MOVIE REVIEW: THE IMITATION GAME (2014)
Posted by Naqhii
From IMDB:
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. Written by Studio Canal
Ratings: 8.2/10 from 136,062 users Metascore: 73/100
From Rotten Tomatoes:
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of
mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict
Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up
arresting Turing himself on charges of 'gross indecency', an accusation
that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense
of homosexuality - little did officials know, they were actually
incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a
motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence
officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes
of Germany's World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting
portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a
genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in
turn, save thousands of lives. (c) Weinstein
TOMATOMETER 89% | Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 226 | Fresh: 201 | Rotten: 25
Critics Consensus: With an outstanding starring performance from
Benedict Cumberbatch illuminating its fact-based story, The Imitation
Game serves as an eminently well-made entry in the "prestige biopic"
genre.
AUDIENCE SCORE 93% liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5 | User Ratings: 75,160
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Before Turing and his machine came about Cryptographers used to work
like this. Not at all interesting looking if you came for a visit.
©TheWeinsteinCompany
I Probably Wouldn't Be Able To Blog About This Movie If It Wasn't For Alan Turing...
So I finally got around to catch this film at the cinemas. I wasn't disappointed. So for those of you who have yet to see this here's what it's about. Assuming of course you don't get what it's about from the two helpful synopsis above and you still haven't seen it yet. (WARNING SPOILERS COMING UP!! SKIP TO THE END IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT)
It's about Alan Turing of course. Who is Alan Turing? Here's the opening paragraph from his Wikipedia entry:
Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (/ˈtjʊərɪŋ/ tewr-ing; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was a British pioneering computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, mathematical biologist, and marathon and ultra distance runner. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer.[3][4][5] Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.[6]
So a woman shows up at a special room for a special test. It's the 40's. What do you think happens first? ©TheWeinsteinCompany
So on to The Imitation Game. A movie that for the most part tells of
Turing's involvement in WWII and more specifically his involvement in
cracking the German's Enigma Machine.
If you're a WWII buff or into cloak and dagger stories you will have
come across stories of the Enigma Machine. A box of wires and gears that
baffled the Allies, a box that allowed the Nazi to talk to each other
without worrying about enemies listening in and finding out what they
were planning.
So the movie opens in 1951 and Turing now lives alone and is a professor
at a University. His house has been broken into but to the surprise of
the police nothing was apparently taken. An investigator shows up to
talk to Turing and finds him in one of his rooms brushing dust off the
floor. Turing tells them to stay back as the dust turns out to be a form
of cyanide and even a little could kill them. The investigator attempts
to talk to Turing but Turing's blunt and arrogant replies ends the
interview quickly and they leave. Upon leaving the investigator suspects
that there's something more going on and he begins to dig into Turing's
past. Unable to dig up anything including Turing's military history he
begins to get frustrated which feeds into his suspicions of Turing.
Now it's 1939 and we see Turing travel by train to an as yet unknown
destination. We hear announcements regarding the Germans and that
Britain is now at war with the Nazi's. We also see droves of children
gathering at the train station sent by their parents to safer locations
away from Nazi targets in Britain. A short while later Turing arrives at
Bletchley park. Bletchley Park is a secret location under military
control where efforts are being taken to intercept German communications
and make sense and hopefully use them against the Nazi. There Turing
meets with Admiral Denniston, the man in charge of Bletchley and the man
that decides who works there. Turing is there for an interview and a
chance to work there. Their meeting is an interesting one with Denniston
immediately disliking Turing and Turing proving that he's not what he
appears to be. But whatever Denniston's feelings for Turing as a person,
Turing is hired.
And she finishes before all the men do. I'd probably not have finished at all. ©TheWeinsteinCompany
A short while later Turing is in a room being briefed on the task he is
about to undertake and to meet with his colleagues the cream of the crop
from the fields of linguistics and cryptography. They are also
introduced to the Enigma Machine. At the briefing they also meet with
Maj, Gen, Stewart Menzies from the MI6.
Soon they're ensconced in their own little building trying to break the
Enigma code, except that Turing is tucked away in a little corner trying
to break the Enigma on his own. The others try to be friendly with him
but his answers are always short and somewhat terse. So they leave
Turing on his own.
Now we flashback to when Turing was a young boy and he is bullied at
school during a meal. His predilection of separating each item on his
plate so that it doesn't touch each other singles him out as odd,
strange. So they bully him. He is trapped under the floorboards in the
classroom. He yells and bangs at the boards at first but then realizes
all that does is satisfy the bullies. He stops and soon the bullies
leave. An acquaintance frees him from beneath the floorboards.
