The Imitation Game (2014) 50%
夜四技應用英語二甲
周馨微
9A3C0042
1. What kinds of difficulties had Alan Turing encountered (遭遇) in this
film?
(1)Turing's natural inclination towards mathematics and science did not earn him
respect from some of the teachers at school. At Sherborne, Turing formed an
important friendship with fellow pupil Christopher Morcom, who has been
described as Turing's "first love". Their relationship provided inspiration in
Turing's future endeavours, but it was cut short by Morcom's death, in February
1930, from complications of bovine tuberculosis, contracted after drinking
infected cow's milk some years previously. The event caused Turing great
sorrow.
(2)Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behavior was
still a criminal act in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections
(chemical castration) as an alternative to prison.
The fact that such a brilliant mind was forced to endure barbaric treatment to
'cure' his homosexuality is extremely horrible. It's hard to stomach the truth
that not even a century ago, one of the world's most forward thinking countries
punished gay people with arrest and sickening 'treatment'.
2. Why was Christopher (as a person and as a machine; pun intended) so
important to Alan Turing?
In 1926, at the age of 14, Alan went to Sherborne School, a famous
independent school in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset. His first day of
term coincided with the 1926 General Strike in Britain, but so determined was
he to start classes that he rode his bicycle unaccompanied more than 60 miles
from Southampton to school, stopping overnight at an inn. It was at Sherborne
that Alan Turing would meet his first love, Christopher Morcom.
Alan and Christopher spent most of the next four years together, until
Christopher’s untimely death in 1930 from tuberculosis. This terrible loss not
only marked the shattering of Alan’s religious faith and his becoming an
atheist, it also sparked a genius for what would become computer technology
and artificial intelligence. Desperately longing to hold on to Christopher, he
started to wonder about whether it would be possible for a machine to contain
the intelligence of a person, and thus his ideas were born.
3. Why was Joan Clarke so important to Alan Turing?
Clarke and fellow code-breaker Alan Turing became very good friends at
Bletchley Park. Turing would arrange their shifts so they could be working
together, and they also spent a lot of their free time together. Turing proposed
marriage to Clarke and subsequently introduced her to his family. After admitting
his homosexuality to his fiancée, who was reportedly "unfazed" by the revelation,
Turing decided that he could not go through with the marriage and broke up with
Clarke in the summer of 1941.Clarke and Turing had been close friends since
soon after they met, and continued to be until Turing's death. They shared many
hobbies and had similar personalities.
4. Could you describe the ending for me?
After being arrested and tried for committing homosexual acts—a crime in
1950s Britain—the pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing undergoes
court-mandated hormone therapy to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Visited
by his former friend and fiancée Joan Clarke, Turing confesses he chose the
therapy that made him incredibly ill over going to prison so he could continue
working on his computer, Christopher (named for his childhood love). He
realizes she's getting married, and laments he wasn't "normal" enough for her.
Her reply: This morning I took a train through a city that would not exist if it
wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it
wasn't for you. I read up on my work, a whole field of scientific inquiry that
only exists because of you. If you wish you could have been 'normal', I can
promise you, I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because
you weren't.
She leaves, and he finds solace with his computer—the computer that wasn't
actually named Christopher. And then, the audience is told by subtitles, Turing
dies off-screen. Suicide by cyanide apple poisoning.
Do you like the ending? Why or why not?
I'm not really like the ending. A very thoughtful and bewildering drama
about a man who was meant to do great things in a world that was not
ready to accept his eccentricities.
To me, the decision to not show the suicide feels like a cop-out. Were it to be
included, the film would be darker, but that's not bad. Alan Turing lived a dark
life, largely because he was persecuted for being different. To end on Joan
Clarke telling him "the world is an infinitely better place" because of said
differences is indeed "lovely," but movies don't have to have pleasant endings.
Many lives don't end in a "lovely" way—Turing's certainly didn't.
The decision to not show Turing's suicide was a cop-out.
A large part of what made this movie so wonderful is the multi-faceted
exploration of Turing’s character and life. To me, this is, in a way, a feminist
perspective. While many of us already knew Turing for his contributions to
science and technology, The Imitation Game presented his character as not
always in control, unprotected from the emotional and existential effects of a
personal life. Giving weight to a person’s quietly staggering inner life,
friendships, process, flaws—really anything other than a laundry list of
accomplishments—is a humanizing process that undermines the
objectification and unquestioned power of fame.
5. (1) If you could say one sentence to Alan Turing, what would you choose
to say in front of him?
Of course machines can't think as people do. A machine is different from a person..
Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can
imagine.
(2) What are the three most important things we could learn from this
movie?
Every time you use a computer, or any gadget that uses the same computer
technology, such as your smart phone, you are paying a silent homage to Alan
Turing.
1. Everyone has a stake in ensuring equal opportunity to marginalized groups.
2. Brilliant invention is most likely when people with all sorts of ways of
seeing things are included in the process. This includes the importance of
understanding social nuance and other subtle yet important perspectives.
3. People are whole people, and it’s beautiful to explore all of that.