The Imitation Game: A Social Injustice and Tragic End for an Unsung War Hero

I was fortunate enough to score a seat in the sold out viewing of The Imitation Game at the Memphis Indie Film Fest in November 2014. The film was a huge hit at the festival winning the Audience Choice Award for Narrative Feature, which it aptly deserved. This film has a powerful emotional impact and will stay with you for some time. It’s quite disturbing to think of the appalling manner that Turing was treated just for being himself. This story is one of gross injustice, and the film version comes at a ripe time in the fight for gay rights in the USA and all across the world. Benedict Cumberbatch has opened up about what drew him to this role saying that he wanted to bring Alan Turing’s life story to the attention of those that had no prior knowledge of his contribution to ending WWII early and saving millions of lives. He wanted the world to know this man and to know about the huge sacrifice Turning had to pay based on discrimination for being homosexual. Cumberbatch strongly supports gay rights, and the fact that he is a prominent and well respected actor in the industry today will bring a great deal of attention to this cause.

Many viewers of the film have stated that they had not heard of Turing prior to the trailer and promotion of the film. Turing’s machine was the first computer ever conceptualized and built. Simply put, technology today would not be the same had it not been for Turing, and our lives could possibly be very different from what we know today. It is infuriating to learn of the treatment Turing endured due to his sexual orientation. No individual should ever be demeaned and/or punished due to any differences they have from so called “normal” society. I’ve never bought into normalcy versus so called "deviant" behavior as a whole. There is too much focus on what people deem as "normal" or "abnormal." I don’t see the importance of such labels as they are often used to box people in to a category that will be oppressive and will exclude them from their rightful place in society. Luckily films addressing this very issue are starting to garner more and more attention at the box office and in independent film circles. This has been a very powerful year for films focusing on social equality and same sex marriage such as The Normal Heart, The Case Against 8 and Bridegroom. These films are showing the world just how similar the LGBTQ community is to every other member of the human race when it comes to relationships, love, families, hopes, and dreams. Films such as these are helping to increase compassion towards those that have been historically so mistreated and marginalized. 

The Imitation Game shines a light on how a very accomplished mathematician, genius, and certainly one of the greatest war heroes of WWII could be shunned from society, stripped of his dignity and denied the ability to continue his important work based solely on his sexual orientation, which society at the time deemed was abnormal and illegal. It’s uncomfortable and painful to witness on film but impossible to ignore going forward. My hope is that socially impactful films, such as this one, continue to be made year in and year out until the fight for equal rights is won for the entire LGBTQ community throughout the world.

Benedict Cumberbatch was the ideal fit for the British cyptanalyst, Alan Turing, as he so perfectly portrays the social awkwardness of this complex and tortured man. Cumberbatch appears to be drawn to social outcasts and misfits. Cumberbatch’s main claim to fame is the socially inept but deliciously brilliant and cunning Sherlock Holmes in the BBC version of Sherlock. Benedict expertly portrays Turing as a very emotionally void, intellectually intense and often obsessive genius. 

What he does so beautifully is walk the line of genius and obsession throughout the film, and he delivers a very intense and moving emotional performance towards the end of the film when we flash forward a few years after the chemical castration and observe Turing’s considerable emotional and physical deterioration. It’s heartbreaking to see the toll this “treatment” has taken on him and to see the devastating loss he has suffered from being forbidden to continue his work. Benedict’s emotional vulnerability was refreshing to see as he hasn’t displayed much emotion in his previous film/tv roles.

As the film shows, Turing works tirelessly and obsessively to build a machine to decrypt coded messages from the Nazi’s Enigma machine. Turing nicknames his machine Christopher, after a boy he befriends and has romantic feelings for in grade school who dies from tuberculosis at a very early age. It is very apparent that his relationship with Christopher and the loss of him had a profound and lasting impact on Turing throughout his life. 

Turing goes on to solve the Enigma code during WW II with the help of fellow code breakers. After hearing a secretary talking about details of messages she receives daily, Turing realizes he can program his machine to decode words that he knows already exist in certain messages. After he readjusts the machine, the code is broken; however, he soon realizes they can’t act on every decoded message or the Germans will know Enigma has been broken. Even though they can't act immediately to save lives, their work does end the war an estimated 2 years earlier than it would have had they not broken the code.