So if you watched this movie you'd think Turing built this machine all on his own. Not true. ©TheWeinsteinCompany
Back in Bletchley, Turing finds out that a complaint has been placed
against him by his colleague claiming that Turing is impossible to work
with. He tries to speak to Admiral Denniston about this but Denniston
only tells Turing that he should file his own complaint before he can do
anything about it. That Turing should handle this the proper way, the
military way by addressing it up the chain of command. Turing asks
Denniston who his boss is to which Denniston says Churchill. So Turing
does exactly that, he writes a letter to Winston Churchill which he asks
Menzies to help get it to the Prime Minister.
Not long after that, all of them are gathered in Denniston's office
where it appears Churchill has put Turing in charge. His first act of
leadership is to fire two of his colleagues. His next is to embark upon
the building of a machine that costs 100,000 pounds. This does not sit
well with Denniston and what remains of the team. Seeing as how he is
now shorthanded after letting go two of his team he begins a recruitment
process. He creates a crossword puzzle with a message that says for
those that solve the puzzle in less than 10 minutes an interesting and
rewarding career awaits them. Those that answer his call are asked to
appear at a location where Turing waits for them. When they appear they
are asked to perform a task in less than 6 minutes. Menzies is there too
and asks him if this is the ideal way to find out if those that come
are suitable candidates, Turing tells Menzies that he himself takes 8
minutes to do the same task. Just as Turing is about to administer the
task a late comer appears. A woman. She is told that she might be
mistaken, that maybe she is instead looking for the room where clerks
are being interviewed but Turing notices her from the front and tells
her to have a seat and prepare for the test. She finishes the test in
under 6 minutes.
Flashback to Turing as a boy and we see him sitting with his rescuer, a
boy named Morcom. They're sitting under with Morcom reading and Turing
doing a crossword puzzle. Turing asks him about the book he's reading
and Morcom tells him it's about secret codes, about cryptography. Morcom
gives Turing his book and tells him that he has a feeling that Turing
might be very good at it.
Just because she's not part of the team it doesn't mean you can sneak
important documents over to her place, right? ©TheWeinsteinCompany
Back in Bletchley and Turing awaits the arrival of his two new recruits
except that only one shows up. Joan Clarke, the woman that finishes the
task faster than he can doesn't show up. He immediately takes off in
search of her. He finds her at her home where he soon discovers the
reason for her absence is her parents. They don't believe that a young
unmarried woman should be off by herself let alone working with a group
of men. Turing wises up to this and begins, with subtle cues from Clarke
to change her employment circumstances to one where she works as a
clerk in a room with other women as well as rooming with other women and
going to church regularly.
So now Clarke is also in Bletchley but since she is working as a clerk
she isn't allowed to be part of Turing's work. So Turing sneaks out
documents related to his work and takes it to her room late at night.
Meanwhile, Turing's machine is far from completed and his attitude
chafes his colleagues. When Denniston shows up looking for a Soviet spy
among them his colleagues make no effort to defend him and since
Denniston dislikes him he looks first at Turing's work space.They find
nothing damning of course.
Turing's first computer tasked to break the Enigma code was this big.
Computers in later on would fill entire rooms. Aren't we lucky we walk
around with computers in our pants. ©TheWeinsteinCompany
After that incident Turing goes back to work on his machine on his own
when one of his colleagues Huge Alexander shows up and begins screaming
at him for not helping the others, for being selfish in thinking that
his efforts with his machine which has yet to prove that it works will
be successful.
Later on during lunch with Joan, Joan advises him to change his ways if
he is to succeed at building the machine. She tells him that he needs to
make friends not enemies of his colleague. Turing takes her advice in a
way and returns to the office with a bag of apples and an attempt at a
joke. The joke doesn't work but his colleagues begin to warm up to him.
And the begin to help him with his machine which he now calls
Christopher.
Flash back to his school days and he is waiting for his friend Morcom to
return from holidays but he doesn't. He is called to the headmasters
office where he is told that his friend Morcom has passed away due to a
disease. Turing feints any knowledge of Morcom and claims that he barely
knew Morcom even though others claim Morcom was his best friend, his
only friend.
Anytime a movie has a nerd work on a military project he's guaranteed at
some point to lose everything, right? ©TheWeinsteinCompany
Back to Bletchley and Turing's machine is still far from complete but
Denniston is there with military escort and a representative from the
Home Office for a surprise progress check. Turing spots them from a
distance and immediately goes in a bolts the door. Denniston orders the
door broken down. Inside they shut Turing's machine down despite
Turing's pleads and protests. His colleagues show up and tells Denniston
that he's making a mistake, that the machine is their only chance at
breaking Enigma's code. They also threaten him that if he shuts the
project down that they will leave en mass. Denniston gives in and tells
them they have a month to produce results.
