If the Commander knows anything at all, he knows what three ingredients are needed to win a war: Order, discipline, and chain of command. A prickly tension runs between Turing (played marvelously by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Commander Alastair Denniston (a chillingly effective Charles Dance). Within short order, Turing beat back the slower, less visionary thinkers on the team, and became its leader. Winston Churchill recognized the primacy of breaking Enigma, and spared no expense. Tipped off by the title itself, viewers might well have many engaging conversations with other filmgoers as to just what aspects of the theme they can discern, how many pieces of this intricate puzzle they are able to put into place. One could say that in-person interactive human communication is but an “imitation” of what is truly meant. Turing named his machine Christopher in his memory, the only object onto which he could project his enduring love.Įven as a schoolboy, Turing understands that people do not usually or entirely say what they mean when they speak, a thematic underpinning that declares itself throughout the narrative. This friend became, for Turing, a permanent obsession, long after Christopher’s early death. The two are especially drawn to codes and games, crossword puzzles and cryptograms, which become the primary vehicle of their embedded communication. The script by Graham Moore, based on Andrew Hodges’ biography Alan Turing: The Enigma, frequently touches on the dichotomous relationship between humans and machines, embodied first and foremost in the person of Turing, who is depicted from the outset as a socially clueless, inwardly focused deep thinker, an “odd duck,” someone who today would likely be viewed as being on the autistic spectrum, with a pronounced obsessive-compulsive personality.įlashbacks to Turing’s teenage school years at Sherborne (where some of the filming took place) show his budding relationship with fellow student Christopher, the only person who understood him and encouraged his special intelligence. Turing was convinced that “Only a machine could beat another machine.” Viewed in historical hindsight, “Turing’s machine” was in effect the invention of the modern-day computer. The Imitation Game is the enthralling story of an inspired, harassed and troubled genius, British mathematician Alan Turing, whose conquest of the “unbreakable” Nazi “Enigma” code ultimately led to the Allied victory in World War II.
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