THE IMITATION GAME [2014 / 2015] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] The Best British Film of the Year! Benedict Cumberbatch Is Outstanding! Based On The Incredible True Story of Alan Turing!
During the darkest days of World War II, the British government enlist the help of mathematician Alan Turing to crack the “ENIGMA CODE” machine, the unbreakable German encryption device. Alan Turing and his team of code breakers must unlock the “ENIGMA CODE” machine before their operation is infiltrated and more lives are lost.
An intense and gripping thriller, ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ tells the incredible true story of unsung war hero Alan Turing, featuring a standout performance from Benedict Cumberbatch [‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ and BBC TV’s ‘Sherlock’], alongside Keira Knightley [‘Atonement’] and a top-notch ensemble cast.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 2015 Academy Awards®: Win: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for Graham Moore. Nominated: Best Motion Picture of the Year for Ido Ostrowsky, Nora Grossman and Teddy Schwarzman. Nominated: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Benedict Cumberbatch. Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Keira Knightley. Nominated: Best Achievement in Directing for Morten Tyldum. Nominated: Best Achievement in Film Editing for William Goldenberg. Nominated: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score for Alexandre Desplat. Nominated: Best Achievement in Production Design for Maria Djurkovic (production design) and Tatiana Macdonald (set decoration). 2015 Golden Globes® Awards: Nominated: Best Motion Picture for Drama. Nominated: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in a Drama for Benedict Cumberbatch. Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for Keira Knightley. Nominated: Best Screenplay in a Motion Picture for Graham Moore. Nominated: Best Original Score in a Motion Picture for Alexandre Desplat. 2015 BAFTA® Awards: Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film: Nominated: Graham Moore, Ido Ostrowsky, Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman and Teddy Schwarzman. BAFTA Film Award: Nominated: Best Leading Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch. Nominated: Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley. Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay for Graham Moore. Nominated: Best Editing for William Goldenberg. Nominated: Best Costume Design for Sammy Sheldon. Nominated: Best Production Design for Maria Djurkovic and Tatiana Macdonald. Nominated: Best Sound for Andy Kennedy, John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Martin Jensen and Stuart Hilliker. Nominated: Best Film for Ido Ostrowsky, Nora Grossman and Teddy Schwarzman.
FILM FACT No.2: The film was criticised by some for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events and for downplaying Alan Turing's homosexuality. However, the LGBT civil rights advocacy organisation the Human Rights Campaign honoured it for bringing Alan Turing's legacy to a wider audience. Several events depicted in the film did not happen in real life. The visual blog “Information is Beautiful” deduced that, while taking creative licence into account, the film was just 42.3% accurate when compared to real-life events, summarizing that "shoe-horning the incredible complexity of the Enigma machine and cryptography in general was never going to be easy. But this film just rips the historical records to shreds."
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, James Northcote, Tom Goodman-Hill, Steven Waddington, Ilan Goodman, Jack Tarlton, Alex Lawther, Jack Bannon, Tuppence Middleton, Dominic Charman, James G. Nunn, Charlie Manton, David Charkham, Victoria Wicks, Andrew Havill, Laurence Kennedy, Tim van Eyken, Will Bowden, Miranda Bell, Tim Steed, Winston Churchill (archive footage) (uncredited), Adolf Hitler (archive footage) (uncredited), Harry S. Truman (archive footage) (uncredited), Lee Asquith-Coe (uncredited), Lauren Beacham (uncredited), Ingrid Benussi (uncredited), Carmen Coupeau Borras (uncredited), Ancuta Breaban (uncredited), Peter Brown (uncredited), Alex Corbet Burcher (uncredited), Daniel Chapple (uncredited), Alexander Cooper (uncredited), Chris Cowlin (uncredited), Kirsty-Marie Day (uncredited), Sam Exley (uncredited), Ben Farrow (uncredited), Mike Firth (uncredited), Leigh Holland (uncredited), Luke Hope (uncredited), Stuart Matthews (uncredited), Amber-Rose May (uncredited), Joseph Oliveira (uncredited), Adam Scown (uncredited), Scott Stevenson (uncredited), Mark Underwood (uncredited), Nicola-Jayne Wells (uncredited) and Josh Wichard (uncredited)
Director: Morten Tyldum
Producers: Graham Moore, Ido Ostrowsky, Nora Grossman, Peter Heslop and Teddy Schwarzman
Screenplay: Graham Moore (written) and Andrew Hodges (book)
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography: Óscar Faura (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Colour) and Black-and-White (archive footage)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo [Audio Description]
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 114 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: The Weinstein Company / STUDIOCANAL
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ [2014] is a highly conventional film about a profoundly unusual man and this is not entirely a bad thing. Alan Turing’s tragically shortened life and he was 41 when he died in 1954 and is a very complex and fascinating story, bristling with ideas and present-day implications, and it benefits from the streamlined structure and accessible presentation of modern prestige cinema. The science is not too difficult to understand, the emotions are clear and very emphatic, and the truth of history is respected just enough to make room for a very tidy and engrossing drama.
