Great film

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2015)

Aside from the Nazis, according to this film, code breaking genius Alan Turing also had to fight his fellow Brits during World War II. Some of his colleagues and authorities not only persecuted him for being gay, but accused him of being a spy, were jealous of him, bullied him and had little faith in his admittedly outlandish plan to build a computer that would break the Nazis' crack, intricate mode of communications, the Enigma machine. As the actor playing Turing, Benedict Cumberbatch brings enormous compassion and empathy to his role: the gist is that Turing is a absolute genius and yet ironically he cannot communicate, or get on with his colleagues at the top secret Bletchley Park intelligence centre. It almost spells disaster for the Enigma project, and it adds a lot of tension to the film. It's very insightful for the scriptwriters to portray how Turing's good friend, fellow cryptographer Joan Clark, was a social code breaker for Turing. Clark, played by Keira Knightley, tells Turing that he won't achieve what he's aiming for in the project if the other team members don't like him, given how he often dismisses them as beneath him, and doesn't make an effort to socialise. The film is also brilliant at exploring themes such as how prejudice, for example against gays, is so brainless - think of the mind-blowing contributions Turing could have made to society, after the war, had he not been driven to severe depression and suicide by homophobic individuals and by a hostile community. The investigators who investigate Turing for homosexuality, which was then a crime, are like a cancer in threatening his existence. Though it may be grotesquely too late today, at least Turing is being recognised in this film for playing a big part in de-coding the messages that the Germans used to broadcast their military moves in WWII. An incredible feat. The excellent scenes of Alan as a boy being bullied at school for being a geek show how people who were shocking misfits can go on to be brilliant adults, because later in life their 'odd' interests and behaviour are an asset in their careers as entrepreneurs or inventors or intellectuals. This film obviously takes poetic licence and viewers have pointed out quite a few bendings of the facts. But overall it's a good hearted and entertaining film.