Engelsk

We’ve all experienced it, we get an idea, but the world just seems not to give a care in the world about it. You try to bring light to your idea, and create attention around it, but nothing seems to work out. Eventually you almost end up going crazy, because you think your idea is so brilliant, that you do not understand why it is, that people won’t open up their eyes, and see your brilliant idea!

This is what “The imitation game” revolves around. It all revolves around a guy called “Alan Turing,” and his excellent idea of, how you solve the Enigma!

The imitation game takes us back to the 1940s up until the 1950s, where the Germans ruled parts of the world at the start of the 1940s, and lost them again around 1945. The movie itself locates us in England, who were suffering immensely from the German empires rule. The Englishmen had almost no way of fighting back, due to Enigma, which was the Germans way of sending encrypted messages across the world, to communicate with their armies.

Throughout the movie, we follow a man named “Alan Turning” and his goal of solving Enigma. Alan seems to be an extremely selfish man, due to him prioritizing himself and his needs over others multiple times in the movie. Alan is a healthy and good looking man at the start of the movie, but things take a turn at the end, as he ends up with a mental illness, more about that later.

Alans selfishness is proven to be absurdly overwhelming for his relatives and friends multiple times throughout the movie, an example could be, when he rejected the fact that he loved “Joan Clarke”, which was Alans wife, during his work with Enigma. Joan ends up ignoring Alan for an extensive amount of time, due to him prioritizing Enigma over her.

Alans past is also a factor that plays into his mental illness. Alan was bullied during his time in high school, he only had one person to talk to, which made him extremely vulnerable to threats, and he was also very lonely. Alans friend educated Alan how to stand up to the things the bullies did to him, which made Alan almost immune to any kind of hatred towards him. One day, Alans life gets turned around though, as his friend dies of Tuberculosis.

All of these things that happens to Alan, and has happened, all contributes to his selfishness, and his urge to finish something he started. Alans urge to finding the solution to Enigma, ends up paying off for him, as he actually succeeds with it, the only problem about this though, is that the machine he used to crack Enigma with, has now become his best, and only friend, named Christopher. Whenever Enigma ended, he and his employees + his wife, were told that they could never see each other again, they could not speak of Enigma, and they should stay far away from anything related to it. This ended up making Alan so lonely, that he had to construct his own machine again, at home this time, and still, Christopher was his only friend.

The authorities eventually find some evidence of the solving of Enigma, and Alan ends up being arrested. He’s charged with 2 years of prison, but refuses to go. Therefore, the judges force him to either take medication to cure himself of his “mental illness” – or go to prison. Of course, Alan chooses the medication, as he just could not leave Christopher alone.

The themes of the movie are some, that are used quite often. We see the use of the theme “Love” multiple times throughout the movie. Not only between Alan and Joan, but also between Alan, and the relationship he’s trying to grow with his employees. Alans ability to love, is complicated though. He seems to only care of the people, that care for him and his interests, which again, is related to his selfishness.

We also see signs of war and tragedy in the movie, as the movie was based on WWII. The characters of the movie, is not exactly participating in the “war” – but they have relatives that were sent to the frontlines in France, to defend their reputation and country.

It’s easy to become extremely selfish without being self-aware. This happens to Alan in the movie, and it completely tares him, and everyone around him apart, as he refuses to listen to others suggestions and thoughts. Alan experienced a lot throughout his life, more than acceptable for any human, perhaps this could explain his sad case of suicide, as 41 years old.

Understanding the film

What is Bletchley Park? – Bletchley Park was one of the most important factors in the fight of the 

Germans encrypted messages. The park was home to some of the most important decryption of Enigma messages, ever constructed.

Who is Alan Turing? – Alan Turing is the man behind the solving of the Enigma. Alan was the man to solve the Enigma encryption, by making a machine, that could calculate the encryption of the enigma message almost instantly.

How long did he live? Alan committed suicide as 41 years old.

How did he die? As said above, he committed suicide.

Who is Joan Clarke? Joan Clarke is Alan Turings “Wife”

Why was the machine called Christopher?  Alans Machine was called Christopher, due to his dead friend, who he lost back when he went to highschool.

Is it a true story? Yes, the solving of Enigma is based on a true story.

Translate the following words into Danish

Decryption – Afkodning/dekryptering

Enigma - Gåde

Prodigy - Vidunderbarn

Mediocrity - Middelmådig

An odd duck – En mærkelig and

A puff – Et sug

Brigade – En hær på 4000-5000 mand

Crew – Mandskab

Manual - Manuelt

Stigma

Saucy - Sassy

During - Imens