"Flash of Genius" tells the story of the travails of Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent window wiper and his battle against Ford Motor Co. which swiped his invention without compensating him.
The story's told in a workmanlike way and Greg Kinnear does a good job as Kearns although much of the time it's hard to root for Kearns. He comes across as obsessive, he's abrasive, thinks that reading some law books makes him a lawyer, etc. He is justifiably upset that Ford has taken his invention and used it without compensating him but the man lets his obsession with justice ruin his life.
As usual, a movie takes liberty with the real story. Kearns represents himself in the Ford lawsuit although in real life he had lawyers represent him. He represented himself in his later suit with Chrysler and in many other suits (many of which he lost because he wouldn't/couldn't comply with court procedures).
What does he win though at the end of this movie? He gets about $10 million, but you don't know that he was actually suing for nearly $400 million. The audience doesn't realize that the jury's verdict didn't say that Ford had deliberately stolen his patents but that they had more or less accidentally infringed on his patent. He still won, but not the apology that he always wanted from Ford. Also, before the final arguments and verdict, the Ford representative goes to him and offers him $30 million to drop the whole thing. Nope, Kearns and his children are going for broke---and instead of getting $30 million as a settlement he gets $10 million, no apology from Ford and even the jury doesn't say that Ford stole his ideas. In truth? Kearns comes across as an arrogant chump who gets in way, way, way over his head and thinks he's won something when in fact he really hasn't.
The story's told in a workmanlike way and Greg Kinnear does a good job as Kearns although much of the time it's hard to root for Kearns. He comes across as obsessive, he's abrasive, thinks that reading some law books makes him a lawyer, etc. He is justifiably upset that Ford has taken his invention and used it without compensating him but the man lets his obsession with justice ruin his life.
As usual, a movie takes liberty with the real story. Kearns represents himself in the Ford lawsuit although in real life he had lawyers represent him. He represented himself in his later suit with Chrysler and in many other suits (many of which he lost because he wouldn't/couldn't comply with court procedures).
What does he win though at the end of this movie? He gets about $10 million, but you don't know that he was actually suing for nearly $400 million. The audience doesn't realize that the jury's verdict didn't say that Ford had deliberately stolen his patents but that they had more or less accidentally infringed on his patent. He still won, but not the apology that he always wanted from Ford. Also, before the final arguments and verdict, the Ford representative goes to him and offers him $30 million to drop the whole thing. Nope, Kearns and his children are going for broke---and instead of getting $30 million as a settlement he gets $10 million, no apology from Ford and even the jury doesn't say that Ford stole his ideas. In truth? Kearns comes across as an arrogant chump who gets in way, way, way over his head and thinks he's won something when in fact he really hasn't.