IMITATION GAME Flashcards
INTRODUCTION 1A
“The Imitation Game” directed by Morten Tyldum, …
“The Imitation Game” directed by Morten Tyldum, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing and Keira Knightly as Joan Clark, is the story of the war hero Alan Turing and his mission of decoding the enigma code to help win the Second World War for the allies.
INTRODUCTION 1B
At the start of the film, Alan is immediately unlikeable to the viewer…
At the start of the film, Alan is immediately unlikeable to the viewer. However, as the film progresses and his character develops, the viewer slowly realises why Alan is the way he is, and this helps the reader feel sympathy for him. It is through clever characterisation, camerawork and music that the viewer feels engaged in his change.
PARAGRAPH 2
When the police officers enter his house and introduce themselves …
- Alan extremely rude awkwardness and arrogant person.
- Shown in the opening scenes, Alan’s house has been robbed and two police officers are investigating.
When the police officers enter his house and introduce themselves, there is a close up of Alan as he looks detective Knox up and down and says:
“… disappointing.”
Alan chooses to insult the officer on his appearance. This shows that Alan has little respect for others and is judgemental.
- Viewer understands that Alan is a man that does not consider other people’s feelings and will say whatever comes into his mind.
- The viewer does not instantly like the main protagonist of the film, which is unusual.
PARAGRAPH 3
In the scene when Alan finds out he is going to have to work with others …
- Viewer gets sense of his arrogance at the start of the film.
- Alan has been hired by Commander Dennistoun to join the team of codebreakers.
In the scene when Alan finds out he is going to have to work with others, and not alone as he wanted, he says:
“I’m afraid these men will only slow me down.”
Despite these people being just as clever as he is, he shows his arrogance by thinking he is better and smarter than everyone else.
- The wide shot separates Alan from the rest of the codebreakers, who are all grouped together.
- This is symbolic as it shows that at this point Alan is an outsider by choice.
- He is a difficult character to warm to and it is only when his past is revealed later on in the film that the viewer begins to feel sympathy for him.
PARAGRAPH 4A
When Alan becomes head of the Enigma unit …
- Further into the film we begin to understand why Alan is the way that he is.
- There is a turning point in how the viewer feels about him.
When Alan becomes head of the Enigma unit, he fires two code breakers. The head of MI6 responds by saying to Alan:
“Popular at school were you?”
This starts a flashback on screen of Alan at school. The flashback shows Alan being bullied at school, with him trapped under the floorboards.
- He is in complete darkness, apart from the tiny specks of light coming through the floorboards.
PARAGRAPH 4B
A voiceover from the adult Alan says …
- Close up from the side of Alan’s face and sees his panic as he thumps the floorboards, trying to escape.
- He eventually stays quiet and his bullies leave him alone.
A voiceover from the adult Alan says:
“remove the satisfaction and the act becomes hollow”.
His childhood bullying - just because he was different - has taught him that being alone is safer than being part of a group because he can protect himself.
- Through the flashback, the viewer sees a different side to Alan
- We can’t help but feel sympathy for him because his negative experiences have impacted him.
PARAGRAPH 5
Alan talks about the machine to Joan …
- As the film progresses, the viewer can see how lonely Alan is.
- He is obsessed with creating a perfect machine.
Alan talks about the machine to Joan, who asks if it has a name. Alan replies “Christopher”. Christopher was Alan’s only friend at school and he died from TB while they were still at school.
- The name is symbolic because it is obvious that Alan never got over the loss of his friend.
- Seeing his wish for Christopher’s memory to live on through the machine, makes the viewer extremely sympathetic towards Alan.
- Although he tries to hide his emotions, he obviously misses his friend a lot.
PARAGRAPH 6A
As the team work together to solve the Enigma code …
- As the team work together to solve the Enigma code, we can start to see a change in Alan.
- Earlier in the film, when the team ask if Alan wants to go for a drink and something to eat, he just ignores them.
- Joan tells him that if he wants these people to work with him instead of alongside him, then he must make an effort to socialise.
- Alan goes for a drink with them.
- Alan is at the bar with his fellow code breakers, one of whom is talking to a woman who works in communications.
PARAGRAPH 6B
Alan realises as they are talking to each other …
Alan realises as they are talking to each other, that the Germans send a morning message each day that will have repeated words. This means that they are able to decrypt the code through pattern elimination.
Alan: “So that’s … that’s three words we … we know will be in every six am message. Err, weather, obviously, and … heil bloody Hitler?”
Hugh: “heil bloody Hitler!”
Alan is willing to talk through his discovery with Hugh, perhaps realising that he can be trusted. Alan and Hugh, alongside the rest of the Codebreakers understand the importance of Alan’s discovery and all run out of the pub together to see if Alan’s theory is correct.
- As soon as he turns the knob on Christopher and the code is broken, the entire group fall silent as they realise that putting their confidence in Alan was the right thing to do.
- This is the highest point in Alan’s career.
- It is also quite a high point in his social life as he has learned to let people in after the loss of Christopher
PARAGRAPH 7
In the last scene of the film, the viewer sees Joan coming to visit Alan …
In the last scene of the film, the viewer sees Joan coming to visit Alan in his home to check on him. He successfully cracked the enigma code but had been arrested for indecent acts, which were illegal at the time. It is revealed that Alan is homosexual and the court has ordered him to take drugs which chemically castrate him. Joan is horrified and wants Alan to get a lawyer to fight the punishment. In the scene, Alan walks over to Christopher. There is an extreme close up of his face as Alan starts to cry. He says:
“they’ll take him away from me … you … you … you … you can’t let them do that.”
Alan is willing to give up everything just to keep Christopher with him. He is petrified that if he refuses to take the drugs, they will remove his only friend. The viewer feels so much sympathy for Alan because all he wants is for someone to love him and care about him and he is persecuted because of his sexuality.
CONCLUSION
The final scene of the film really affects the viewer …
The final scene of the film really affects the viewer because we learn what happens to Alan. In the final scene, all records of the Enigma project are being destroyed and text appears over this on screen. In this, we learn that a year after his sentence was given, he killed himself. He could not live freely in the world and the viewer is deeply impacted by how unfair this was.
“The Imitation Game” directed by Morten Tyldum, …
“The Imitation Game” directed by Morten Tyldum, is a dramatic and impactful film with a very complex main character at the centre of it. Alan Turing is a self-centred and arrogant person, but this is due to the way he was treated as a child in Boarding School, and also following the death of his best friend Christopher.
