The Professor and the Madman (film)

The Professor and the Madman (film)

The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Farhad Safinia. It stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O’Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, Laurence Fox, and Steve Coogan. The film is about professor James Murray, who in 1879 became director of an Oxford University Press project. It is also about W. C. Minor, a doctor who submitted more than 10,000 entries while he was confined at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

About The Professor and the Madman (film) in brief

Summary The Professor and the Madman (film)The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Farhad Safinia. It stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O’Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, Laurence Fox, 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. It is also about 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, Safinia, and Voltage Pictures, delaying its release until 2019 and resulting in the pair disowning the final product.

In London in 1872, a retired U.S. Army surgeon, William Chester Minor, is found not. guilty by reason of insanity for killing an innocent stranger, George Merrett, and is sent to Broad.moor. In Oxford, James Murray interviews for a position as editor of what will become the Oxford English Dictionary. He writes an appeal to English-speaking people around the world, asking them to send their contributions on slips of paper. The slips pile up. Meanwhile, Doctor Brayne receives Minor, who is tormented by flashbacks to the American Civil War. In a moment of lucidity, he saves a guard’s life by amputating his leg. He asks that most of his army pension be given to his victim’s widow, Eliza Merrett.