BLACKFOOT — A second major release of August hit the Blackfoot Movie Mill on Friday, Aug. 21, with the release of “Tesla,” starring Ethan Hawke.

This movie is about Nikola Tesla, an employee of Thomas Edison and his trials and tribulations in trying to get an induction motor and his vision of alternating current to become the norm for electricity in the U.S.

It is 1884, New York City, and Nikola Tesla works for Thomas Edison where neither get along with one another. Tesla pitches his idea to those who will pay him much more than Edison.

Edison meets his second wife Mina in 1885. Tesla continues work on his induction motor, assisted by his friend Anthony Szigeti from Budapest. Tesla meets Anne, the daughter of JP Morgan. Tesla presents his findings to George Westinghouse and he buys the patents for Tesla’s inventions and brings Tesla to Pittsburgh to oversee production. Westinghouse updates Tesla on the rivalry between Edison’s findings and Tesla’s. Edison insists on his, for the matters of execution. Edison says direct current is better and dismisses Tesla’s alternating current.

William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed with electric induction, but it is completely gruesome. Edison blames the doctors. Meanwhile, Tesla begins dating Anne, despite her father being one of Edison’s incredibly wealthy fundraisers.

Westinghouse tells Tesla that Edison has failed, their business is still failing, and they need a merger. The only merger he could get requires Tesla to give up his horsepower clause, but then the entire country will be using his machines. Tesla chooses to tear up their contract to go forward with the merger.

The famous traveling actress Sarah Bernhardt performs her act. After the performance, Tesla seems attracted to Sarah, concerning Anne. Tesla and Edison have an uncomfortable and tense run-in where Edison seems bitter and resentful of Tesla’s success, and Edison leaves with Sarah’s group.

Tesla tells Anne he is planning on moving to Colorado. There, he begins work developing the Tesla coil. Its first debut is impressive and unsettling, blowing up the local generator, which Tesla offers to pay for. Tesla then presents his discoveries to JP Morgan showing him all the advantages his machines can provide the world. He is skeptical and doesn’t like Tesla very much, but invests $100,000 into Tesla’s work.

Edison gets out of the electricity business and goes into mining, which ends up being a complete failure that loses him $4 million. After Tesla gives an interview saying his equipment is picking up signals that could potentially be from Mars, Anne confronts him about this idea, noting her father reads the interviews he gives.

Tesla goes to Morgan to ask for more money, who is skeptical that Tesla’s research is really going anywhere. Tesla explains he is developing technology to map brain waves from the brain. Morgan, who is playing tennis with Anne, dismisses him.

Anne moves to the French countryside and begins working on creating health services and camps for children. She explains that Tesla outlived Edison, Westinghouse, Bernhardt, and Morgan and dies alone at 87.

This film is good, but it is more of a documentary than an entertaining film, although there are bright spots in the film. The acting is solid and the cinematography is better than average.

It is worth a look, but only for the entertainment value as it can be a bit of a drag in places.

I rate the show a 3 on a scale of 1-5 and that is mainly on its historical value.

As always, we recommend that you visit the Blackfoot Movie Mill at their website at www.royaltheaters.com to confirm dates and showtimes and to reserve your favorite seat.