The Imitation Game (2014)

The Imitation Game was largely based on the biography Alan Turing: The

Enigma, much of Alan Turing’s life is shrouded in mystery. Turing, played by Benedict

Cumberbatch in the film, is credited as the father of computer science. He cracked

codes produced by the German military’s seemingly unbreakable Enigma machine

during World War II using math, engineering and still-to-be-invented computer science.

But most of the documents tracing his work for the British government have been

destroyed and little is known about Turing’s personal life.

Alexander and the others have no success in decrypting the German cipher

machine, a task made very difficult because the codes are changed every 24 hours.

Turing, after much thought and experimentation, decides that the best approach is to

build a machine that can beat the Enigma machine at its own game. When the Navy

Commander refuses to take him seriously, Turing sends a letter to Winston Churchill

who puts him in charge of the project much to the dismay of skeptical Commander

Denniston (Charles Dance).  Once in charge, Turing seeks the aid of brighter recruits

and hires Joan Clarke to assist in his master plan: to construct his own “thinking”

machine to combat the deviously intricate German cipher.  But breaking Enigma is just

the beginning of Turing’s battles, as secrets from his personal life threaten to destroy his

relationships and his career.

 The most interesting thing about the struggle to unravel the Enigma code is not

the technological process itself. Given all the tension, frustrations, and battles with his

superiors, it's an exhilarating moment when Turing triumphs by busting the Enigma

code. But, much to the team's distress, they realize that they will have to keep their

accomplishment secret, lest the Germans immediately switch to another system.

Instead, the most engrossing idea is that once the code is disentangled, it can’t be used

to immediately save individuals, lest it be determined by the enemy that Enigma was

compromised. Once again resorting to statistics, inhuman (and possibly cruel) choices

must be made to select only specific battles for intervention and seemingly random bits

of information to be passed on to allies. The revelation that thousands of innocent

people had to be sacrificed in order to shorten the war and potentially save millions of

lives is a very weighty concept indeed. The film entrancingly points out the

unimaginable power and influence of military intel and its comrade, counterintelligence.

A final secret that proves to be most painful is Turing's homosexuality, which is

illegal in England at the time. In 1952, he is arrested by the police and convicted of

gross indecency. Instead of going to prison and abandoning his work, he opts for a form

of chemical castration, which has dire effects on his mind and body.

We learn from end notes on the screen that this genius who ushered in the dawn

of the computer age committed suicide in 1954. His strange life was riddled with cover-

ups and concealments. Through his story we gain more understanding of the biggest

secret of all — the secret of what it means to be human.

 "I not only have my secrets. I am my secrets. And you are your secrets. Our

secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each

other has much to do with the secret of what it is to be human."

— Frederick Buechner

We live in a culture that is ambivalent about secrecy: on the one hand, there is

the widespread feeling that we have a right to secrecy and when that right is attacked

by government, institutions, or corporations, we get very upset. On the other hand, most

of us have little patience or toleration for kith and kin who keep secrets from us. The

Imitation Game explores the many different kinds of secrecy in the strange and exotic

life of a mathematical genius and hero of World War II, Alan Turing. As this

mesmerizing movie reveals, secrets permeate society and have the power to unite

people — and to divide them.