The Professor and the Madman Dvd

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, 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 (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, Safinia, and Voltage Pictures, delaying its release until 2019 and resulting in the pair disowning the final product.

Plot

In London in 1872, William Chester Minor, a retired United States Army surgeon, is found not guilty by reason of insanity for killing an innocent stranger, George Merrett, and is sent to Broadmoor.

In Oxford, James Murray interviews for a position as editor of what will become the Oxford English Dictionary. An autodidact, he left school at 14 and has no degree. Some Oxford University Press oversight committee members are contemptuous, but Freddie Furnivall describes their current “abject defeat”, saying that the extraordinary Murray may be what they need. When Max Müller haughtily asks for qualifications, Murray reels off the long list of ancient and modern languages in which he is proficient and on demand provides a definition—and probable origins—of the word “clever”.

Over dinner with the committee, Murray hears opposing views. Müller insists that it capture English at its current “purest peak” and setting strict rules for correct speech. Furnivall says that “all words are valid in the language. Ancient or new, obsolete or robust on, foreign born or homegrown. The book must inventory every word, every nuance, every twist of etymology and every possible illustrated citation from every English author. All of it or nothing at all.”

Murray has a solution to this daunting task: Enlist volunteers from everywhere English is spoken. He writes an appeal to English-speaking people around the world, asking them to send their contributions on slips of paper. Booksellers, librarians and newsagents distribute it. 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 Eliza Merrett, his victim’s widow. Muncie, a guard, delivers it personally. She refuses. Brayne promises to protect him from his pursuer, gives him room to paint and allows him his library of rare books.

Eliza turns to prostitution. When Muncie brings Christmas dinner to the family, she asks to see Minor and accepts his support. Muncie and the guards give Minor a book that contains Murray’s appeal. Minor tells Brayne that he will be “all right” with this work and more books. Soon a profusion of slips lines his room. Minor submits 1,000 slips to Murray and offers to take on the most elusive words, giving his address as “Crowthorne”. The correspondence between Minor and Murray continues.

Eliza returns to thank Minor. He says his life belongs to her.

Murray arrives at Broadmoor unannounced, bringing a fascicle to Minor believing that he is a staff member. Murray eventually sees the shackles but is not daunted. “You are not alone—consanguineous”, he says. Brayne encourages his visits.

Minor offers to teach Eliza to read and write. “It is freedom”, he says. Brayne has hope, but one day Eliza kisses Minor. That night, crying “I have killed him again in your heart”, Minor cuts off his penis, sends his library to Murray and withdraws, sending even Murray away.

Vol. 1 is published. Murray receives an honorary doctorate from Oxford and Jowett and Gell plot to remove him.

A newspaper publishes an article about the madman and the dictionary. Murray rushes to Broadmoor to find Minor unresponsive. Eliza brings him out of it.

Jowett tells Murray that he will soon lose his post, but Furnivall reassures him: He has some “tricks” for Jowett and Gell.

Eliza asks Murray, “If I’ve forgiven him, why should they go on punishing him?” They get a hearing but Minor cannot be released. Furnivall and Murray appeal to the home secretary, Winston Churchill, who has Minor deported to the United States. Murray comes to say good bye. Furnivall has a copy of the dictionary’s new cover, bearing a royal seal of patronage, granted to “Dr James A. H. Murray”. “The fortunate thing about these awful people is they believe in the divine right of rule … So we use it against them. Your book is safe, James. You are safe at its helm …”

“Now? Now Dr. Murray is the dictionary”, Jowett tells Gell, suggesting he take a trip.

The film ends with Murray and his family in the garden, over text that describes the fates of the professor, the madman and the book.

Cast

Mel Gibson as James Murray
Sean Penn as Dr. William Chester Minor
Natalie Dormer as Eliza Merrett
Eddie Marsan as Muncie, a guard at Broadmoor
Jennifer Ehle as Ada Murray, Murray’s second wife, mother of their 11 children
Jeremy Irvine as Charles Hall
David O’Hara as Church
Ioan Gruffudd as Henry Bradley
Brendan Patricks as Winston Churchill, Home Secretary
Stephen Dillane as Dr. Richard Brayne, alienist in charge at Broadmoor
Steve Coogan as Frederick James Furnivall
Laurence Fox as Philip Lyttelton Gell
Aidan McArdle as Defense Attorney Clarke
Adam Fergus as Alfred Minor
Anthony Andrews as Benjamin Jowett
Lars Brygmann as Max Müller