Genius and madness, there is only a line between the line.
The 2019 film "The Professor and the Madman" tells a story based on real events. The world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary was successfully compiled by two heroes – Dr. James Murray (played by Mel Gibson) and W.C. Miner (played by Sean Penn).
Murray, who has no higher education, is purely self-taught, proficient in Chinese, and in Oxford University, a place full of lonely and self-proclaimed scholars, it is a lot of pressure to take on this heavy responsibility.
Dr. Miner, a military medic in the U.S. Civil War-era army, committed murder because of schizophrenia, was confined to a mental hospital, and was considered a madman.
Two geniuses talk about making friends and feel sorry for each other. A professor, a madman, the first great Dictionary of English in human history was born in the hands of two very different people, which is legendary. Interestingly, due to the controversy over Dr. Meiner's identity as a "psychopath + murderer", the United Kingdom did not declassify Dr. Miner's files until 1998. Once declassified, the whole world was in an uproar.
As the old Chinese saying goes: The ancients are rich and famous, and they are invincible, but they are called by the extraordinary. This movie is about these two extraordinary people!
ps: Sean Pan deserves to be the Academy Award film emperor, old, superb acting, charm is still there.