An Alan Turing biopic is, all in all, is a very welcome thing. Chances are that you are reading this, as I have written this, on a device that came into being partly as a result of papers that Alan Turing published in the 1930s exploring the possibility of what he called a “universal machine.” Alan Turing’s decisive contribution to the breaking of the Nazi “ENIGMA CODE” gave the Allied forces an intelligence advantage that helped defeat Germany, though the extent of his wartime role was kept secret for many years. The secret of his homosexuality was revealed when he was arrested on indecency charges in 1952, and also caught up in a Cold War climate of homophobia and political paranoia and subjected to the pseudoscientific cruelty of the British judicial system.
All of this is a lot for a single film to take in, and ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ directed by Morten Tyldum from a script by Graham Moore, prunes and compresses a narrative laid out most comprehensively in Andrew Hodges’s scrupulous and enthralling 1983 biography. The film interweaves three decisive periods in Alan Turing’s life, using his interrogation by a Manchester Detective Robert Nock [Rory Kinnear] as a framing device. Alan Turing tells the investigator who thinks he is after a Soviet spy rather than a gay man is about what he did during the war. Later, there are flashbacks of Alan Turing’s school days, where he discovered the joys of cryptography and fell in love with a slightly older boy named Christopher Morcom [Jack Bannon].
The adult Alan Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, expanding his acting repertoire in showing us Alan Turing of his socially awkward intellectual prodigies, for real. What has made Benedict Cumberbatch so effective and what makes his Alan Turing character personality one of the year’s finest pieces of screen acting ever seen in many a year and is his curious ability to suggest cold detachment and acute sensitivity at the same time. If Alan Turing did not exist, 21st century popular culture would have to invent him, especially Benedict Cumberbatch showing his character Alan Turing as a sentient robot, or an empathetic space alien.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Alan Turing, whom the film seems to place somewhere on the autism spectrum, is as socially awkward as he is intellectually agile. On top of all that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Alan Turing, can perceive patterns invisible to others but also finds himself stranded in the desert of the literal. Jokes fly over his head, sarcasm does not register either, and when one of his colleagues says, “We’re going to get some lunch,” Alan Turing hears it as a trivial statement in a rather matter of fact way, rather than a friendly invitation. But most importantly, Benedict Cumberbatch gives a truly Oscar® worthy performance.
‘THE IMITATION GAME’ derives some easy amusement from the friction between this “odd ball” and the prevailing culture of his native country of Great Britain. The film’s notion of Britain and of course not inaccurate, but also not hugely insightful and is as a land of understatement, indirection and steadfast obedience to norms of behaviour that seem, to a fiercely logical mind like Alan Turing’s, arbitrary and incomprehensible. At Bletchley Park, the country estate where teams of linguists and mathematicians are working under military supervision to break the “ENIGMA CODE” machine and Alan Turing is seen as stubborn and arrogant and the head of Bletchley Park, Commander Denniston [Charles Dance], finds him totally insufferable, as does Hugh Alexander [Matthew Goode], the suave, clever playboy who runs the “ENIGMA CODE” project until Alan Turing takes over control of the whole project, with an off-screen assistant from Winston Churchill.
The Bletchley Park section, which is enlivened by the indispensably charming Joan Clarke [Keira Knightley] as the only woman on the ENIGMA team, who is at the heart of this film, though it is also the most familiar and in some ways the least challenging part. Director Morten Tyldum orchestrates a swift and suspenseful race against the clock with a few touches of intrigue and ethical uncertainty. Mark Strong as Stewart Menzies pops out of the shadows now as a silky, cynical MI6 spymaster, perhaps the only person in the British political establishment who fully appreciated Alan Turing’s oddity and his total genius mind.
