*****
During the Second World War, the
Nazis communicated via Enigma, a seemingly impossible code that was changed
every day at midnight. Desperate to break the code and win the war, the
government established a top-secret programme at Bletchley Park, hiring the
best cryptographers, mathematicians and analytical minds in the country.
Amongst the recruits was Alan Turing, a man with as many secrets as the Nazi
code…
Set out over three timeframes,
Tyldum’s biopic details the remarkable life of Alan Turing (Benedict
Cumberbatch), from love-struck schoolboy, to cryptographer, to ‘criminal’. The
majority of the tale is set during the Second World War, but perhaps the most
affecting pieces are the stories of Turing’s life away from Bletchley Park and
the work he did there. The performances are ubiquitously excellent, with Cumberbatch
leading a pack of veterans and up-and-coming British acting talent, including
relative newcomer Alex Lawther as schoolboy Turing. Charles Dance and Mark
Strong steal every scene they are in, adding humour to what is essentially a
very heartbreaking story, whilst Kiera Knightley blossoms as Joan Clarke, the
only female cryptographer in the team, and Turing’s closest friend. Rory
Kinnear, painfully overlooked and underused in cinema and TV, plays a detective
in 1951, who inadvertently exposes Turing’s homosexuality after suspecting he
is a Russian spy, and it is he, like we as viewers, who must listen to Turing’s
story and ‘judge’ him. The film doesn’t set out to accuse anyone of the
treatment that Turing faced because of his sexuality, instead remaining
remarkably free of judgment, almost resigned in the way that Turing is portrayed
to be towards his ‘cure’. It made me infuriated to think that this man, who saved
hundreds of lives, was effectively bullied by a government that he had worked
with to win the war. Why had no one helped him? Cumberbatch plays Turing as
someone who isn’t ashamed of his sexuality, instead rather accepting of his
position and his inevitable persecution, and it is just heartbreaking to think
that worldwide, people are still denied opportunities and treated appallingly
because of who they happen to love.
Pretty early on in the film, it
becomes apparent that we will not be seeing much of the science behind the creation
of Turing’s machine, as Morten Tyldum chooses to make the film more of a
character study of Turing himself. Although the film is undoubtedly brilliant,
I felt that a more scientific angle would have been beneficial: being a mere
English graduate I cannot comprehend quite how someone could create a machine
that could decode another. Possibly this angle was left out so that it would
appeal to a greater audience, but if Christopher Nolan’s work is anything to go
by, viewers are more intelligent than distributors suspect. Similarly, I couldn’t
help feeling that some aspects of the story were the result of dramatic
license, such as the moment when a team member discovers they have the
opportunity to save his brother – this just seemed like a blatantly obvious attempt
to emotionally engage the audience and, although it worked, I felt a little
manipulated. I also would have liked a longer and more philosophical discussion
about their role of ‘playing God’, and perhaps factoids about the lives of the
rest of the Enigma-team before the credits, but these are only minor issues
when viewed alongside the film as a whole.
An obvious Oscar-contender, this
is a sensitive and eloquent story of a war hero punished by the society he
worked to protect because of his sexuality. Cumberbatch is heartbreakingly good
as Turing, a man ahead of his time and only recently pardoned, and I hope that
this film will educate everyone who ventures to see it: it will make you angry;
it will make you sad; it will make you laugh and cry; but most importantly it
brings to life the story of a life, indeed a team, overlooked.
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