Black Bear Pictures, Bristol Automotive,
Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech , Matthew Beard, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, James Northcote, Tom Goodman-Hill
The true story of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is as much responsible for today’s computers as anyone else, but who was never credited for his discoveries because of the top secret world he lived in. When we heard of James Bond, we learned that he worked for MI6, a top secret level of British security forces. Well there were only MI1 through MI5 that was known, but there was an MI6 that Ian Flemming wrote his novels about. Alan Turing was part of that. He was a mathematical genius, only in his 20’s yet a professor and a very strange fellow. Chosen for his ability to solve puzzles, he was recruited into MI6 to find a solution to the infamous German Enigma code machine. The British had recovered a machine, but it was worthless to them as the Germans changed the key code every day, and there were thousands of millions of possible combinations. Alan and his team worked on trying to crack the code using a smart machine. But far more than that, we follow Alan’s life as a young man, though his efforts to crack the code, and through a third time in his life when he was arrested for what you can hardly believe and punished for not doing anything at all. This is a thrilling adventure through the real life events based upon his autobiography.
Wow, this was a good week for DVD releases. This is another great film. It’s I guess what you would call a docu-drama since it’s acted by some excellent people, but this is truly Benedict Cumberbatch’s movie. I don’t know that anyone else could have pulled this off, and he did an excellent job (even if you ask Alan’s family), and I learned a great deal about WWII from this film. I also took the time to listen to the director and writer commentary after watching the film through, and I enjoyed the extra time learning more about the efforts they went through to make this film realistic. There were so many things I never knew that I picked up from this film. Historical dramas can be boring and tedious to sit through, but this is such a good mystery, and we, as an audience, get to participate in Alan’s team to try to solve the puzzle. And after they built this amazing machine, you won’t believe how they used it, and what happened to this miraculous discovery at the end of the war. This is well worth watching, and I highly recommend this movie since it is now available on DVD. It’s likely one you missed, but with the attention throughout the awards season this year, this is one you need to see.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
