The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game is a recent film about British computer scientist and mathematician, Alan Turing. The story follows Turing through his struggles to crack Nazi Germany’s Enigma code. In doing so, it helped to enable the allies to win World War II. This movie was based on the biography entitled Alan Turing: The Enigma, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing, with a supporting performance by Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke, a woman who helped aid Turing with his work.

The film revolves around Alan Turing and his team of code-breakers who are racing against time as they attempt to break Nazi Germany's Enigma code during the Second World War. One interesting aspect of the film is that it spans three key periods of Turing's life: his unfortunate teenage years at boarding school; the triumph of his secretive work on the groundbreaking electro-mechanical bomb, and the misfortune of his post-war decline following his conviction of being a homosexual, a criminal offense during that time. Occasionally, the viewer will be whisked back in time in order to get a glimpse of Turing’s younger years. This allows us to get an understanding of where he came from, and how these aspects have influenced his personality and mindset. For example, there was one point in which we were able to see scenes from his childhood played out in front of us. From this, we learned that his best and only friend had died while they were still in school. This tragedy had a profound impact on his life, and now, along with being a generally socially awkward individual, he is made to carry the weight of his deceased friend as well. The film was unique in how it used these flashbacks to better illustrate his story to the audience, and it certainly had a positive impact on the structure of the film.

Greer Garson Mondays

Last night, my grampa turned on TCM like he usually does and it happened to be Greer Garson Monday's during the month of March. So basically that means every Monday evening during March, they have a Greer Garson marathon.

We watched her in Mrs. Miniver and Random Harvest. Mrs. Miniver was about a British family struggling during the first few weeks of WWII. Mrs. Miniver, played by Garson, is a wife and a mother of three, a little girl, a little boy and an older son who joins the air force. Her son also just got married to a well to do girl, and they're both about 18 years old.

The youngest son is overly excited about the war and thinks it's going to be the coolest thing ever, but of course it really isn't. There is a scene that I believe sums up what families in Great Britain were experiencing during the war. Mr. and Mrs. Miniver and the two youngest children have to hide out in their bomb shelter. It's small but cozy with bunk beds for the children, a little room to move around to have tea and knit. Mr. Miniver is showing off to his wife a new air vent he had put in that turns green when poisonous gas comes through so you kno when to close it off. Of course the two kids are sleeping through most of the bombings but eventually a few bombs hit a little bit to close and everything shakes and falls, scaring the children who are crying. After another bomb that hits them closely, their bunker door opens for you to see what the blitz really looked like.

I really enjoyed this film- it was a different view of WWII that most people haven't experienced. Mrs. Miniver. This film won 7 academy awards including Best Actress and Best Movie and was nominated for 3 others. And all of that doesn't surprise me one bit- it was fabulous and well done and the sets were to die for. There were some comedic parts, serious parts and some parts of the film that took you by surprise.

This is why I love TCM- you see movies that you never thought of seeing before with actresses or actors you've never heard. Next time I have the opportunity... well, next monday... I'm going to watch more Greer Garson films.