English Literature - Film Review - The Imitation Game

 Charier Pierre-Yves 2nd 3                                                                        07/12/2015

Film Review n°5 (long n°3) :

The Imitation Game : (2014)

        Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game is a 2014 British-American historical film. The screenplay is written by Graham Moore and is an adaption of the biography Alan Turing : The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. The main character is Alan Turing since this is a biographical movie. Alan Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the British actor, known for instance for his role in 12 Years a Slave or the television series Sherlock on the BBC. He also played in War Horse as the soldier, first owner of Joey after Albert. He received several prizes and nominations for his performances. In 2014, Time magazine included him in its annual « Time 100 » as one of the "Most Influential People in the World". He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2015 for his services to the performing arts and to charity. The two other main figures of the film are Joan Clarke, played by the beautiful Keira Knigtley who also played in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and Hugh Alexander by Matthew Goode, a british actor as well, famous for his role in Stoker or in the television series Downton Abbey. Alan Turing 's story is one of a genius in mathematics, who was recruited, alongside other men (including Hugh Alexander and secretly Joan Clarke), to break the Enigma, a German machine used for all their communications during the Second World War which was reputed to be « unbreakable ». It was apparently not for Alan Turing and his colleagues !

What is interesting about the characters is how they continue to cling, to persevere to break Enigma, which was supposed to be unbreakable. The theme is extremely interesting because it is a historical story, breaking the Enigma was a substantial aid to the Allied war effort in WW2. The atmosphere is special because it is a film about the war but they're will not be any fights or guns. It is a passive way of fighting but efficient !

        For any normal human being, just hearing « Break the Enigma » would have rimed with impossible. But not for Alan Turing, which is astonishing because he believed in his success, from the beginning to the end. At the beginning, saying that Alan Turing appreciated his colleagues and was appreciated by them would have been a real lie but thanks to his relation with Joan, Alan learns to socialize and a strong link between all those geniuses really begins to be created. This link, later on, will « save » Turing's project when his superiors are disappointed by it's results and are about to fire him, Hugh and the others tell that if Commander Denniston fires Turing, they will all leave as well. It shows a certain unity in their group that may have led to their victory over Enigma ! A victory that links perfectly to the second theme since this victory over a machine led to the victory over a country.

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