Okay, so this
review proves loooong overdue. I apologize for that. I also
published a second post to this blog tonight (The Wedding Ringer) to make amends.
A lot of
based-on-a-true-story movies arrived in theaters over the last couple weeks.
Many of these proved flawed for mostly the same reasons. However, I can report
that The Imitation Game exists as an
excellent movie.
Where many recent,
“real-life” movies resulted in barely connected series of scenes and passive
protagonists who dealt with terrible ordeals while they awaited rescue, Imitation never fell victim to those
shortcomings.
Imitation offered three clear acts, a
story arc, a character arc, and an active protagonist with a clear goal and tragic
flaw.
I do not suggest that a movie cannot blaze a
trail outside these “rules” of storytelling. However, many “real-life” movies
suffered because they colored outside these lines.
Imitation covered Alan Turing and his
team’s quest to crack the supposedly uncrack-able Nazi code “Enigma” and thus
help win World War II.
Alan’s quest led
him to build a computer (recall the time period to fully appreciate this) that
could crack the code.
I admit, this sounds like it might bore an audience to
tears. Who wants to watch mathematicians build a computer?
The movie worked beautifully, owed to excellent story-craft and Oscar-worthy
performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.
Cumberbatch played the hell out of Alan Turing, who reminded me of several mathematicians with whom
I worked and lived.
Put a gun to my
head and demand a flaw? The movie repeated three or four times one of its
mottos, which went something to the tune of, “Those whom we can’t imagine will
accomplish anything sometime accomplish the unimaginable.”
A nice thought,
sure, but delivered with too heavy a hand. Granted, a different person said the
motto each time, so it did result in an illustration of an idea that spread,
as a good idea should.
Imitation said a lot about the
persecution of British homosexuals at this time, not by the Nazis, but by other
Englishmen.
If you ever wanted
to hear a soulless, purely logical argument against such persecution, Imitation
offered them by the dozens.
Alan discovered that one of his coworkers worked as a spy for the Soviets. He wanted to do the
right thing and turn him in to the authorities (whether or not such action would prove “the right thing” can serve
as a debate for another day), but said coworker knew about Alan’s secret
homosexuality.
If Alan turned in
his coworker, then that coworker would've turn in Alan. British law would've thrown Alan in prison for his sexuality, for years.
Britain’s baseless
fear of homosexuals caused a serious threat to not only nation security, but to
the war efforts against the Nazis!
Many needless
problems that endanger countless people and the history of the world arose from Britain’s persecution of homosexuals.
Lest anyone think
I forgot, America and other country, on both sides of the war, also mistreated
these people.
The Imitation Game offered an accurate
portrayal of humanities most dangerous flaws.
See this movie.
Thanks for reading.
You probably noticed
that I went about a week without a blog entry. I apologize for that. The
creation of the prototype for my card game, Duelists
of Darkwana (based on my novel series, Diaries
of Darkwana), managed to eat up a lot of my time.
I also need to
explain, on that note, where the heck the third novel for that series went. It
sits done and ready to publish on Kindle.
At the moment, my
wonderful cover artist deals with a few distractions. I promise that as soon as
I get the completed cover art from her (if not sooner), I shall publish the
third novel in my series.
OH! Also, Daughters of Darkwana received a sweet,
succinct review, which you can read here, http://www.thebookeaters.co.uk/daughters-of-darkwana-by-martin-wolt-jr/
I
publish my blogs as follows:
Tuesdays:
A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.
Wednesdays:
An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com
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