Honoring Alan Turing’s Legacy
The Imitation Game is a dramatized version of real events, so its basic purpose is to tell the riveting story of Alan Turing's life and his contributions to breaking Enigma during World War II. But the movie is more than just replaying history, the creators want the Adience to feel the injustice that seemed to plague Turing's life. The whole movie they keep showing times where Turing is almost removed from his position. No one would support his machine for a long time. People were actively trying to slow him down, by either searching his private belongings or even removing him by force. But by the end of the war, the movie had effectively shown the audience that Turing had saved thousands of lives and cut the war short by two years, despite all the people who didn't believe in him and wanted him gone. The movie then finishes up by showing how Turing was condemned by society for being a homosexual and was chemically castrated. The movie also explains how he then died a couple years later from cyanide poisoning. All of these key points showcase the injustice in his life and spread light on a story that was initially buried by Government. They want you to feel the injustice of the situation by showing you how great of a man he is. This is amplified in one of the last scenes where the officer who initially started investigating Turing, realized he had just jailed a war hero. You can see him realize what he did was wrong. By using someone so great and building the audiences respect for him, then making him a victim of such injustice, The Imitation Game forces the audience to think and realize how wrong society can be.
Exploring Human Complexity
This is one of the biggest themes of the movie, which can be summed up pretty well by Alan Turing's famous quote “Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine." the filmmakers portray Turing not just as a brilliant mathematician but as a deeply complex individual, highlighting his struggles with social interaction, his vulnerability, and his resilience in the face of adversity. By portraying Turing the way, the maker is sending the message that people are more complex and capable then we could ever imagine, deterring people from making assumptions about the capabilities of society.
Inspire Moral and Ethical Questions
The movie poses many moral and ethical questions about technology use, privacy, surveillance and cyber security. They want the audience to have to think about what they would do in impossible situations. In the movie Turing's team member realizes his brother is on a boat that is about to be attacked by nazis, and he has the information that would save his brother's life. But the team does not allow him to save his brother for the greater good of winning the war. This makes you think about what you would do in a similar situation. if you had the choice to either save your mom or 10 strangers, what would you choose?