A cinematic disaster or a misunderstood masterpiece? The turbulent history of a dictionary drama.

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The Professor and the Madman tells the unlikely true story of the Oxford English Dictionary’s creation, fueled by the contributions of a patient at an asylum. Yet, the film’s own production was a chaotic saga of lawsuits and disowned cuts, leaving critics deeply divided over its ultimate legacy.

The film chronicles the 1879 collaboration between Professor James Murray, tasked with drafting the Oxford English Dictionary, and W. C. Minor, a former U.S. Army surgeon confined at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Minor, suffering from severe hallucinations, became one of the project's most prolific contributors, submitting over 10,000 entries. Their partnership, initially kept secret, bridged the gap between academic ambition and the isolation of mental illness, eventually leading to a complex bond involving the widow of the man Minor killed.

Behind the scenes, the production was plagued by conflict. Directed by Farhad Safinia—who later used the pseudonym P. B. Shemran—the film faced a series of legal battles between Mel Gibson’s production company, Icon Productions, and Voltage Pictures. The disputes, which included disagreements over filming locations and final cut privileges, resulted in a 2019 release that both the director and Gibson publicly disowned. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a motion for summary adjudication in 2018, and the parties reached a confidential settlement in April 2019.

Critical reception remained polarized upon the film's release. Some reviewers, such as Nick Allen and Jay Weissberg, dismissed the project as a fiasco, citing a sense of sanctimoniousness and structural failures. Conversely, others like Tara McNamara argued that despite the creators' disavowal, the film remains a beautifully shot and well-acted exploration of a fascinating historical narrative. Ultimately, the film serves as a strange footnote to the history of the dictionary itself, which took 70 years to complete and grew from a planned four volumes into a massive twelve-volume work containing over 400,000 words.

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