‘THE IMITATION GAME’ meanwhile, settles for a partial appreciation. Alan Turing’s sexuality is mystified and marginalized, treated as an abstraction and a plot point. There is no sense that, between his chaste, intense and brief passion for Christopher Morcom and the anonymous encounter that led indirectly to his arrest, love, sex or romance played any significant part in Alan Turing’s life at all. Andrew Hodges’s biography, threaded with quotations from Walt Whitman, gives eloquent and sensitive testimony to the contrary. For their part, the filmmakers, though willing to treat Alan Turing as a victim of bigotry and repression, also nudge him back toward the closet, imposing a discretion that is at once self-protective and self-congratulatory.
Ultimately, ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ doesn’t need any kind of banal catchphrases to show us that Alan Turing is a savant who sees and feels the world differently than most other people, because it’s there in every inch of Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance, especially in the rigid way he carries himself, as if he were two sizes too big for his own body, and in his pained realisation that he can never fully decipher the code of ordinary human interaction. And Keira Knightley who’s reliably more interesting as misfits and proves every bit his equal as the brilliant Joan Clarke, another societal square peg blithely unconcerned by the era’s demeaning conception of womanly ability.
Top-flight craft contributions add to the overall classy feel, particularly the lush, contrasting 35mm lensing of Spanish cinematographer Óscar Faura, the cluttered desks and primitive computing machines of production designer Maria Djurkovic, and a piano-and-strings score by Alexandre Desplat that catches something of Alan Turing’s anxious, uneasy spirit and especially complex, impeccably executed and unique. The action ignites when, after two years of effort, Alan Turing invents his Enigma-busting machine, a proto-computer geared to break a code that the Nazis change every 24 hours. It's been a long time since intellectual sparring partners created such excitement onscreen. I've heard a few critics dismiss this mind-bender as hopelessly old-hat. Balderdash, I say long live retro.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Here The Weinstein Company and STUIOCANAL present us a beautiful 1080p image and an equally impressive 2.35:1 aspect ratio and the transfer is totally outstanding. The picture is of a very high detailed image quality, black levels and shadow detail are really excellent, and an appropriate level of grain presents the viewer with a very pleasing, film-like appearance. Colours can be somewhat muted by design, but at least they are consistent and accurate throughout, especially depicting the era in the Second World War. Cinematographer by Óscar Faura works superbly well and shows off the film's Academy Award® nominated production design to its fullest potential, which again faithfully recreates the look of World War II era in England. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – With two excellent professional companies like The Weinstein Company and STUIOCANAL it is only natural to bring you an equally impressive 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio that is a very enjoyable audio experience. Dialogue is mostly confined to the centre channel which is very clear and also very understandable throughout the film. There are a few brief scenes of war which provide some dramatic audio punch when the aircraft are in the air. Ambient sounds of rain are very realistic, and when Alan Turing's machine is turned on the surround channels give the viewer the feeling of being present at that moment in time. The wonderful Academy Award® nominated original film score by Alexandre Desplat is given a wide and very pleasing audio soundstage experience. This is not quite a demonstration audio disc, but it does what it does extremely well, to really give you something truly special.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Making of ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ [2014] [1080p] [2.35:1] [14:14] Here we get an in-depth look at the characters and plot of the film, and it also includes a nice background look at the real-life Alan Turing and his work on cracking the Enigma code during World War II and also featuring the people assembled to break the Enigma machine, the process of breaking the code, the repercussions of breaking the code, the consequences of Alan Turing's homosexuality and eventually his sad downfall. They talk about how the Enigma machine was a hidden secret long after the Second World War had finished. They all agree that Alan Turing was the hero of the hour, in being such a forward thinking genius and Benedict Cumberbatch felt Alan Turing had to stand up to himself, because of his past and of course helped to shorten the Second World War by of course inventing the “ENIGMA CODE” machine. They talk about other films depicting Bletchley Park, but felt this one had to be totally different slant on the story, that gave it a much more human angle element to the film. They talk about what a wonderful script that was produced that really everyone was gripped when they read it, as normally it takes about 30 minutes reading other scripts, but this took much longer. That is why Benedict Cumberbatch was so very keen to play Alan Turing, as well as the other actors that were also very impressed by the script, as none of them could put it down. But most important they wanted the film to be as accurate historical as possible; as they know historians would soon inform them they have certain historical facts wrong, which would of cost a lot of money to film scenes again. Also very important was to get certain locations right, but one thing they could not film Bletchley Park, so they found this old RAF Bicester Bases in Oxfordshire, and luckily the surrounding buildings were ideal, but luckily they were able to film some scenes inside Bletchley Park and helped the