The Imitation Game: My thoughts and feelings (Mild spoilers)
I got to see The Imitation Game a bit more than a week ago. Our writer Destiny has already written a great review, but I needed to share my thoughts and feelings with you. Because the film affected me deeply. After it ended I couldn’t form a coherent sentence for a good 10 minutes. It’s important to mention that I had been awake for 21 hours by that point. I had been sick on and off for 6 weeks before the screening and felt emotionally drained that night. This might explain why I had such a strong reaction to the film. I was pretty wired during the first 30 minutes of it. I guess the build up to seeing it had driven my expectations skyward and I was strangely nervous. At that moment I was so grateful for the lightness and humor Graham Moore has woven throughout his amazing script. There are loads of funny moments, many of them perfectly delivered by Benedict. Turing is an ‘odd duck’, as he says himself and his, at times, awkward social behavior leads to lovely comedic moments. Right from the start one thing becomes clear: You will fall in love with Alan Turing. You will cheer him on. And if you are familiar with his story, you know your heart will break for him. The fragility and warmth Benedict brings to this extraordinary character is incredibly touching. It is a joy to watch Alan and Joan become friends, because Alan deserves a friend who understands him.
To watch Turing and his team work on Enigma was exhilarating. You know they are going to succeed, but you’re still on the edge of your seat when they finally crack the code. But then, that’s out of the way. And I knew what was coming. I have worked my way through a couple of Turing biographies and therefore know what the government has done to this incredible human being. However, it’s one thing to read those things in the context of a biography. It’s quite another thing to see them play out on screen. At certain points of the film I started crying because I knew what was going to happen. And that these weren’t tragedies that happened to some fictional character. This was real life. Of course embellished in parts, but this is a Hollywood movie after all. So I watched as one blow after the other hit Turing. And then there were those last couple of scenes. Easily the best work Cumberbatch and Knightley do in the film (and that’s saying a lot, as they’re both excellent throughout). Alan breaks down and Joan comforts him. And in that moment, Keira Knightley speaks for all of us. She tells him how many lives he has saved, what he has done for humanity. She says the things none of us will ever be able to tell Alan Turing. Gratitude no one could ever really express as his work had to be kept secret for so long and because he has been destroyed by society. Benedict said that he couldn’t stop crying after one take of that scene. It’s easy to see why.
And the end of the film drives the point home one last time: Here is what that man did for us. Here is how we repaid him. The injustice of everything is bound to move you to tears. If you hadn’t been crying yet, you probably are now. After the film ended I remembered a scene from Doctor Who. Do you remember that episode where the Doctor and Amy take Van Gogh to a Van Gogh exhibition? Where this incredible artist, who suffered so much in his lifetime gets to see how much we celebrate and adore his work today? Yes, I would like a Tardis and whisk Alan Turing through time. Show him an iPad, the LGBT movement, how much of a hero he has become to many. Because we owe that man. Bless this wonderful film for finally telling a broad audience how incredibly much we owe this man.
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