By the time The Imitation Game arrived in our mailbox in a Netflix DVD envelope, I had forgotten when I had placed it in our queue and whether someone had recommended it, I had read a review, or maybe saw it featured in “recent new releases.”
We watched it Friday night and enjoyed it more than I expected. The fact that it is based on a true story made me think of the Werner Herzog perspective on the making of documentaries. Earlier in the week I had stumbled across his distinction between the truth of an accountant and the truth of a poet. The truth of the accountant is very defined and has no room for interpretation. The truth of the poet is nuanced and broad with room for expanded illumination.
Links below will take you to information about Alan Turing and the movie. My reflections will focus on four specific aspects in The Imitation Game rather than offering a movie review.
1. Alan Turing was a homosexual at a time in England when homosexuality was a crime punishable by imprisonment.
2. Alan Turing was as weak in social skills as he was strong in mathematical genius.
3. Joan Clarke was a brilliant woman at a time when women were not allowed to fully exercise their intellectual ability.
4. Alan was unable to embrace marriage as a nonsexual commitment by two people (he and Joan Clarke).
Those are four facts in the story that stimulate the following four questions:
1. To what degree have I followed the social norms of my time to decide what is right and wrong with regard to human sexuality?
2. What is my attitude toward the weirdos? Why am I quick to distance myself?
3. Why has gender inequality existed for so long and what are the ways I have been part of the problem instead of part of the solution?
4. Is the purpose of marriage procreation or companionship?
Sometimes a movie makes me think about important questions. I like those movies more than the ones that try to tell me answers.