy of the same name, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Mel Gibson as the eponymous character. The film also features Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Dillane, and Nathaniel Parker. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy, the film was the first produced by Icon Productions, a company co-founded by Gibson.
Ioan Gruffudd is a Welsh actor. He is known for his roles in film and television series in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, FBA was a British lexicographer and philologist. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) from 1879 until his death.
Sean Patrick Thomas is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Derek Reynolds in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance and as Jimmy James in Barbershop (2002), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016), as well as his television role as Detective Temple Page in The District and as Professor Macalester in Vixen (2015–2016).
The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promote the study and knowledge of the structure, the affinities, and the history of languages". The society publishes a journal, the Transactions of the Philological Society, issued three times a year as well as a monographic series.
Apocalypto is a 2006 epic historical action-adventure film produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Farhad Safinia. The film features a cast of American Indian and Indigenous Mexican actors consisting of Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Sérbulo, Dalia Hernández, Gerardo Taracena, Rodolfo Palacios, Bernardo Ruiz Juarez, Ammel Rodrigo Mendoza, Ricardo Diaz Mendoza, and Israel Contreras. Set in Yucatán around the year 1517, Apocalypto portrays the hero's journey of a young man named Jaguar Paw, a late Mesoamerican hunter and his fellow tribesmen who are captured by an invading force. After the devastation of their village, they are brought on a perilous journey to a Maya city for human sacrifice at a time when the Maya civilization is in decline.
Icon Productions is an Australian-American production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey, which, unlike most other independent production companies, funds most of its development and production costs, allowing it to retain creative control of its projects. Its headquarters are in Santa Monica, California.
Farhad Safinia is an Iranian-American screenwriter, film/TV producer and director, best known for Apocalypto, Boss, and The Professor and the Madman. He was credited under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran in the latter.
Natalie Dormer is an English actress. Her accolades include winning an Empire Award, and receiving nominations for a Critics' Choice Award, two Gemini Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
John Gilbert is a film editor who works primarily in New Zealand. Gilbert has edited 17 feature films as well as television shows and short films. He won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing, among several honors, for Mel Gibson's war drama Hacksaw Ridge (2016). Gilbert had earlier received various accolades for his work on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), including the Satellite Award for Best Editing and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and an ACE Eddie Award.
Thomas T. Minor was a physician, businessman, civic and political leader who founded the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway and served as mayor of Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington.
Mel Gibson is an American actor, director, and producer, who made his acting debut on the Australian television drama series The Sullivans (1976–1983). While a student at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, he was given an uncredited role in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and subsequently appeared as a leading actor in the micro budget surf drama Summer City. Gibson rose to prominence during the Australian New Wave cinema movement in the early 1980s, having appeared in his breakthrough role in George Miller's dystopian action film Mad Max (1979), portraying the eponymous hero. He reprised the role in its sequels, Mad Max 2 (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). He appeared in Peter Weir's war drama Gallipoli (1981) and the romantic drama The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Five years later he played Martin Riggs in the buddy cop action comedy Lethal Weapon alongside Danny Glover—a role he later reprised in its sequels Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998).
Keep Watching is a 2017 American horror thriller film directed by Sean Carter and written by Joseph Dembner. It was produced by Nicolas Chartier, Andrew Rona, Alex Heineman, Craig J. Flores, Michael Fiore, and Joseph Dembner. It stars Bella Thorne, Ioan Gruffudd, Natalie Martinez, Chandler Riggs, Leigh Whannell, Matthew Willig and Christopher James Baker.
Philip Lyttelton Gell (1852–1926) was a British editor for Oxford University Press between 1884 and 1896 and President of the British South Africa Company between 1920–1923. Lyttelton Gell was a friend of Alfred Lord Milner, and corresponded frequently with Henry Birchenough and other board members of the British South Africa Company. The Derbyshire record office contains correspondence relating to Gell's involvement with the BSAC as Director, Chairman (1917–1920) and President (1920–1923). He was Chairman of Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel, from 1884 to 1896. Through his mother, he was the grandson of Admiral John Franklin. He supported the co-operative movement and the Liberal Unionist Party, and was a literary executor of Benjamin Jowett (1817–1893), Master of Balliol College.
Todd Komarnicki is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and producer.
The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary is a 2023 book by Sarah Ogilvie. The book examines the volunteer contributors who responded to public appeals by the Oxford English Dictionary for words. After finding address books that had belonged to editor James Murray in the basement archive of the Oxford University Press, Ogilvie conducted research into the identities of the contributors. Murray's address books, combined with those of Frederick Furnivall, included the names of some 3000 volunteers alongside the words they had submitted quotations for and which books they had used.