World War II is one of the biggest events that has occurred in recent history. The war wasn’t even a century ago, and the effects from the events can still be felt today. If you ask anyone what the most important historical events of the century are, many would say World War II. The whole world went through a paradigm shift after the war. Many allegiances between countries changed after, leading to new bonds and some old ones that were lost. These countries even worked hard to implement programs and elements into our society that would make sure that a full scale world war would never happen again. Many took part in all sides of the equation during those seven gruelling years. Some of those names were not remembered the same way though. I was never aware of the work of Alan Turing until the year 2014. A little film called “The Imitation Game” was released in theatres directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore. The film’s cast was stacked including Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance and Mark Strong to name a few. The film premiered at both Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival that year to great reviews. The film ended up releasing on Christmas day nationwide. Those elements peaked my interest but what made me actually check out the film when it initially came out was the eight nominations it got at that year’s academy awards including Best Picture, Screenplay, Supporting Actress, Directing, Editing, Score, Production Design, and led to a Best Actor win for Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. The fact that this film was able to achieve that amount of critical respect from those who are seen as the top influences in the industry was something that made me finally check the film out and I was definitely impressed with what I saw.
The Imitation Game follows Alan Turing, an english mathematical genius who helps the allies crack secret German codes that are being sent through morse code during World War II. The film also takes a look at his private life where he was a closeted gay man who struggled with keeping everything in his life balanced. The film is a standard biopic style as it follows Turing from when he began his interest in his chosen field to his tragic death in 1954. It mostly looks at Turing’s life during World War II as he’s helping the allies win the war while he’s also dealing with the internal conflict of helping out a society that doesn’t respect him as a human being because of his sexuality. He wants to fight for his country and the safety of others but also struggles with the fact that those that he’s fighting for might not fight for him if they knew who he truly was.
The film contains some stellar performances, specifically the lead performance of Alan Turing played by Benedict Cumberbatch. This film was one that shined during the awards season of its year in many ways, but acting was the stand out. This is proven through the fact that the film got two acting nominations at the oscars. Benedict Cumberbatch is a fantastic actor and he proves his strength and versatility through this performance as Alan Turing. He’s able to show the internal and external components that made Alan Turing who he was excellently. Kiera Knightley is also great in this film and she definitely deserved the nomination that she received at the Academy Awards. Her role as Joan Clarke, a fellow code breaker for the allies was as well representative of Joan’s internal and external nature as a person as Cumberbatch was as Turing. The film was filled with many more performances that were notable for acclaim including Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander, Rory Kinnear as Detective Robert Nock and Charles Dance as Commander Denniston. The acting across the board is fantastic.
The script of this film is also a high point. They were even nominated for it at the Academy Awards. The film has a nice flow to it and the dialogue feels very natural from each character. The one scene that is a standout for this film is when he finally cracks the code. The way that it’s written, you feel this excitement for the character finally achieving the hard goal. I would also say that this scene is probably the climax of the film as the main conflict of the film is finally solved, Alan Turing has solved the german code. The script is written with such quality that I understand why it was nominated in the first place.
The score is also a notable part of the film as it’s written by Alexandre Desplat who also compose such notable as Little Women, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr Fox and Gulliermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. He has proven through his career that when given an assignment, he understands what needs to be presented thoroughly. The musical elements that he implements add to the film as a whole and elevate the film as a whole. He brings both the triumph and the drama of this story into his music and it really strengthens the film. Alexandre Desplat is a fantastic composer and he definitely proves it through this score.
The attention to detail in the production design is also very striking in this film as it’s a period piece, so they had to make it look historically accurate. The team did a great job achieving that.
This film also does a great job analyzing the workplace at that period in time and the dynamics that were created because of the circumstances. Alan Turing in many ways was a rebellious individual. His whole job was to try to find new techniques to crack the german code, leading to him doing some unconventional things to get what he was after. He also has that element of himself that was rebellious in terms of his sexuality. It wasn’t respected and also illegal to be gay at that period of time. That led to Turing having a very professional persona at work while he lived his true self outside of the workplace. The film definitely looks into that concept specifically, the idea of changing yourself or becoming someone else at work to fit their perceptions. Pretending to be a completely different person at work because you wouldn’t be looked at favourably at work if you were yourself. Alan Turing had to conform with the world around him because the world wasn’t accepting of him fully. The world around him wasn’t ready or didn’t want to be ready for new concepts in terms of sexuality and gender. This is also present with the way that Kiera Knightley’s character is treated by some. Her character is in a line of work that was commonly associated with men. It was still a time in history where men didn’t really think women could do “smart jobs” and that they only needed to be wives. By being a code cracker, her character breaks gender conformities that were very present at the time and pushed the narrative in a good direction.
This film being historical and based on a true story is very important as it shows how a woman and a gay man helped push history in a good direction and helped open the door for others in their respective communities. Seeing a film where a gay man and a woman help win the war will definitely help those find acceptance in themselves as they will realize that smart women and LGBTQ individuals have always existed despite the fact that people in history were trying to erase them.
This film has stakes its claim in the history of cinema, especially because of the fact that they were nominated for Eight Academy Awards. The film also was able to showcase the legacy of two individuals, a woman and a gay man who helped end the war and push our world into a good direction. Because of the film’s achievements in many elements of filmmaking, we were able to get a story about two inspiring individuals that we might have not gotten if people didn’t care about these individuals’ legacies enough to give them a very impressive film. The Imitation Game is one of the films in Academy Awards history that I understand why they got the nominations that they did. Some movies get nominated and it’s shocking to me how they were held as highly as they were, but this is not one of them. The Imitation Game is a fantastic Queer biopic that everyone should check out.
The Rating
Comments