As a boy, I was fascinated by
codes and code-breakers. Our family had a copy of Clifford B. Hicks’ children’s
book, “Alvin’s Secret Code,” where the main character, Alvin, was like Thomas Edison
and Sherlock Holmes mashed together, but in kid form. “Alvin’s Secret Code” was
part-story and part-instruction manual for how to write your very own coded
messages, and it inspired me to learn more about codes, code-breaking, and
cyphers. The book intrigued me so much that I would sometimes imagine myself
being a super-spy sending messages that only my friends could read.
Unfortunately, my friends weren’t
as interested in codes as I was, but this childhood memory flooded back to me as
I sat to watch The Imitation Game, the
story of Alan Turing, the mathematical genius and legendary cryptanalyst.
During the Second World War, an
isolated mansion in the English Midlands known as Bletchley Park was actually a
top secret facility where the smartest people in Britain were charged with the seemingly
impossible task of breaking the codes Germany used to coordinate and communicate
attack plans against Allied shipping convoys in the Atlantic Ocean during the
war.
Alan Turing (portrayed with imaginative
subtlety and restraint by Benedict Cumberbatch,) is an awkward, somewhat asocial
character in the film. However, he has an extraordinary mind, preferring
isolation to collaboration in order to get his work done. He begins working to
build his own version of a Polish code-breaking machine, and he feels that his
improvements will succeed in cracking those “unbreakable” German codes.
However, his lack of social graces
and his request for solitude wins him no friends at Bletchley. The film shows
his efforts to juggle the importance of maintaining social graces with his
colleagues while simultaneously building the code-breaking machine that fewer
and fewer people around him believe will actually work.
Joining him in this task is a
woman at Bletchley named Joan Clarke, played by Keira Knightley. Clarke would
become one of the very few female cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park during the
war, and would also become one of Turing’s closest allies.
The central theme of the film is secrets.
German secret codes are the lure, but not all secrets are the military kind,
and Turing is hiding a whopper of a secret that, if discovered, would
jeopardize not only his work at Bletchley, but his very life.
Alan Turing was hiding in plain
sight as a homosexual in an era when Great Britain criminalized and punished
such behavior without pity. This threat of discovery hung over Turing’s head
like kind of Sword of Damocles waiting to come crashing down upon him and destroy
everything he had worked for. As brilliant as he was, one mistake and
everything would be ruined.
The film is split into three
sections: First, there are the scenes at Bletchley. Second, there is one
detective’s investigation into Turing’s life after the war. And finally, there
is a series of flashbacks that shows Turing at school as a young boy. The film jumps
back and forth between each setting so seamlessly that it is no surprise that
the film is nominated for this year’s Best Editing Oscar Award.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing
as a kind of suffering genius, although we know that it isn’t just his
intellect that makes him suffer. Turing was never allowed to be free about his
sexuality, which might have partially fueled his desire to be left alone in his
work. It’s a given that this performance would have earned Cumberbatch a Best
Actor Oscar nomination, as there is depth and humanity in his performance that warrants
recognition.
Keira Knightley is also worthy of
her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the confident, concerned
friend and colleague, Joan Clarke. Her performance is self-assured, and she
works very well with Cumberbatch, particularly during one scene where Clarke
visits Turing after his indecency trial. It was a thrill to see Cumberbatch and
Knightley hitting the emotional high points of their characters so that we
really feel their struggles.
The Imitation Game is such an entertaining
and enlightening story, both about the triumph of Turing’s work as a code
breaker and also the pain of his personal secrets, that any future attempts at
portraying Alan Turing’s complicated life will have to meet the very high
standards set with this film.
No comments :
Post a Comment