"We're going to break an unbreakable Nazi code and win the war."
Hello everyone!
Don't get me wrong.
I admire Eddie Redmayne for what he did with the role he was given and the Oscar was absolutely deserving. But I've been a Benedict Cumberbatch fan for quite some time now I think; I definitely consider myself part of the CumberCollective!
And so when the first teaser image of The Imitation Game was released, I practically jumped around pumping the air with my fists in glee. Because, not only was it Cumberbatch, BUT it was about a topic I'm hugely interested in despite the political debates it can spawn. AND on top of it all, it's about the Enigma!
Okay, okay.
I will admit; this chapter in history stuck with me because it's fairly recent, my family does have connections with it, and also, because I had an amazing history professor in high school who could really make you love just about anything, if you were into history that is.
The one thing I vividly remember is the sentence 'Climb Mount Niitaka', which translates into the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and has nothing whatsoever with this movie - except for the fact that it's a code, and the Enigma machine was obviously used to break codes.
Back to the actual blog topic.
The Imitation Game opens AFTER World War II has already concluded, when police bring Alan Turing in for questioning, and we're not entirely sure what this is all about, to begin with. One detective, however, is persistent, and eventually manages to make Turing tell him about his time during the war - which is how we are introduced to the story.
Basically, the movie is about cracking the Enigma machine which as the biggest threat for the allies because Germans could send cryptic messages that meant nothing if the receiving Enigma wasn't callibrated with the proper code to receive them. Ergo, lots of lives lost.
Turing joins a group of other cryptologists who's sole role is to break the machine's code and thus enable the allies to intercept and read the messages.
Turing develops a machine named Christopher, which is supposed to help them, but it takes a while before they actually get around to making it right. Human and technical errors stand in the way, but the drama is certainly backdropped against the ongoing disaster of the war and it just makes everything nerve-wrecking!
Basically, Turing was lonely and bullied as a child at school, but his only friend Christopher was a great solace, and he actually fell in love with him, although poor Christopher dies during one holiday, leaving the boy bereft and even lonelier. Hence the machine's name, really.
Finally, as a complete fluke, Turing and the others realize how to crack the code, and all of a sudden, they know every single plan the Germans have made for the war.
Result?
They are now in project 'Ultra', so hidden and so dark that not even the war leaders know about it; they will only release information on rare occasions, not always, so the Germans don't realize their code machine has been broken.
It sounds completely insane on one hand, and totally rational on the other, and I was debating tearing my hair out or crying. I did a bit of both, I think.
There is a side plot with a Soviet spy in the ranks as well, but that one isn't as important compared to the real shadow over the whole movie: the fact that Alan Turing is homosexual.
Now, okay, in this day and age, that isn't punishable by law anymore. Back then, however, it was, and we get to see precisely what happens when, back in actual time in 1951, Turing is found guilty of this charge. They put him on hormonal treatment, and I swear I cried buckets over Cumberbatch's performance when Keira Knightley's Joan (his former fiancée, actually, in the movie) visits and sees what he's been reduced to.
Turing commited suicide soon after, and has only recently been granted a royal pardon, and by recent I mean in 2013!!
It makes you think, doesn't it?
xx
*images and video not mine
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