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I just discovered on YouTube ads that apparently, there is going to be a movie on Alan Turing working on Enigma released soon.


Why the freaking hell do they hint at an heterosexual relationship like that?
I mean, that guy is an extremely famous (well, among computer people at least) homosexual that ended up committing suicide because of Britain's court intolerance of his sexuality. How on earth could one possibly want to erase his homosexuality from the movie and expect to get away with it? That would be like making a movie on Bob Marley, never ever mentioning pot, and hinting him as an anti-drug activist !

Anyhow, a big name of maths is getting a movie. Interesting. Well, Nash had one too.

According to the Wikipedia biographical article,

In 1941, Turing proposed marriage to Hut 8 (Bletchley Park) co-worker Joan Clarke, a fellow mathematician and cryptanalyst, but their engagement was short-lived. After admitting his homosexuality to his fiancée, who was reportedly "unfazed" by the revelation, Turing decided that he could not go through with the marriage.[67]

Decent cast, hopefully they won't screw with the facts too much though. I'm already looking at it and thinking they'll change things to fit in more with a politically correct history. Perhaps they'll at least have one scene where it shows the amount of crap the people working on the project took from the general public (being that they weren't allowed to talk about it, and so they were thought of of being cowards for not fighting until years later). That and a little bit about the contribution of the European resistance movements and all the work they put in would be nice too (as they've often overlooked on this matter, even though IIRC didn't the Poles crack the Enigma first?).

As far as homosexuality, don't the lines around the two minute mark hint at it? "You've got more secrets than the best of them". "what if I don't fancy her in that way?", "You can't tell anyone Alan, its illegal".

Something I'd watch with certain friends who're into dramas, but its not exactly a film that'd be appreciated by mainstream audiences. Still when it comes on Tv it'll be a definite watch, just unfortunate that I don't happen to be around people that're into these types of film too often. =/

 Kilkrazy wrote:
According to the Wikipedia biographical article,

In 1941, Turing proposed marriage to Hut 8 (Bletchley Park) co-worker Joan Clarke, a fellow mathematician and cryptanalyst, but their engagement was short-lived. After admitting his homosexuality to his fiancée, who was reportedly "unfazed" by the revelation, Turing decided that he could not go through with the marriage.[67]

Oh, I did not know that. Explains stuff. Feel a bit stupid now.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Decent cast, hopefully they won't screw with the facts too much though. I'm already looking at it and thinking they'll change things to fit in more with a politically correct history. Perhaps they'll at least have one scene where it shows the amount of crap the people working on the project took from the general public (being that they weren't allowed to talk about it, and so they were thought of of being cowards for not fighting until years later). That and a little bit about the contribution of the European resistance movements and all the work they put in would be nice too (as they've often overlooked on this matter, even though IIRC didn't the Poles crack the Enigma first?).

IIRC Polish cryptographers worked out the algorythmn for braking Emigma, but could not crack Enigma. It required other work to piece it together. It was a telephone engineer called Tom Flowers who designed and constructed Colossus, not Turing
I hope the film doesn't credit Turing with all of it.

The device shown in the trailer was Bombe, not Colossus which was an inferior but functional machine Turning made, working on the polish algorythmns. Turing's input was in finding a way to mechanise the process, in effect he was the first systems analyst not the first programmer..

 Wyrmalla wrote:

As far as homosexuality, don't the lines around the two minute mark hint at it? "You've got more secrets than the best of them". "what if I don't fancy her in that way?", "You can't tell anyone Alan, its illegal".

Yes and it appears to be part of the story, rather than the whole story.

If so it's the correct approach IMHO.

Enigma (2001) is also worth watching, it broadly covers similar events.

Charles Dance and Benedict Cumberbatch?

Point me to the ticket booth.

There was a rather good version of Turing's story made previously, starring Derek Jacobi.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Why the freaking hell do they hint at an heterosexual relationship like that?

I think the fact that he attempted to do the expected thing and marry a woman is a fairly important part of the story of trying to deal with being in England at that time.

That said, there's been some controversy over the emphasis the film gives that part of Turing's life. I think, though, it may not be due to any desire to downplay his homosexuality, but rather the desire to get a major female name in the cast (Keira Knightley) and then beef up the role to what is expected of someone of her fame.


I mean, the whole point of Turing's story is that a man who did so much for England was eventually chemically castrated for being gay. If you take out his homosexuality and eventual fate then there's no real dramatic story to be told.