actors to get into the spirit of the film. Because the actual “ENIGMA CODE” machine had been dismantled, they had to create their own vision of the massive machine for the film, a sort of replica, and everyone felt it was near perfect compared to the real machine, but of course it would of not been possible without some expert help who knew about the real “ENIGMA CODE” machine, which of course the replica had a fraction of the components, but despite this it actually had over 5,000 meters of electrical cables, well over 2,000 components and still felt epic in its appearance. But one thing that everyone agreed with is that they thought Benedict Cumberbatch gave a truly wonderful performance and I totally agree with that, especially in showing Alan Turing was a very complex character. But one very important aspect of the film was the clothes that Alan Turing would wear to give Benedict Cumberbatch a more authentic realistic look. So all in all this was a really fascinating look at the behind-the-scene on all aspect of the film ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ and is well worth a view. Contributors include: Morten Tyldum [Director], Benedict Cumberbatch [Alan Turing], Keira Knightley [Joan Clarke], Matthew Goode [Hugh Alexander], Graham Moore [Screenwriter & Executive Producer], Ido Ostrowsky [Producer], mark Strong [Stewart Menzies], Maria Djurkovic [Production Designer], David Broder [Location Manager], Marco Restivo [Art Director], John Pickles [Bletchley Park Volunteer], Allan Leech [John Cairncross], Charles Dance [Alexander “Alastair” Guthrie Denniston, C.M.G. C.B.E. C.B. R.N.V.R.], Ivana Primorac [Hair & Make-Up Designer], Sammy Sheldon [Costume Designer] and Matthew Bear [Peter Hilton].
Special Feature: Alan Turing: Man and Enigma [2014] [1080p] [2.35:1] [13:51] Here we take an in-depth look at the man Alan Turing himself, and what made him such a total genius, and especially a lot of people did not know much about the life and times of Alan Turing before the film ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ was ever thought of being filmed, especially as Alan Turing only lived on this planet for just 40 years and especially for the man who invented the computer, especially in the past Americans were always stating they invented the computer, and of course Alan Turing helped shorten the Second World War by two years, because as already stated he was a total genius and was not recognised at the time for building the “ENIGMA CODE” machine, but Alan Turing was also a scientist, a philosopher, and of course an inventor, but most importantly he was totally ahead of his time. But sadly in his early youth, especially being an outsider, yet born at the heart of the British Empire at its zenith and went to the Sherborne School, that was classic English public school in the town of Sherborne, Dorset, in south-west England, and in his early youth was constantly bullied because they felt he was not like them, but when Alan Turing was 16 he met a boy called Christopher Morcom, who became his one true friend and who was also very interested in science. Christopher Morcom became Alan Turin’s best friend, and probably his first big crush. But when Christopher Morcom died, which affected Alan Turing greatly suddenly a couple of years later, Alan Turin partly helped deal with his grief with science, by studying whether the mind was made of matter, and where and if anywhere, the mind went when someone died and of course that is why Alan Turing named the “ENIGMA CODE” machine “Christopher” in honour of his friend. They also talk about how Alan Turing who was always pushing himself to go that little bit further to solve a difficult puzzle, but of course in pursuing this outlook caused him to become a loner and especially did not like working as a team, but of course slowly over time Alan Turing changed, but on top of all that he also hated social function, as he felt like a fish out of water, so making him like a chameleon. But also most important was his sexuality, which at the time it was illegal to be a homosexual, but despite this Alan Turing had a strong bonded friendship with Joan Clarke. But of course when he was chemically castrated via drugs, that reduces your libido and sexual activity it really affected him greatly and especially emotionally and caused his downward spiral to deep depression and eventually committing suicide in 1954 by dipping an apple into cyanide and eating the apple, and of course it was a total shameful act by the Government at the time in what they did to this genius and if he had been able to live like he wanted he probably would of gone onto greater strides in technology, and in 2013 Alan Turing the computer pioneer and codebreaker was been given a posthumous royal pardon, which addresses his 1952 conviction for gross indecency and again who was chemically castrated. The pardon was granted under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy after a request by Justice Minister Chris Grayling and endorsed by Her Majesty the Queen. The pardon came into effect on the 24th December, 2013, because many people had campaigned for many years to win a pardon for Alan Turing. But of course the film was a dedication towards the genius that was Alan Turing and of course today the majority of people have taken this genius for granted, especially in our lives today computers, tablets and smart phones would not be here today or even happen without the brilliant genius mind of Alan Turing. Once again, all in all this is a really nice special feature and again honouring a man who was so ahead of his time. Contributors include: Morten Tyldum [Director], Benedict Cumberbatch [Alan Turing], Graham Moore [Screenwriter & Executive Producer], Teddy Schwarzman [Producer], Dermot Turing [Nephew of Alan Turing], Allen Leech [John Cairncross], Marco Restivo [Art Director], Charles Dance [Alexander "Alastair" Guthrie Denniston CMG CBE CB RNVR], Mattew beard [Peter Hilton], Keira Knightly [Joan Clarke], Mark Strong [Stewart Menzies] and Matthew Goode [Hugh Alexander].
