How do you feel about "Imitation Game"?

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I just saw a quick snip and immediately knew they were portraying Turing as on the spectrum, but I immediately found an article that says there is no evidence saying he was, and that those who knew him say he was warm/sociable.

While of course I don't love the further broadcasting of the stereotypical Aspie savant image, particularly if he was not, I think it still has a lot of potential to show a more thorough reality of someone on the spectrum than, say, the guy on Big Band Theory who seems rather cliche and barely touches on other elements of ASD (except that one episode where they discuss his asexuality, I liked that).

What do you think?

I saw the movie last week. Loved it. They way he is portrayed in the movie He had it. But the movie has the message that being different is good. We need more movies like this that shows different people in a positive light.

I'll let you know when I see it.

I agree. The way Turing was portrayed did indeed give me the impression that he may have had HFA/Aspergers. A great movie with great performances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, and Matthew Goode.

I LOVED it, saw it twice, and wept profusely at the end both times. Go see it!! !

Benedict Cumberbatch was absolutely brilliant, as usual, and so was Keira Knightly and everyone else. Cumberbatch definitely portrayed Turing as having Asperger's, but he did it in a very sympathetic way. I don't know if this is accurate but Andrew Hodges' bio definitely described him as a fairly odd, socially awkward character. A friend pointed out some historical inaccuracies (like the spy Cairncross working in Hut 8, who was actually on another team), but if you can look at it from an artistic point of view rather than strict historicity, then it's an excellent picture.

The film was an all-round class act - script, casting, acting, period detail, overall cohesion. Cumberbatch surprised me at how good he was in personifying the role with such subtlety, and the direction must have been first class. It's bound to pick up some Oscars, it certainly deserves to. From my perpsective it's hard to see a neurotypical person thinking so far out of the square as Turing did, going against the popular tide of thought, and not caring about the personal and professional cost but focused on the bigger picture, and damn popularity, promotion or sucking up. So what if some people wrote that he wasn't on the spectrum - that happens all the time and it just goes with the territory. Did those people know much about the personal experience of ASD? And if so how accurate was what they had read or heard? It doesn't matter what others think about things like that to me.

Have either of you considered the idea that it was the actor, and not Turing himself, that may be "on the spectrum"?

What you were watching was not Turing, but an actor presenting his own interpretation of how a computer genius behaves. He may not have even met Turing in the first place!

I sincerely hope that you don't believe that it was actually Alan Turing portraying himself, do you?

It's possible that both the actor and Turing are on the spectrum.. whatever..

I absolutely loved the movie. I thought that Cumberbatch did an incredible job in his interpretation of the role. I don't know whether it was true to what Turing himself was like or not, but it made for a very good movie. My favorite part of the movie was towards the end, where he asks the detective to judge him...I almost started crying, and I seldom cry in movies.

I don't know about you guys, but I am plenty steamed at the British for what they did to Alan after the war. He was just 41 years old. Who knows what else he could have done? Britain's computers would be more advanced than they are now, too.

He was treated appallingly because he was gay. It is good that he has received posthumously a royal pardon and government apologies, but what about all the other gay men who were similarly persecuted for the same reason? Don't they deserve an apology too? Many of them no doubt also committed suicide after the appalling persecution they experienced.

Indeed, they all deserve apology. So what they were gay? The only 'gross indecency' here was the stupid mindless prejudices.