Grumpa Joe's Place

Whenever I have writer’s block I do a movie or book review. Last week, Peg and I went to the movie complex to see the Theory of Everything only to discover it was gone. We missed it, and now must wait until it comes out on DVD, or to On Demand. Instead we watched the Imitation Game. A thoroughly entertaining story about how the British broke the German message code during World War Two. The central character Alan Turing is a nerdy genius mathematician type who is gay. At the time Britain had very strict (and stupid I might add) laws on homosexuality. I’m convinced the British Secret Service knew of the Nerd’s sexual preference when they hired him, they chose to bury the fact and expunged his record of any reference to his gayety in the interest of National Security. To make a long story short, the nerdy genius mathematician solves the secret of the German Enigma codifier, and invents the computer in the process. Long after the war, a detective goes to look for evidence on the Nerd to say he is gay. He suspects the man is, but can’t prove it because Turing’s military file is empty.

The detective did as all good detectives do, he stayed with the case until he found the evidence he needed to arrest the Nerd. The sad end to this movie is that the man responsible for saving England from losing to the Germans and for saving an estimated fourteen million lives was convicted of being gay. Turing faced a long prison sentence or a long hormonal treatment. Which do you think he chose? Now, I am not a pro-gay person by any means, but I do believe that people have a right to choose how they want to live. It just seemed sad to me that the Nerd didn’t get any slack from the English system. Had he lived in the USA our President Obama would have hung the Medal of Honor around his neck, and directed Arnie Duncan to include gayness in social studies text books in grades K through 12. At the same time, he wold have directed Eric Holder to ignore all laws ever written, including the bible, about gayness.

Benedict Cumberbatch who played the Nerd did an excellent job of making me believe he was gay, a nerd, a mathematical genius, and weird person.  Kiera Knightly played an equally genius mathematician type, but was not in the least nerdy or weird. She played the role delightfully. The British Secret Service guys were excellent bad-good guys who keep the pressure on Turing throughout the story.

This is a good true story, based on historical facts. Go see it.

Filed under: Education, family, Government, Movie Review | Tagged: Alan Turing, Enigma, Gay, German Code, WWII | Leave a comment »