Review of The Imitation Game (2014) by Shpostal — 20 Feb 2015

Amid all the fuss and fury for the movie "American Sniper", there is a WWII era movie about a hero who saved lives by estimates as high as 14 million souls, as opposed to racking up bodies and earning the dubious applause of redneck gun nuts. "The Imitation Game" is the story of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician who almost singlehandedly broke the infamous Nazi Enigma code, and thus helped thwart attacks on military and civilian shipping and important continental battles.

While the Polish initially set the groundwork for the code breaking with a machine called the "bombe", Turing advanced on the design and tragically had to remain anonymous, along with his team for security reasons. Benedict Cumberbatch turns in a great performance as Turing, an egotistical anti-social professor and closet homosexual, which in Britain at that time could result in prison.

While historical purists chafe at the nit picking details, it's still a very compelling, intelligent movie that grips you from the start and brings the accomplishments of Turing's work into fresh focus. He tragically died of what is considered suicide by cyanide, although some think it could have been an accident during one of his experiments when he inhaled cyanide fumes while working on a project.

He was found guilty of homosexual behavior and ordered to undergo inhumane drug therapy that was designed to basically destroy his sex drive and chemically castrate him.

In death though Turing was finally accorded the hero's acclaim he deserved, and today is considered one of the first great pioneers of the modern computer.

"The Imitation Game" is a brilliant film, and a great relief from the load of hit movies out there right now.