Code Game

The Imitation Game

I am not completely sure why it has taken so long for people to start recognizing other types of heroes from World War II. We have been graced with inspiring movies about Oscar Schindler, Wladyslaw Szpilman, and the brave men of the 101^st Airborne. These movies gave audiences around the world a look at beauty in a dark time in our world’s history. This year we are given another true story about a British hero that did the impossible. Staring Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Keira Knightley (Anna Karenina), The Imitation Game takes a look at a mathematician who was a major aide for the Allies during World War II.

During World War II, Nazi Germany held in their possession a cryptograph machine aptly named Enigma. This machine encrypted communications for the Nazi army all over Europe. British SIS and MI-6 had been intercepting these messages since 1939 and had a lot of trouble decoding them. That same year, MI-6 and the British Army decided to hire some of the smartest men in England to try and crack the Enigma machine so that they may defeat the Nazis. One such man that they hired was Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), an eccentric mathematician. While employed for the British Army and MI-6, Turing was able to devise a machine that could identify patterns within the communications and decipher the Enigma machine. This device would later become what we know as a computer.

This is a very interesting movie, especially for me because of how very intrigued I am by the spy-like side of World War II. These government secrets were only very recently released, so it is interesting to see what was going on behind the scenes of some of the greatest battles of World War II. I will admit that there are some things of the movie that I think they could have done without, but the acting really did make up for some of those things.

Benedict Cumberbatch is magnificent as Turing. Cumberbatch has become one of my favorite actors just by his ability to engross himself into every character. I loved his take as Khan in Star Trek and in this film he is amazing. Cumberbatch portrays Turing, a brilliant man that has not mental filter for what he says. His genius almost gives him a pass for being a jerk, but the way Cumberbatch plays this jerk, you start to feel sympathy for him. Knightly plays Joan Clarke, a woman who impresses Turing so much that he recruits her to help him. Knightly gives Clarke a real empathetic vibe toward Turing. Clarke is the only person in the film that seems to really understand Turing and his idiosyncrasy. Knightly portrays this very well and does it with a very tangible sweetness.

The director for this historical thriller is Morten Tyldum (Headhunters). Making his English language debut with Imitation, Tyldum does a great job capturing the quirkiness of Turing but more importantly the James Bond-like essence of the film. Tyldum gives the film a very spy movie tone. I predict that we will see more of Morten Tyldum.

The things that I thought that The Imitation Game could have done without is Turing’s sexuality. Turing was a homosexual and was convicted of indecency by British laws of 1952. Due to his conviction, Turing elected to be chemically castrated instead of jail time. Queen Elizabeth II posthumously pardoned him because of all the remarkable work he had done during World War II. The film touches on these subjects, but never really goes anywhere with them and almost uses these facts as an afterthought of who Turing was. Turing’s homosexuality did not aide him in cracking the Enigma machine or help save millions of lives during the War. I personally don’t care that he was gay and I don’t think that should have any impact on his accomplishments. So why did this film feel the need to add that part of his personal life? This is the only problem that I had with the movie. The film basically told me that Turing and his team were able to crack an un-crackable code and by the way Turing was gay.

For those of you, like me, that like World War II films that give us a look at unsung heroes of the War, than please give The Imitation Game a view. The film gives great insight into the secret goes on of the British government and the beginnings of what every one of us use on a daily basis…the computer.

The Verdict: Worth Your Time