Special Feature: The Heroes Of Bletchley [2014] [1080p] [1.78:1] [7:33] ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ cast and crew discuss Bletchley Park: what it would have been like to work in such an incredible place and its pivotal role in ending World War 2. They talk about the fact that Bletchley Park was a very secretive code breaking facility during the war, and the Government employed and brought these very eccentric people together under one roof who were basically a bunch of “Super Heroes” with special powers that other people in authority did not understand, who especially wore tank tops and tweeds. They recruited chess champions; they recruited mathematicians, who especially loved cracking puzzles, and they worked incredible long hours, and because of this, literally lived in Bletchley Park. With regards to Joan Clarke who eventually became Head of Hut 8 in 1944. Joan Clarke carried on code breaking even after the war, and went onto work at the secret GCHQ organisation and eventually was awarded the MBE in 1947 for her sterling work during the Second World War. But despite all the pressure they had put upon these special brainy people, they managed to keep up their spirits and there was also a great camaraderie atmosphere, which spearheaded the intelligence, in their endeavour to win the war. Bletchley Park went from a cottage industry to a huge industrial code breaking factory and at the start of the war housed 200 people to eventually 9,000 people, and of course one of the best kept secret of the Second World War and again helped shorten the war by two years and because they were extraordinary, and they should not be forgotten, as they were the true heroes of the war effort in thwarting the advance of the Nazi offensive. Despite this special feature being very short, it still packs a lot of information and is still very interesting in hearing their comments. Contributors include: Mark Strong [Stewart Menzies], Tom Briggs [Bletchley Park Education Officer], Ian Standen [CEO Bletchley Park], Matthew Beard [Peter Hilton], Teddy Schwarzman [Producer], Matthew Goode [Hugh Alexander], Benedict Cumberbatch [Alan Turing], Maria Djurkovic [Production Designer], Victoria Worpole [Director Learning and Collections of Bletchley Park Trust], Allen Leech [John Cairncross], Keira Knightley [Joan Clarke] and Morten Tyldum [Director].
Trailers: Here you have a selection of four trailers and they are as follows: ‘Before I Go To Sleep’ [2014] [1080p [2.35:1] [2:15]; ‘RUSH’ [2013] [1080p] [2.35:1] [2:35]; Maltesers TV Advert [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [00:32] and ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ [2011] [1080p] [2.35:1] [1:53]
Finally, ‘THE IMITATION GAME’ works really well in creating a moving story about an incredible person of Alan Turing and his co-workers that did such sterling, astonishing work during the Second World War, and also a look at the tragic true real-life story about Alan Turing in showing us how a brilliant but socially inept man accomplished the impossible by breaking the supposedly impregnable “ENIGMA CODE” machine during World War II. This is a wonderful exciting film which will have viewers glued to their seats from start to finish. It is one of the best films of 2014 and this Blu-ray edition is essentially flawless and is an engrossing and poignant tour de force thriller, and Benedict Cumberbatch’s excellent performance gives added complexity to a fine account of the life and times of the brilliant codebreaker Alan Turing, it also is surprisingly humorous and it also manages to nail the emotional moments in the film and deserved all the Awards and Nominations it received. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
