[Zhyl]

Bletchley Park is excellent - I went in the early 2000s when it was just some huts and a country house. I return in 2024 and they now have full exhibitions, including one that goes through the full history and workings of the Bombe. I thought I was a bit of an Enigma nerd but it turns out I hadn't heard of Lorenz/Tunny at all and so it really added another layer to my knowledge of the work at Bletchley.

Also visiting Bletchley and then watching the Imitation Game makes it seem like the rushed medical drama from Mitchell and Webb [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_AmdvxbPT8

[AndrewOMartin]

Turing's life and work was a big part of my research and I was involved with a number of academic Turing memorial events, I've had dinner with his closest living relative. I'm well aware of all the inaccuracies.

I was given 114 minutes I don't think I could have done a better job of giving a feel for the guy, his work, and the situation to an intelligent person who has a passing interest in tech (e.g. my wife) than they did in the film.

This may just say more about me as a story-teller than as a genuine appraisal of the film.

If you want detail, read Turing's biography by Andrew Wiles, such a great work and impressively comprehensive. If you just like code breaking and WWII history, read The Hut Six story by "Turing's boss" Gordon Welchman, the publication of which lost him his American and British security clearances.

[Zhyl]

>I was given 114 minutes I don't think I could have done a better job of giving a feel for the guy, his work, and the situation to an intelligent person who has a passing interest in tech (e.g. my wife) than they did in the film.

I feel like I'm fairly forgiving when it comes to glossing over some details in order to serve the greater narrative, but I feel all of the film's points of conflict were fabricated to the point of being misleading.

Turing was a genius, but he wasn't a sole genius loner - he was a much liked and integral member of the team. Much of the plot is about him supposedly single handedly and against the will of Bletchley working on the Bombe when the Polish Bombe was a tried and true solution to Enigma-sans-plugboard already. This image of him being some kind of rebel is absolutely not giving you a "feel" for his situation.

The idea that the machine wasn't working and they had no idea how it was going to work until they "suddenly had the idea of using a crib" is trying to add a peril and a Eureka moment that didn't exist. From a "let's not get waded down in the details" point of view, sure but again this really adds more of a sole genius factor on Turing specifically when he was but one genius in a factory of geniuses.

Things like having one bombe in the corner of a room quietly breaking all the Nazi's codes? Sure, why not. It's very silly and downplays the roles of hundreds of Wrens, but you can have that for the sake of storytelling.

We may have different things that we wanted from this film, but honestly rewatching it it just felt like it was muddying the waters of what I already knew rather than being a fun accessible glimpse into the life of one of History's greatest minds.