The Secret Life of Nikola Tesla

Movie was made almost 30 years ago in a poor country, still all those who speak about Tesla without knowing his personality /reading his memoirs or couple of biographies/ are just not right in their reviews.

Understanding Tesla, a brilliant, genius mind is very difficult to an ordinary person. If Tesla was as anybody else he wouldn't be him-self, Tesla the Great inventor! People should read more vs. watching stupid blockbusters and asking for every movie to be a blockbuster. The movie perhaps is not the greatest in it's production, but the story is faithful to the relevant autobiography in many details. Movie has depth for those who are able to see it; also it is made for those who wish to learn something about Tesla, not for those who seek pure and mindless entertainment.

The movie's English title, "The Secret of Nikola Tesla" alludes to goofy claims made by Tesla in his declining years. In his 80s, Telsa made claims that scientists now doubt were valid. For example, Tesla claimed to have solved the unified field theory of gravity, but never published it. Other claims, like a death ray that could bring down enemy airplanes hundreds of miles away, gave Tesla the reputation of being a mad scientist.

But Tesla should not be remembered for the eccentricities of his later years. As a young man, Tesla was indeed an amazing genius of electricity and magnetism who was eventually honored on the cover of Time Magazine. He designed in his brain a thing that every person reading these words has used every day of their lives, the electric AC motor. (Until this, alternating current couldn't run a motor!) Before the year 1900, he had invented the first radio transmitter, invented the spark plug, designed a radio controlled torpedo, created several kinds of fluorescent tube lights, designed generators for Edison, and created images of the bones of his hand prior to Röntgen's discovery of x-rays.

I would encourage readers to see this movie about a very unique scientist. Particularly since every other comment here ignores the movie to make partisan political claims. Apparently this is why Yugoslavia was plunged in a bloody civil war.

The Movie's English title "The Secret of Nikola Tesla" is misleading, but the amazing accomplishments of Tesla himself make this movie worth seeing.

I just watched this movie at Google Video. It is an awesome movie. I have just completeted reading 3 biographies of Nikola Tesla, and found the movie to be a pretty faithful re-creation of his life as described in the biographies. There are some things that were not 100% accurate in the film, but it was a great film! The film accurately represents the connection between Katherine Johnson and Nikola. This was well documnted in the biographies I have read of Tesla. The film also shows Edison, Westinghouse, J.P. Morgan, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Marconi, and other big-wigs of that time.

I was even surprised to see that it looks like they built a full scale version of the Colorado Springs Experiment Station and of the Wydenclyfe Tower! It was a great film!

I just watched this film for the 6th or 7th time, and came here to take a look at some of the cast, and was struck when I saw a review that started off "I've seen better documentaries." This is NOT a documentary any more than the Wolf of Wall Street was. This is a dramatization.

If you care about film, if you love stories, if you're inspired by life and all it has to offer, along with its frustrations, give this film a serious try. Some films have that 'resonance' where all parts of the added up film have evenly distributed values that make the film ring with emotional truth: This is certainly one.

I've seen it once. Then some time later I've seen it again, and since then it's become a film I like to watch at least once a year.

This is a dramatization of Tesla's life and work. And in this respect, with excellent support of an array of good actors, including Orson Welles and Strother Martin (I challenge you to not think of him as the white Morgan Freeman...seriously, down to the smallest detail) who provide a perfect contrast to Petar Bozovic' subtle, if-deadpan deliverance believable of the man himself; the film either grips you or not. If it doesn't, it's okay, there's plenty of other, much higher budget movies out there for you to see. If you're one of the lucky few who unlike the chief villains of the piece can understand what the hell Tesla's talking about, this movie will grow on you and you'll keep coming back to it.

The image or the sound is not perfect, the transfer from whatever film version there was out there is truly atrocious for something this good. A diamond in the rough, if you will. If you grew up with spotty TV-reception and remember having to fiddle with the bunny-ears on your TV, it may strike the right tone and you'll allow yourself to suspend disbelief.

This film can really use remastering, on all levels (and i love it so much I might make it my hobby), but to say the script is bad is just plain not true. It is just not what you're used to seeing, but that doesn't make it textbook incorrect. This film IS art. It was made that way, with extraordinary attention to detail all-round.

If you got here because you watched The Prestige and are curious to find out more about the great Nikola Tesla, watch this film. I'd stick my hand in fire here by saying Nolan must have seen this movie and liked it, because the similarities between certain authentic details in The Prestige and this film are undeniable.

This film is for those who understand the core concept which has made Steve Jobs so great - he wanted to help the world. Well, before him so did Nikola Tesla, but unlike the late genius, he forgot to factor in that he couldn't make the world rich so long as there is greed and above all ignorance, which is unfortunately just as natural.

I was suprised they had made a Tesla movie. The beginning is interesting because it is like a documentary of what different people think of Tesla now. Then the movie starts and it is pretty good. It drags a bit though. The actor who plays Tesla does well. I don't recommend it to people who don't know anything about Tesla, but I think people that know about Tesla and his work will like this