Edison the Man- Will

In the movie “Edison the Man”, Edison is depicted as a self- taught individual that always tried to improve things and never gave up even when things got tough. He is portrayed as a horrible father and husband that spends no time with his family because he is always in his laboratory. The way the movie looked, the readings about the loyalty Edison had with his family was correct. Many nights he stayed in Menlo Park, working non- stop. His children basically grew up without having a father figure in their lives. He was a man that kept to himself, which was proven by his avoidence of the press and authorities during critical points in the movie. Overall this movie depicted what we have already read and was very enjoyable.

Edison the Man – Robert

In the movie Edison The Man, Edison is shown to be a determined inventor who would try as many times as he had to in order to create something. However, his major inventions are created by accident or are found unexpectedly. He is also shown as a good father and husband who tried to avoid attention from the press. The version of Edison that Jill Jonnes shows in her book, however, is a much different person. In her book Edison is also a very determined and persistent inventor. However, he creates his major inventions by testing every possible solution until he finds the one that works. Also, Edison paid much more attention to his work than his family, who were ignored. The book also showed that  tried to get as much attention from the press as possible.

Edison the Man – Micah T.

In this movie Edison was portrayed as self-made man who pursued inventions to be able to keep all of the equipment that he and his team of men used to work on their projects.  Also he did not seem to be very methodical in the way he approached his inventions, in the movie he and his team seemed to stumble across their inventions.  He seemed more loyal to his family then many books about him say he was.  He was also portrayed as person that avoided taking the blame, as well as the press.  In many scenes he avoided the press by taking his famous cat naps.  In conclusion I enjoyed the movie overall, it was a fairly accurate  portrayal of Edison’s life.

Edison The Man- Rich M.

In the movie Edison the Man Thomas Edison is portrayed as a youthful and somewhat clueless inventor who seems to stumble into inventing as a result of his work with the telegraph companies. Though Edison did work for the telegraph company he had a passion for inventing practically applicable and financially successful gadgets. He is also portrayed to be much more family oriented than he was actually. In reality he was far more in love with his work than this movie showed. In addition to these falsies the movie portrays Edison to be a much more methodical man than he was. He tried things just to see if they work and didn’t jump to conclusions. He also was more scientific in his approach to the problems he tackled. Overall the Movie was interesting and shared a fairly accurate portrayal of Edison’s rise to success

Edison the Man – Joey M

After watching Edison the Man, we got a different portrayal of the kind of person Edison was. The movie portrayed Edison as a very homely, determined, a little bit clueless, and yet very intelligent person. In the movie there is a whole separate part about how Edison meets his wife and starts his family. There is only one part where Edison ignores his wife and family because he is too busy inventing. In the book, Edison is much more in love with his work than his family. We see that he is determined because even though everyone around him is telling him it is impossible to create a light bulb he still does not give up. However he is a kind of clueless in some ways in the movie. When he sold his first invention, he was expecting to sell for 2000 dollars. He was clueless to its real value, which was closer to 60,000 dollars. He did come across as very intelligent though when we got to see how he went about inventing things. 

Edison The Man – Michael

This film differs from Jill Jonnes’s version of Edison’s life in that the movie portrays him as a man who doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. The book says that Edison would voluntarily speak to the press whenever they asked. The film showed that Edison dislike talking to the press and would often hide while one of his friend or workers played his part. These are two completely different versions of his personality, but they both showed how rigorously he tested the different filaments for the light bulb. The film emphasized the time that it took for each filament to be tested, making Edison and his workers sit and wait on the filaments to burn out. While the book is more of a formal source of information, the film has lots of facts and incorporated a lot of humor as well. I personally feel that the movie was much more interesting and was a much more fun was to learn about Edison than reading 400 pages of a book that has no humor in it at all. The way the film was set up allowed more information to really sink in and was able to emphasisee how hard Edison really worked.

Edison the Man – Wes Vullo

I really enjoyed this movie. Although it is an old film, it still expresses Edison’s determination for his success in life. The humor in the movie was dry, but more for its time. Edison was pictured as a man living the American dream, finding a wife and starting a family of his own, and making a fortune. Although while watching the movie i noticed the differences between it and the book. In Jill Jonne’s Empires of Light, Edison is portrayed to not love or notice his wife. But in this movie, Edison loved his wife, and was always there for her. The movie showed Edison’s vast determination for making his inventions work. From the first shop he worked at, he inspired the other workers, and the other workers eventually followed Edison to his own invention factories. Edison’s theory that every invention can work created the willpower for him to succeed. Although the movie adaptation did not show the dark and greedy side of the real Edison, it did express his determination and willpower to succeed.

Edison the Man – Kevin Smith

The person I would picture Edison being is a guy that was in his own world and really didnt care for the other man. I was wrong, Edison was not like that at all. He had a compassion about making the world a better place for the people and not just for the personal gain or monetary benefit. He was a man that loved family and loved his fellow man. Jonnes painted Edison as a man who neglected his wife and kids and wasnt much a family guy. What this movie showed was that he took every chance he could to be kind and also with his family. The first house that had electric lighting was his house and that wasn’t by coinidence. He used the chance to experiment his lighting system and in turn being close to his house. Another thing was that his house was very close to his lab so its not like he couldnt have lunch and dinner occasionally with his wife. I have much more respect for Edison after seeing that movie. Next time the pizza better be on time haha.

Edison the Man-Aysha R

In the film Edison the Man, Thomas Edison is portrayed as a young inventor that starts off with nothing at all and ends up with fame, money, and power. This movie shows Edison, before and after he invented the light bulb, dealing with work, money, being homeless and pursuing his goal to be an inventor; Jill Jonnes mostly shows only the inventing side of Edison and doesn’t go much into anything else. Jonnes doesn’t show how Edison denied money in order to pursue what he wanted to invent and not what the rich man wanted him to invent. That part was very important because it shows Edison’s determination to invent only what he knew would greatly impact the world. Edison and his team discovered many new inventions, some of them were on accident. 

In the movie, Edison and his team seemed to “stumble upon” new inventions as opposed to the book where they knew what they wanted and that’s what they invented. The way the movie described the inventing process was more realistic in the sense that there’s no way that Edison knew everytime what he’d discover. The book makes it seem like Edison was a perfect inventor that knew what he’d invent everytime, and the movie seemed a little more like real life.

Edison the man-June Sri

From the movie “Edison the Man”, Edison was portrayed in the film to be very good in business negotiation, a great inventor, goal-oriented, and a warm-hearted father. Edison’s quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent  perspiration”, shows us his personality. He invented things based on his idea to solve his problems. He did not like to work under limited time because he did not know how long it would take him to assemble a new invention. Time was the most valuable thing for Edison. For each invention, he made so many experimental trials until he found the right one. He tried everything in his power included random things like hair of a colleague as a filament in the light bulb. Nature invention was the greatest invention for Edison. He could always invent something new from the basic. His stubbornness in his beliefs lead him to be successful in his career. He said there would always be something that works in his experiment, and its only a matter of time before he found it.

In Edison’s movie written by Spencer Tracy, Edison was a good father and afraid of the media. It told us only the good thing about Edison. While in Jill Jonne’s book, Edison used media as one of his key to success. She told us in depth about Edison’s invention and his experimental trials, and how he used animals to prove an experiment. His process of discovering ideas in the film was very smooth. There would always be someone to support him, and he’s the one who stands on his ground. Edison was portrayed to be a risk taker, and money wasn’t important to him. Meanwhile in Jill Jonnes’s “Empires of Light”, Edison was always concerned about economics and how the economy influenced people. With the support of certain groups of people he was able to keep his Invention Factory up and running.