“Are you paying attention? Good. If you are not listening carefully, you will miss things. Important things. I will not pause, I will not repeat myself, and you will not interrupt me. . .You will listen closely, and you will not judge me until I am finished. If you cannot commit to this, then please leave the room. But if you choose to stay, remember you chose to be here. What happens from this moment forward is not my responsibility. It’s yours. Pay attention.” –Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Oscar nominee for best motion picture The Imitation Game was released December 25, 2014. Director Morten Tyldum, delivers a heart-wrenching WWII story. The dialogue, written by Graham Moore, is delivered perfectly by the leading actors, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Keira Knightley. To most who do not know about genius Alan Turing, the revelation of this story is shocking. This man did so much to break the Enigma machine’s code, but, because of the time period,  he was ultimately seen as a dangerous homosexual.

The film illustrates that when Turing was a child (Alex Lawther), he was bullied at school and had only one friend, Christopher Morcom (Jack Bannon). As an adult, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been selected, to crack the code along with the other “best minds Britain has to offer,” including John Cairncross (Allen Leech), a man that becomes Alan’s only friend in the group, Peter Hilton (Matthew Beard), Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode), and Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley). Alexander is elected first to lead the group, but Turing soon takes his place, creating a rift between the two. The team then tries to decipher the Enigma code, which, at the time, was considered impossible.

Mrs. Natalie Rebetsky stated, “It is surprising that a man who had so little social skill, was so rude, and focused only on his invention, ‘Christopher,’ could be such a hero; this is because of Cumberbatch’s skill as an actor.”

The relationship between Alan Turing and Joan Clarke is incredibly interesting. When they first began working on the code, Clarke was not accepted in the group since she was a woman; so Turing secretly helped her into the group. Soon Clarke’s parents urge her to come home. To keep her working with the team, Turing proposes.

Later Turing is struggling with hiding the fact that he is a homosexual, and he tells Clarke about it. Clarke, however, still wants to marry him. Turing then tells her that he never cared for her, and they break up. I believe that Turing truly did care about her and was purely doing this so Clarke could be happier in her future. Turing didn’t feel that he was good enough for Clarke and was letting her go.  The relationship between the two is an interesting  part of the plot.

Both Turing and Clarke must work against the discrimination of the time period.

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” –Christopher Morcom (Jack Bannon).

This line becomes a mantra through the movie, and it summarizes its main theme perfectly. The theme applies to both Alan Turing and Joan Clarke; both of them were overlooked because of the expectations of 1940s England. However, they were both geniuses who rose above and put their own needs aside to solve the code.

In my opinion, The Imitation Game was phenomenal. The acting was outstanding. Every shot seemed to capture both the sadness and the joy of working for a greater cause. Each part of the movie posed an ethical question. It was both tragic and uplifting. I learned much from this movie, not just about Turing, but about WWII as a whole. I learned about the stress it put on the English to work against time to beat the Russians and the workings of the action behind the scenes.

“Now you decide am I a machine, am I a human, am I a war hero, or am I a criminal.” –Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch).

I think that we can all agree, Alan Turing is a hero.