When in war, we usually notice and remark the soldiers and leaders because they are something we actually know and can see. They are reachable, touchable, not instantly and absolutely beyond our comprehension. So, leaders are leading soldiers, but who is leading leaders? The main key of control is the key ordinary people cannot know and see. It is top secret, dangerous but still so fascinating. It definitely is beyond our comprehension.
Nowadays we all are aware of the form of war – it is global, as everything else in this century. In the time of World War II the form of war differed much from today. The electronical way of going war had not taken its first steps then. So the movie (based on real events) is about those first steps as an asocial mathematician Alan Turning is trying to break the Enigma machine which the Nazis send their coded messages.
Watching the not-so-social mathematician trying to work together with his team was everything but boring. I actually found it very interesting. He really weren’t sure what you are supposed to say and how to react in social situations. At first I was convinced him to be an Asperger or something but then I changed my mind. What if the extremely clever persons just act differently compared to the ordinary ones? The mathematician having some neurological syndrome was not an obvious thing to me anymore.
What is the problem, then? I mean, why would a genius mathematician need social skills? The thing is that trying to achieve the goal as a team is quite pointless if the leader of the team has very poor social skills. You need to do co-operation to solve the problems and to do work together, not someone who is just playing his solo.
The questions of society are well represented in two areas. The first one is the dismissive attitude towards the more beautiful sex – the scene where a female work applier is almost forbidden from applying for the mission because of her sex took my very notice. The old gender roles were essential part of controlling the behaviour. The second one is homosexuality being illegal at that time and so the main character is forced into hormonal therapy in medical treatment because of his sexuality. I think the movie lightens how hard it must have been to live as a homosexual person.
Cumberbatch’s acting as Alan Turning made a real impression on me. His gestures were kind of puzzled but still insensitive at the same time which fitted perfectly the characteristics you should expect an asocial mathematician to have.
I am not an aficionado of this kind of movie genre but the reason why I liked The Imitation Game so much was because of its deeper thoughts placed within the flickering scenes of action and thrill. There are wonderings about the nature of humankind. The scene in which young Turning is almost buried alive by his fellows made me feel sick with its cruelty. When having been hit and bullied, you would be expected to become a pacifist or something but later it happens Turning to be holding they key of control in the war. That very scene summarized the war – where human, always violence.