Edison the Man was an entertaining look at the popular image of Edison, that of the rustic inventor. The movie gives a very different depiction of him when compared to the Jill Jonnes book. In the book Edison comes across as a vaguely unscrupulous business man. One of the major differences between the book and movie portrayals of Edison was his invention process. In the movie his invention process was depicted as haphazard and really quite random. Example, he decides, out of the blue, to use someones beard hair as filament. The book portrayed him as being slightly more methodical. All in all, despite its inaccuracies, it did accomplish what it set out to do, which was acting as an idealised humorous version of Edison’s life.