A few weeks passes and Turing's machine is still churning away without
any results. In between, in order to keep Joan with the project Turing
proposes that they get married. He also finds out who the Soviet spy
among them is. One of his own colleagues, They have an encounter where
Turing is told that if he exposes his secret he'll tell everyone that
Turing is a homosexual. Turing keeps mum. Later at the pub with
Alexander and Joan and a friend of Joan they friendly discussion turns
to talk of her work as a signals clerk. She has the idea that all the
messages she's transcribing from the Germans come from one source as
every message that comes in begins with the same word. Other messages do
not. This puts an idea into Turing's head. He rushes back to
Bletchley.
At Bletchley Turing theorizes that the reason that his machine is taking
so long is because it is trying to decode all the messages from all the
sources at the same time which is why it can never finish in time
before the Enigma key resets. He believes that if they concentrate on
one source and using a repetitive word from that source his machine can
begin to decode the rest faster through the repetition present in those
stream of messages. It works. In minutes his machine decodes the days
messages from that source. In the next few hours they begin to decode
all sorts of messages from Nazi headquarters to their military and navy.
By morning they've mapped out coordinates of Nazi ships as well as
U-Boats and they spot a pattern of attack just off the British coast
approaching a food and supply convoy heading to Britain. Their first
thought is to inform Denniston but just as the thought enters everyone's
mind Turing changes his. Everyone protests against Turing and punches
are thrown but slowly everyone begins to see Turing's line of thought
except for one. He has a brother on one of the convoy ships and begs
Turing to change his mind this one time. Turing remains steadfast, so do
the rest.
That moment when you finally break the code. I wonder what that feels like? ©TheWeinsteinCompany
A bit later on in order to protect Joan from discovering from others
that he is a homosexual he tells her. She tells him she's suspected it
but to her it doesn't matter, that their marriage is based on their
mutual respect for each other and how they get along, that she isn't
looking for the normal relationship. But Turing instead of accepting her
offer tells her he's been using her for her mind, that now that the
project is almost at an end he doesn't need her anymore.
Soon their work pays off and the Allies win the war. And at the end of
it they are debriefed by Menzies. He tells them to burn everything, all
their records, paperwork and even the machine. Nothing must remain. And
once that is done all of them are to return to their own lives and never
to speak of their work at Bletchley and never to meet each other
again.
Now it's back in 1951 and Turing is done telling his life story to the
Investigator. The investigator is struck with disbelief. Turing on the
other hand is found guilty of participating in lewd behavior with a man.
Turing is given a choice between prison time and a chemical castration.
He chooses the latter. Now home and going through depression and the
after-affects of the chemical castration he is visited by Joan. She
offers to help but he refuses, when she insists he breaks down and
reveals to her that he's been incredibly lonely.
The film ends there. In the epilogue that follows we learn that Turing dies not much later due to an apparent suicide.
Also when a movie has lots of secret stuff at the end of it it all
inevitably ends up in smoke one way or another, right?
©TheWeinsteinCompany
An Incredible Story Condensed, Can It Be Good?
In one word? Yes. This was a very good movie. Cumberbatch delivered an
incredible performance as did everyone else but Cumberbatch is the
driving force. I may be parroting most of the reviews out there already
but I happily share them all. What's even more amazing is that this
movie was directed by a man who previously only directed one other movie
and even that was in Norwegian. This is his first English language
film. Take that into account and the fact that this movie is good enough
to earn praise and accolades from critics to being put on AFI's top ten
movies of 2014 really speaks to how well this movie was made.
Yes I know that there are critics and historians out there that lambaste this movies historical inaccuracies but on this I agree with what the screenwriter Graham Moore said during an interview with The Huffington Post; "When you use the language of 'fact checking' to talk about a film, I think you're sort of fundamentally misunderstanding how art works. You don't fact check Monet's 'Water Lilies'. That's not what water lilies look like, that's what the sensation of experiencing water lilies feel like. That's the goal of the piece." As well as what the director Morten Tyldum said in the same interview; "A lot of historical films sometimes feel like people reading a Wikipedia page to you onscreen, like just reciting 'and then he did that, and then he did that, and then he did this other thing' – it's like a 'Greatest Hits' compilation. We wanted the movie to be emotional and passionate. Our goal was to give you 'What does Alan Turing feel like?' What does his story feel like? What'd it feel like to be Alan Turing? Can we create the experience of sort of 'Alan Turing-ness' for an audience based on his life?"
And I think they succeeded in doing that. You're really drawn in to the
story. You may not have gotten the whole story or gotten it in the right
order with the right details but this medium is not the place for that.
For me when it comes to biopics like this what it should do is get you
interested in the story enough for you to begin to appreciate the person
and his works. And if that interest and appreciation gets you to read
up more on them and their work then the movie has done it's job. If
you're looking for historically accurate storytelling don't look for it
in the cinemas, go watch a National Geographic or Discovery Channel
documentary. A movie makers tasks is to tell a story as best as he can,
to keep you entertained and at the same time hopefully thinking as
well.
This movie was one of the best I've seen that came out in 2014 even if I only managed to watch it in 2015. I happily give this movie a solid 4 out of 5.
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