Breaking the Code

1996
7.1| 1h31m| en
Details

A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when this was illegal, besides being a security risk.

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Reviews

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Rpgcatech Disapointment
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Earthmonkey16 Although the story of Alan Turing should be well known to everybody I put in a spoiler alert..Alan Turing's life is shown in this film, his fascination for mathematics started as a lifeline for his homosexual feelings.The whole story is centered around Alan Turing being burglarized .. which leads eventually to his arrest for being homosexual... And his suicide..But it shows how secrecy over wartime activities in Bletchley Park has haltered many brilliant minds in their civilian careers. The tragedy of not being able to enjoy what was his due... Although Alan was awarded an OBE his work was kept secret for years... And did not protect him in his personal life... sadly.It is also testament to how an open society which does not shun those that are different from important positions (like the code breakers) beats a totalitarian regime like Nazi German. I also recommend you try to find the BBC -Code breakers, Bletchley park lost heroes- which shows 2 even more hidden geniuses, who worked at Bletchley. It is a touching story, well acted (Derek Jacobi is always brilliant in his acting)
Chris Jones (crljones) Somewhat misleading if you want to learn about the history of super-secret Bletchley Park (BP) and breaking the German's "Enigma" codes during WWII. This film flits back and forth between pre and post-war scene's describing some of Alan Turings involvement at BP, but really focuses on the post WWII era leading to Turing's suicide. The "codes" being broken in this story are social.Turing's eccentricity and sexuality remain overlooked while he is vital to the war effort, but become the reason for mistrust, suspicion and even betrayal after-wards. Despite being a brilliant mathematician in a quest for beauty of mathematical truth in the Enigma codes, he is ultimately undone and outed by his own naivety.This film is also an homage to the unique style of Harold Pinter's intense personal dialogue's. Pinter himself appears as the mysterious yet vague intelligence "handler" who confronts Turing after he becomes a security concern. These scenes are Turing's "soliloquy" to the question of what drives his loyalty to truth and in his mind, to England. As he comes to understand their distrust, his words resonate with an anti-MacCarthyan rhythm and represent the stark psychological volte-face from pre-WarII naivety to Cold War paranoia.
bob the moo I came to this film thinking it would be about the code-breaking element of Alan Turing's life, his work on the famous Enigma code and computers and it took me a minute to get into the fact that the film is actually much more about him as a man in the later stages of his life. In this regard the film actually turns out to be more interesting than it would have been if it just focused on the work side of the man; certainly it serves up more for the writers and lead actor to work with.I think it was a coincidence but the film was shown recently on BBC4 around the time that Channel 4 was marking the 40th anniversary of the legalisation of male homosexuality in the UK, which is a theme that is central in this film. The material brings out the genius and imagination of Turing but also the tragic confession that saw his life under threat. The film leaves us in no doubt that Turing was fortunate in his situation but that the illegal nature of his (now commonplace) sexual relationship saw his life threatened regardless of what he had done in the past.It is this truth and this struggle that the film focuses on and it makes it more interesting as a result. Wise's direction is quite patient and still, which makes the film feel a little stagy and slow but works in the way it sits back and allows the cast to work. Specifically this serves Derek Jacobi well because his performance is impressive throughout, whether it is his passion for his subject or his sense of panic when he realises he has incriminated himself, he is convincing. Support is good from Armstrong, Scales, Pinter and others but the film does belong to Jacobi.Overall then this is a slow film that may frustrate some viewers with its pace or the way that it overlooks Turings work in favour of him as a man. This does work though and makes for an interesting character piece and, other than the pace the only issue I had with it was the fact that the film concludes with the news that Turing was later recognised by having part of a roundabout in Manchester named after him. Surely it would have been better to have closed the film by remembering his contribution rather than this rather weak platitude?
Acolyte-2 A moving depiction of the life of genius Alan Turing, the mathematician who broke Nazi Germany's Enigma code during WWII and who provided much of the theoretical foundation of modern computer science. Jacobi masterfully portrays Turing in all phases of his life, from his troubled days as a student to his career as codebreaker at Bletchley Park, and to his later suicide after having been hounded to the point of despair by an ungrateful and mistrustful government over his homosexuality.If this film has a flaw at all, it's that Jacobi is physically unlike Turing in every way; there's absolutely no point of resemblance. But his performance is so absorbing that you don't really notice until it's all over with.

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