Here's an article pointing out significant differences between the historical record and the movie,
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblo...ware&utm_term=A Poor Imitation of Alan Turing
Brad,
Very interesting article and thanks for posting.
I cant be a 100% sure but I do think movie opened with the words Based on a true story. Very few movies open with the words everything in this movie is true.
The author of that article raises some interesting points relative to Turings personality and historical accuracy.
Reviewer seems to think his homosexuality was not covered enough in the movie. The movie is shown in different time frames. School time is shown in flash backs where he is shown to be developing an interest in another boy (whether it was a mutual interest it was hard to tell from the movie). The post war scenes are mainly related to the burglary investigation which leads to his conviction for gross indecency (then a crime). During the wartime scenes the plot mainly revolves around cracking the code and his homosexuality is less of an issue than his apparent "nerdyness" and difficulty in working with others.
This kind of movie is a gift for the critic as there is so much that can not be included in a 2 hour movie. For example the Charles Dance character had been in charge of British code cracking etc since just after WW1 and lost his job after Turing and others went over his head to Churchill. Another took over from him and this was not covered by the movie. The "team" shown in the movie was not together for all the time as shown in the movie and some were involved in cracking the German army codes which was done before the Navy code which is what the movie is concerned with. The Russian spy, Cairncross, did work at Bletchley Park but not in Turings section as shown. The inclusion of a cross word in the newspaper was actually used as a recruitment tool.
The post war scenes not very clear. It almost conveys the impression that he was unemployed after the war when he was in fact involved in a lot of work on computers etc and was working at Manchester University (see below).
The job interview scene which was entertaining is in itself misleading as it comes without the audience knowing his pre war background. He was already a highly regarded mathematician and had worked on computability etc. The interviewer (Dance/Dennison) did deliberately target mathematicians as code breakers despite him questioning his lack of German. Incidentally Princeton's (where he studied for 2 years) The Princeton Alumni Weekly named Turing the second most significant alumnus in the history of Princeton University, second only to President James Madison.
This site is interesting :
http://www.turing.org.uk Website maintained by biographer Andrew Hodges
Summary from that page:
1912 (23 June): Birth, Paddington, London
1926-31: Sherborne School
1930: Death of friend Christopher Morcom
1931-34: Undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge University
1932-35: Quantum mechanics, probability, logic. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
1936: The Turing machine, computability, universal machine
1936-38: Princeton University. Ph.D. Logic, algebra, number theory
1938-39: Return to Cambridge. Introduced to German Enigma cipher machine
1939-40: The Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption
1939-42: Breaking of U-boat Enigma, saving battle of the Atlantic
1943-45: Chief Anglo-American crypto consultant. Electronic work.
1945: National Physical Laboratory, London
1946: Computer and software design leading the world.
1947-48: Programming, neural nets, and artificial intelligence
1948: Manchester University, first serious mathematical use of a computer
1950: The Turing Test for machine intelligence
1951: Elected FRS. Non-linear theory of biological growth
1952: Arrested as a homosexual, loss of security clearance
1953-54: Unfinished work in biology and physics
1954 (7 June): Death (suicide) by cyanide poisoning, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
More recently there have been suggestions his death might have been murder (ie, by security services as he knew too much) but seems we will never know.
Saw an interesting reference to Apple logo somewhere. Turing suicide was apparently by cyanide and a partly eaten apple was found by him. Steve Jobs was once asked if Apple logo was a reference to Turing. He said it was not but wished it was.
Overall what defines Turing to me is his genius and many achievements coupled with sadness that he was charged with a crime for something which is no longer a crime and ended his own life.
Prior to the movie if somebody asked me who Alan Turing was I would have had no idea. This is a contributor to WWII effort whose work should be as well known as Generals like Monty and Patton. Whilst the Generals got the fame and glory the intelligence guys who worked at Bletchly Park and other such places/organisations had to keep quiet about what they did.
Statement of apology by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, 10 September 2009:
... a quite brilliant mathematician... whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war... horrifying that he was treated so inhumanely...
Brett
