'The Imitation Game' tells the story of Alan Turing, the mathematician who worked on the top secret project at Bletchley Park in England to crack Germany's wartime Enigma cryptic code system an achievement which proved pivotal to the outcome in Europe of World War 2. In real life Turing was homosexual and with homosexual activity illegal during his entire lifetime he died at a young age in a state of shame.
However this film is not so much about Turing's sexuality, rather it focuses on how a brilliant yet eccentric man without the accepted social graces of the time worked in a hostile environment to achieve with his team a stunning - yet unrecognised - success.
This is a wonderfully acted film with Benedict Cumberbatch superb as Turing. All the support cast are excellent including Keira Knightley who I haven't always enjoyed watching.
I know this film has received mixed reviews and some feel that it deals insufficiently with Turing's sexuality - I don't share that view - but I think it is terrific and I highly recommend it.
★★★★
Finally saw this with my father (88) in Canberra last weekend. We've both read the book on which the film is ostensibly based and my father has a bit of an Enigma/spies enthusiasm. My father volunteered that he thought the homosexual aspect of Turing's life was under-represented and I agree with him. For example, what did we see that provided the basis for the (fictional) double agent in the film (the chap from Downton Abbey) to infer that Turing was gay (which he then used to secure Turing's silence on his leaking to the Russians)?
ReplyDeleteThe film didn't reveal what evidence the 'double agent' character had for believing Turing was gay but I thought there were sufficient references to his sexuality for the audience.
DeleteIn my view the film is about a man who cracked the German code who happened to be gay and suffered for it rather than a film about a man who was gay and suffered for it who happened to crack the German code.
On further research the "double agent" character is apparently not fictional, though the details of what was said or done by him remains (as with many other aspects of the film, most glaringly the suggestion that Turing and Bletchley Park had any say in the use of their intelligence) decidedly fictionally re-arranged.
ReplyDeleteIt's still a good film and elegantly constructed (my main criticism is that the Charles Dance character is turned into such a cartoon baddy).. You can watch an excellent 1992 documentary presented by Andrew Hodges (author of the book) on youtube which includes the actual Joan Clarke relating how the engagement came about and was then called off.