The Professor and the Madman

In 1857, Scot­tish lex­i­cog­ra­ph­er and philol­o­gist James Mur­ray begins work com­pil­ing words for the first edi­tion of the Oxford Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary. This mon­u­men­tal task would take him and his team between five and sev­en years. How­ev­er, by “crowd sourc­ing” the work and enlist­ing def­i­n­i­tions from peo­ple all over the world, the dic­tio­nary could be accom­plished more rapid­ly. Pro­fes­sor Mur­ray dis­cov­ered that schiz­o­phrenic US Army sur­geon Chester Minor had sub­mit­ted more than ten thou­sand words while being interned in a British psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal for the mur­der of an inno­cent stranger.

By : Farhad Safinia
Duration : 1h41
With : Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan
Nationality : Ireland, France, Iceland, USA, Mexico, Belgium, UK & Hong Kong