Breaking the
Enigma code the Germans used in World War II was a great feat. Without that
success, the millions of lives that would have been lost during the war would
have led to chaos. Alan Turing’s work will go down in history as the beginning
of modern computers. He wasn’t celebrated much during the 1940s and early ’50s
due to the British government hiding the machine he created with the Hut 8
team, as well as his homosexuality (Turing was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II
in 2013), which later led to his eventual suicide.
Nevertheless, we still owe him and his Hut 8 team a lot for saving the world
from Hitler’s killings and his campaign to take over the world.
The film is
loosely based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma, written by Andrew
Hodges in 1983, and it is magnificent. The Imitation Game was a
commercial (making over $219 million from a $14 million production budget)
and critical success. It’s thrilling and exciting as you watch Hut 8 work hard
to crack the German coded messages.
The screenplay topped the annual Black List for best unproduced Hollywood
scripts in 2011 and won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards (the
only award it won).
Benedict
Cumberbatch was in a realm of his own in this film, delivering such a
magnificent performance that I believe he’ll be remembered for it in the years
to come. I’m not much of a fan of Keira Knightley, but here I really
appreciated her performance. Another person to look out for is Matthew
Goode—his portrayal of a highly intellectual cryptanalyst and chess player was
great.
The movie starts
with a break-in at the home of the mathematician, Turing. It then develops into
a nonlinear story, beginning with two officers investigating Turing’s break-in
in 1951, where they suspect him of being a spy. The movie then flashes back to
Alan’s school days, where he met a friend named Christopher, who got him
interested in cryptography. From there, we move to Alan’s time at Bletchley
Park.
At Bletchley
Park, Alan led a team of men and one woman, Joan Clarke, to build a machine
that would crack the German codes as they were intercepted.
The movie is
very inaccurate about many things, including the events surrounding the
development of the machine and even Alan Turing himself. Hollywood didn’t want
to make a movie about a nice, easygoing guy who got along well with his team to
build a machine to crack the German code. Instead, they made him a weirdo and a
loner.
Great movie all the same.
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