Morten Tyldum’s THE IMITATION GAME

Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

Occasionally a popular culture artifact comes along that reminds us that the people we revere as heroes were actually human beings.  No matter how important or significant they are they still put their pants on one leg of a time and still had to deal with the times in which they lived.

THE IMITATION GAME is an example.  The focus is Alan Turing, the 20th century intellectual icon whose importance is now for many comparable to Newton’s and Einstein’s. We get to see him in action, warts and all.  We also witness the human impacts of officially sanctioned homophobia and “red scare” fears.

The casting and production values of this movie could not be better.  We’re embedded in wartime London and Bletchley Park.  The intellectual action at play is nicely presented.  It’s necessarily oversimplified but the basic facts are true: Turing’s team did break Enigma, they did have to deal with how to prevent the Axis from catching on to them, and Ultra did seriously advance the Allies’ war effort.  Plus the groundwork was laid for computers and programming.  All true. 

But all very sad.  Turing took his life after years of persecution.  I suppose we can draw some parallels to Oppenheimer’s treatment in the U.S. 

The Imitation Game might oversimplify at times but it does represent the work of real people and that’s a good thing for modern audiences to see.

Related reading:

• When ColdWar Was Winding Down, Could Soviet Defense Establishment Have Maintained Secrecy If SocialMedia Had Been Available?
• Comparing Eras of Innovation: 1950’s Aerospace Advances and Today’s Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 and the ManhattanProject
• Boris Chertok’s ROCKETS AND PEOPLE VOLUME 3: HOT DAYS OF THE COLD WAR
• Jim Baggott: THE FIRST WAR OF PHYSICS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC BOMB, 1939-1949
• Stephen Budiansky’s BLACKETT’S WAR: THE MEN WHO DEFEATED THE NAZI U-BOATS AND BROUGHT SCIENCE TO THE ART OF WARFARE
• David E. Hoffman’s THE DEAD HAND: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE COLD WAR ARMS RACE AND ITS DANGEROUS LEGACY
• Andrew Williams’ THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
• Richard Rhodes’ DARK SUN: THE MAKING OF THE HYDROGEN BOMB

Movie review copyright © 2015 by Dennis D. McDonald