Flash of Genius

The title of the movie "Flash of Genius" actually refers to a test or a doctrine that refers to this test for patentability used in the United States Federal Courts. This doctrine states that the inventive act should come into the mind of an inventor in a "flash of genius" and not as a result of tinkering. "The new device, however useful it may be, must reveal the flash of creative genius, not merely the skill of the calling. If it fails, it has not established its right to a private grant on the public domain."

That's the concept of the movie around which the story moves. Dr. Robert Kearns is an engineering college professor, legally blind in his left eye. While driving his family of six kids and his wife on a rainy season, the constant movement of the windshield wipers blades irritates his troubled vision. Being an engineer, his minds hits upon an idea that why the wiper blades cannot work like the human eye, blinking every few seconds and not continuously. This inspires him to invent the intermittent wiper blades and he takes his invention thru his friend to the Ford Motor Company. The company which embraces Bob's creation unceremoniously shuns the man who invented it. Bob decides to fight against the company legally but it costs him his family and his future.

Why am I shedding light on this movie is because the way Bob fought for his right is admirable. When he files a lawsuit against the motor company thru a lawyer, the company offers money for settlement but Bob refuses it in spite of his lawyer and his wife wants him to take the deal. Consequently, his lawyer resigns the case and his wife demands a divorce, taking all the children into her protection. Being left alone, Bob does not flinch but it makes his decision to represent himself in the lawsuit stronger. By this time, four years passes away. For a year, all Bob is does apart from teaching at the college is reading lawsuits to prepare himself for the case.

All those know him thinks that he would never win the case against the might Ford Corporation and pities on him. Even his children especially his eldest son believes that his dad will never change in spite of what all happened to him (since Bob was out of his home for two months during which professional treatment is provided for his nervous break-down). Finally all his children help him in the case and he wins.

Bob's stand to fight for what he believes in inspires. When his lawyer asks him to accept the settlement money and says that this is how justice is dispensed in the country, Bob decides to thinks that is not the justice that he believes in.

To stand up for what you believe - no matter what happens, whoever tells anything - takes real courage. It does test the persistence of a man. Bob fights and fights till he succeeds. I find the same thread running in the movie "Horton hears a Who!" Till the end, Horton believes in the existence of the Who generation in spite of his whole neighborhood comes against him.

Very few movies leave a lasting effect on the viewers and 'Flash of Genius' is one among them.