Movie review: ‘The Imitation Game’ questions the meaning of being human

Whether we’d like to admit it or not, humanity has a nasty history - and tendency - of being particularly scornful of deviants. For example, when Galileo Galilei argued for heliocentrism in a Church-led society that believed the Earth to be the universe’s center, his works were banned and placed under house arrest.

This is also partly why bullying exists; it is the manifestation of humanity’s disdain for non-comformists and for things they cannot comprehend, on a much smaller and more personal scale. 

 

Thus, for a man like Alan Turing, life was perhaps anything but easy.

 

“The Imitation Game” recounts the story of Turing and his team’s successful attempt to break the Enigma code, the language used by Nazi Germany during the Second World War to send secret messages to their troops and catch the Allied guard by surprise. It is said that Turing’s work on the electromechanical decoding machine, known as the bombe, cut the war short by up to four years. The progress that Turing and his team made on cracking the Enigma code eventually led to the development of today’s computers.

 

“Are you paying attention?”

 

The film focuses on Turing’s life, shedding light on his personal affairs and painting the picture of a brilliant man who was severely mistreated by a society that had no idea how much it owed to him. Bullied and harassed as a child, hated by his colleagues, and persecuted by authorities because of his sexual preference, the movie version of Turing found the world around him more challenging to comprehend than even the most complex mathematical problems. 

 

It is difficult to think of a better actor to cast as Turing than the one who played him in the film. Benedict Cumberbatch has played reclusive geniuses (“Sherlock”) and secret government operatives (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) in the past, and combines the two tropes to breathe life into the role of a misunderstood genius who, despite his nearly absolute lack of empathy, still manages to be endearing and oddly likeable. Fellow cast members Keira Knightly and Matthew Goode put in stellar performances as Turing’s colleagues Joan Clarke and Hugh Alexander; however, the true star of this film is undeniably Cumberbatch, who brings great depth and complexity to such a talented yet tragic figure.

 

As it tells the story of Turing’s life - from bits of his schoolboy years to his last days -  “The Imitation Game” also illustrates the similarities and differences between man and machine, as well as how far one can cross the line before they become practically indistinguishable. A man of cold logic and ruthless efficiency, the film depicts Turing as a mathemagus who had no time for niceties, only seeing the practical applications of everything in his environment and being genuinely baffled when other people cannot seem to keep up. 

 

The question, of course, is this: Who was further away from being human - the emotionally distant Turing, who worked silently on building a machine that saved countless lives during wartime, or the rest of society, who mercilessly judged people who didn’t conform to their standards of normalcy and ostracized Turing for simply trying to be true to himself?

 

“The Imitation Game” is well worth the price of admission. It has all the right elements of a good film - an excellent cast, outstanding production values, a great musical score, and a story that tugs at the heartstrings and leaves you with something of worth after the credits roll. One can argue, of course, that the historical accuracy of the film is debatable.

Nevertheless, you really should go and see it - it’s the least we could do for the posthumously pardoned Turing, for without him, you probably would not even be reading this review today. — VC, GMA News