Turing was prosecuted later in life for homosexuality as it was illegal in Britain at the time. Turing was forced to choose between jail time or hormone “treatments.” He choose hormone “therapy” in lieu of a prison sentence.

After 1 year of taking the estrogen doses that they forced on him, they inserted an implant at the time that his sentence was up. Turing later removed the implant himself; however, the effects of the year of hormone treatments could not be reversed. Turing ended up taking his own life by eating a cyanide laced apple 2 weeks before his 42nd birthday. He was finally pardoned 59 years after his death.

The heartbreaking final scenes with Alan (Cumberbatch) and Joan (Knightley) are gut wrenching as we see the mental deterioration of Turing after having to undergo hormone treatment AKA chemical castration. It is emotionally crushing to imagine how many individuals over time faced the same injustice. There is an estimation of 49,000 men who faced the same punishment as Turing and that was just in Britain. Had Turing not been convicted of homosexual acts and had his sexuality not been known, he could have very easily been honored and revered as a hero during his lifetime. He could have continued to work, which was his life's passion. He showed potential for many other brilliant inventions that could have greatly impacted the world. Unfortunately, things ended very tragically for Turing as a result of his known homosexuality.

The film had very nice historical touches even choosing to film certain scenes at the real Bletchley Park, which was the home of the real codebreakers. The cast including Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, and Allen Leech all delivered solid and genuine performances.

Knightley finally brought warmth and compassion to one of her film roles. She has often been cold, distant and/or stoic in many of her past roles. However, in this portrayal of Joan Clark she offered compassion and understanding to Turing when no one else did. She encourages him to be himself no matter the cost. Knightley also delivers the best line of the film to Alan at the very end to offer emotional support, "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine."

You leave the film feeling as Gordon Brown publically stated in 2013, that Turing “deserved so much better.” It is appalling how Turing was treated for being the way that he naturally is. Turing seems tortured on many levels. He doesn’t connect to others easily, can’t read social cues and struggles with how much he can reveal about his sexuality even to those in his close inner circle of colleagues and Joan, whom he eventually asks to marry him just to keep her from having to leave the team at her parents bidding.

Throughout the course of the film, he seems both haunted and comforted by the memory of Christopher and even comes to have a strong connection/relationship and possible dependence on the machine he calls Christopher. He can’t bear to think of being parted from Christopher especially at the end of the film when it seems that Christopher is the only “friend” he has left in the world. It appears that he might not have the will to live if Christopher was taken away.

Turing was truly a pioneer in artificial intelligence. He undoubtedly changed the course of the war and the course of our lifestyle today. As we look around our daily environment we can still see his impact at every level of technology and convenient living. Kudos to the film for focusing on his accomplishments and celebrating his years of hard work cracking a once thought "uncrackable" Nazi code resulting in saving millions of lives.

The Imitation Game has been a very successful film and was the highest grossing independent film of 2014. As of the writing of this review (March 2015), the film has grossed over $180 million worldwide with just a $14 million production budget. It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Best Supporting Actress (Keira Knightley). The only Oscar taken home that night was for Graham Moore for Best Adapted Screenplay. The LGBT civil rights advocacy and political lobbying organization, the Human Rights Campaign, honored The Imitation Game for bringing Turing’s legacy to a wider audience.

The hope I have for this film is that it helps to contribute to the fight for equal rights for all. This film is already having a positive impact on that front. Cumberbatch along with Harvey Weinstein and others launched a campaign to pardon the 49,000 gay men convicted under the same law that led to Turing's chemical castration. Turing was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. The others were not. Sign the petition here if you support this cause. Sign Petition

Turing is considered the "Father of Theoretical Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence." Turing’s living family has endorsed Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Turing and stated that “the amount of knowledge he has about Alan is amazing.”

A Powerful, Moving and Emotionally Stirring Film, Socially Impactful 

5 out of 5 stars