Barroom Stories
“It's our history; we can change it if we want to,” says Miss Falewicz in the film, Be Kind, Rewind. In in many ways, she is right. Psychological studies show a lot of evidence for various ways in which we reform the past, occasionally conjuring memory out of whole cloth and sometimes out of nothing at all. Suggestibility, memory misattribution, false recognition—these are all terms that psychologists use to explain such events. We can liken it to Orwell’s 1984 with all its thought police and rewritten histories. You may even think of this example as a microcosm for our own brains. We create our own realities.
To that end, we ought to be skeptical of historical drama as fact. Our perception of history is largely influenced by where we are experiencing it. In our screenplay, we chose to incorporate popular themes in the world today: roles of women, the dubiousness of Thomas Edison’s character, the way ideas are sensationalized and misrepresented in society, etc. These things weren't really on the discussion tables in the 1880s when the story is set, but they allow us to connect to the period in a way that we understand and enjoy.
We took a great deal of creative liberty in developing the story—so much so that we suggest Edison may have been a woman. It’s left a bit vague, so it is up to the viewer to decide if this is Martin’s biggest lie yet, or if there's really some truth in it. The woman is, after all, a lead figure in Edison Machine Works, which is atypical of the 19th century American workplace. That aside, it turns out there were actually women inventors at the time. Prominent among them is Margaret Knight, known by journalists as the “Lady Edison.” The story is funny and silly, but there are some legitimate “currents” running through it.
A major inspiration as the story was written was the humor in everyday life. The original idea came as Kyler read a story about an argument between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Edison had promised Tesla 5,000 dollars if he completed a design. When Tesla completed the task and asked for his reward Edison said that he never intended on paying him and that Tesla simply didn't understand American humor. This prompted Tesla to leave Edison's employment. Tesla and Edison became rivals and had what one article refers to as a “war of currents”. The fact that such a silly thing took place between such great minds was a driving force behind writing a comedic script about this place in time. We liked the idea of creating a character that wants to be a part of history, as most people do. Through Martin we tried to show the ridiculousness and sometimes futility of this pursuit. Yet here we are in the very same business, attempting to elicit a snicker rather than “ooh, lightbulb” out of the name of Edison. Did we succeed? You can be the judge.
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