Alan Turing Movie - The Imitation Game

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Saw the movie "the Imitation Game" on the weekend. It's the life story of Prof. Alan Turing of Cambridge and how he broke the German Enigma incryption during WWII by building what is often recognized as the first computer.

The movie presents Alan Turing in a way that would suggest he's aspie/autistic (the whole peas and carrots thing, for example, for those of you who have seen the movie).

Anyone know if Alan Turing was autistic? Did the movie make you think he's aspie?

I liked the movie. I watched it yesterday and while watching it I actually thought to myself that I wouldn't be surprised if people think he might've had Asperger's syndrome. According to wikipedia people suspect he had AS/autism. Whether or not that's actually correct is obviously not really possible to determine. One can only speculate.

It is said that Turing's symproms were exaggerated. At least some of the anecdotes were fictionalized. Prime example of "based on a true story" where poetic license was employed.

Kraftie. Did you see the film because that's exactly the impression I got watching the film? So disappointing because the acting and direction was so good and the authenticity and look of the film was so good, but the film was let down by some horrible plot holes and poetic licence that wasn't needed to portray the character.

For instance, the Alan Turing character is hired to work at Bletchley Park to work on decoding the Enigma machine. When he doesn't get his own way he writes a letter to Winston Churchill and is put in charge of the whole project. First thing he does is sack two of his fellow workers. Next thing he goes on a recruitment drive by posting a crossword puzzle in a London newspaper and inviting those who solve the puzzle to turn up at Bletchley Park. Of course one of the winners is a female who takes a romantic interest in the Alan Turing character. While all this is going on there is a Soviet spy working at Bletchley Park passing on secrets to Soviet Union. When Turing finds out who the spy is, the spy threatens to out Turing as a homosexual to his superiors, so of course Turing can't reveal who the spy is. Turing is also forced to break up his engagement to the Keira Knightly character to protect her from the Soviet spy. After he builds the machine called Charlie which cracks the Enigma code, Turing and his co-workers have a debate about revealing the data the machine has collected to their bosses. Later after the war, Turing is arrested for a homosexual affair and is interviewed at the police station by the arresting officer who thinks that Turing is a Soviet spy.

Plot Holes and inconsistencies:
As a junior worker on the Enigma project a letter to Winston Churchill would have been totally ineffectual. It was only after Turing worked on the Enigma machine that his name would have come to the attention of Churchill.
His firing of his two assistant workers is completely inconsistent with his character.
It is fanciful that the soviet spy working at Bletchley Park, if it is based on one of the Cambridge five, mostly likely Caincross, would have made contact with Alan Turing, as the motive presented for the contact, is that Turing found out who it was and was threatening to reveal the spy.
Turing is presented as a wizard at crosswords when in reality, Turing was very ordinary at crosswords. There is another story that Turing enjoyed chess and regularly played with a friend. His friend more often than not beat Turing at chess. The point about this is that in real life, Turing was extraordinary in the things that he was good at, namely mathematics, computers and robotics and hopeless at everything else. However the screen writer didn't have the convictions of the character he was writing about and had to make him a genius at every intellectual exercise he set his mind to.
When Turing cracks the Enigma code, I assume they just hand over all the data they have collected. The don't have a moral argument over what they reveal to their bosses. That's up to their superiors to decide, which is the way any organization works.
The interview at the police station where Turing reveals to the policemen what he really did during the war could not have taken place, since Turing was subject to the Secrets Act and subject to greater imprisonment if he revealed anything about his wartime activities.
The screenwriter misses a great opportunity at the start of the movie when he flags how Turing's death will occur by showing Turing cleaning up a cyanide spill in his laboratory. When the credits come up on the screen at the end of the movie, the captions reveal that Turing committed suicide. It doesn't reveal cyanide poisoning, which leaves it open to the viewer to decide whether Turing's death was an accident.

I haven't seen the film as I do worry with these type of films they suffer from being a bit too in love with the main character. It does sound like a few things have been twisted such as the crossword stuff. I think there is plenty of stuff out there on that so it was used and it's not surprising that codebreakers would be crossword fans, but I don't think it had been written anywhere that Turing was involved in that. And he did a lot and had an interesting life so they just don't need to twist things that much.

Yep....I saw the film. I agree with Progaspie's "holes." Churchill would have been too busy to read such nonsense, for example.

All in all, making use of poetic license, Turing was portrayed as a stereotypical Aspie who had a cold, calculated way about him. Mostly because of a schoolboy romance. The bullying was obviously vicious and could have "created" the character as well....but probably not the true Turing.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this.

This is, at least somewhat, a prime example of how (some) NT's see Aspergians.

It doesn't mean there's a "conspiracy" against Aspergians, or that all NT's are that way.

It's borne out of a lack of knowledge of individual Aspergians.

That movie is my new favourite. I love Benedict Cumberbatch and historical films of that time period (The King's Speech is second from the top on my list). I absolutely thought they portrayed Turing as deliberately Aspie, although interviews with the cast and creators claimed that he wasn't supposed to be. I thought that was stupid; there were so many deliberately planted, otherwise extraneous episodes that just screamed "autism" to me. The separation of the peas and carrots, the conversation about being an "odd duck", and the blatant statement that "no one ever says what they mean, but they expect everyone to know what they're talking about, only I never do" were so obviously autistic that I can't understand how they could be included if the writers hadn't intended to make him autistic.

As for the real Alan Turing, I did some research, and based on his correspondence and information from his living relatives, many people have posthumously "diagnosed" him with Asperger's. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he did have it. I started reading the biography that was written about him in 1983, and from the first chapter on his early childhood, he definitely meets many of the criteria for a diagnosis.

Turing coauthored a letter to Churchill in 1941 raising concerns and making requests. To read the original see link http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/turingletter.pdf

I get you, Coevolve...but I don't think everything would have been conducted in the way it was conducted in the movie.

I agree, movies (and even documentaries) are usually quite biased to varying degrees.

Beyond the film, the story about Bletchley Park is really interesting in its own right. I visited there a few years ago and it was quite something in terms of history / old facilities / museum. Turing was a great thinker and it was a shame that he had such a terrible time in his life. I thought the Queen pardoning him was offensive to all of the homosexuals that were not pardoned but prosecuted at the same time as Turing. Indeed I think the Government should have pardoned all people who were charged with being homosexual in his honour and called it "The Turing Rule" or "Turing Act". That would have been more positive considering that I am sure a lot of people who were not famous scientists had their lives ruined by being arrested for being gay in those days. Sad period of history.

See link to the Royal Pardon https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268717/pardon.jpg

I agree. It's a travesty that not every gay person was pardoned.

Then the record would be clear, and the families of these people would have some kind of "closure"--though, unfortunately, it wouldn't bring back the people who committed suicide owing (directly or indirectly) to the law (such as Turing).

It was a ridiculous law based upon spurious (at best) conceptions. It caused lots of suffering amongst people who didn't deserve to suffer.

I'm a straight person--but I believe in the right to be whatever sexual orientation is desired.

Derek Jacobi played Turing- first on stage and the on TV. He had to limit Turings severe stuttering and all his manners in order to "get through the performance before midnight". I absolutely recommend "Breaking the Code", which can be seen on Youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23yie-779k
His naivity, his insisting on straightforewardness against the unwritten etikette of the place, his paranoia, obsessions and peculiar ideas and little stims = Aspie.
Btw. Briliant acting by everyone.

Thanks StarTrekker - you answered my questions

There we go.

If they had plainly said the truth then we might not be talking so much about it now.

Deception requires more communications and interactions.