The Professor and the Madman Review

The Professor and the Madman tells the story of an unexpected friendship between an Oxford academic and an American surgeon sentenced to Broadmoor and focused on how they helped each other.

James Murray (Mel Gibson) is an expert in languages who gets the job of editing the New Oxford Dictionary. Murray is disliked by the old guard because the Scotsman is an outsider to the institution. One of Murray’s radical ideas is to get members of the public to help research words and their origins. One of these people is William Chester Minor (Sean Penn), an American Civil War veteran who has been committed to Broadmoor after killing a man when in a paranoid state.

The Professor and the Madman was a troubled production. It was filmed in 2016 but didn’t come out until 2019 in the US and 2020 in the UK. Gibson and his production company Icon Productions sued Voltage Pictures over creative control and Voltage refusing to allow filming in Oxford. Because of this Gibson refused to promote the film and writer/director Farhad Safinia had his name removed from the film: he chose to use a pseudonym instead. Despite this trouble, The Professor and the Madman has been well received by audiences and has a respectable 7.3 on IMDB.

There is a lot to unpack with The Professor and the Madman because it tries to cover a lot in its runtime. The central premise where men try to write the dictionary sounds like one of the boring ideas possible for a film, but the filmmakers do highlight the importance of the work. Murray’s aim was to show how the English language has evolved and preserve it. As Philip Lyttelton Gell (Laurence Fox), the editor of the Oxford University Press, states to Murray, the British Empire covered a quarter of the globe and that meant English was becoming the language of business and a more subtle way for Britain to assert dominates.

The other aspect of Murray’s story was Murray having to combat Oxford University as an institution and wanting to be respected and accepted by the figures who dominate the Oxford. Despite Murray’s clear intellect he had no formal education beyond the age of 14. Oxford was a conservative body that disliked outsiders and changes whilst also having a competitive nature: they have to be the best.

The true heart of the film came from Minor’s story. Minor was a man suffering from post-traumatic stress order due to his war service and feels guilty about his actions, Despite his obvious issues Minor does earn the respect of the guards and his work on the dictionary gives him focus and a purpose. It gave the film a Shawshank Redemption/Green Mile vibe. Minor also wants to make amends for his crime by giving his army pension to his victim’s wife, Eliza Merrett (Natalie Dormer). Despite Eliza’s hatred towards Minor, she was in need of the money and she has a storyline where she slowly forgives the man.

The Professor and the Madman does try to juggle a lot of balls and it does manage it well enough. The film does boil down to two major stories: the first half of the film focused on Murray and Minor’s work on the dictionary, the second was more about Minor’s worsening mental state, and Murray trying to get him released. The other storylines involving Oxford and Eliza branched off this central relationship.

Although Safinia was the director of the film I expect Gibson had a lot of influence onset. This was three-fold: first, The Professor and the Madman was Safinia’s first directional effort, second, Safinia had previous experience was working as Gibson’s assistant on Passion of the Christ and co-writing of Apocalypto. And finally, The Professor and the Madman shares some traits with other Gibson films. The biggest theme of the film was Minor seeking redemption which can be interpreted as a Christian idea. Religion is often a theme in Gibson films: Passion of the Christ and Hacksaw Ridge were the most obvious examples and whilst the main characters in Braveheart and We Were Soldiers were devoted Catholics. Murray had a large family and the scene when he announced he got the editing job reminded me of the family scenes in We Were Soldiers by being a bit hokey.

The Professor and The Madman did have an incredible cast. Besides the leads, the film featured the likes of Eddie Marsan, Natalie Dormer, Steve Coogan (in a rare serious role), Stephen Dillane, and Ioan Gruffudd. The film even had Jeremy Irvine appear for just one scene. With talent like this, the performances were generally solid although Gibson and Penn had the juiciest roles. Penn impressed with his role because he had to be manic, traumatised, ashamed, and catatonic.

Despite the production troubles involving the filming location Dublin did make a good substitution for Oxford and London. Trinity College was used as the university and it had historic and grand locations of a major educational institution.

The biggest issue with the film was the internal timeframe. The film started in 1872 and it seemed like it took place over a few years. However, near the end, Winston Churchill appears when he was the Home Secretary. He was in that position in 1910. The film didn’t look like it took place over 40 years.

Despite Gibson and Safinia disowning the film The Professor and The Madman was an interesting biopic that had a strong emotional core.