Monster, criminal or war hero? A superb performance by Benedict Cumberbatch aka Sherlock Holmes fleshes out the Hollywood biopic of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game . Alan who? Alan Turing, the mathematician cryptologist credited as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. Together with a top-secret team of not-so-ordinary men and women, he was responsible for building a machine that finally cracked intercepted coded messages from the Nazi's Enigma programme during World War 2. Apparently his Turing machine enabled the Allies to gain significant victories that shortened the war in Europe by as many as two to four years, saving an estimated 14 to 21 million lives. Ironically his work remained secret for some 50 years and it was only lately in 2013 that he was granted a posthumous pardon for committing gross indecency, homosexuality being still a crime back in his days. Opting for chemical castration instead of jail time, he died of an apparent suicide when he was just 41 years old. A tragic story, but how much artistic license Hollywood has taken out of the real life of this genius I wouldn't know.
Was he really a social mis-fit? An arrogant insensitive obnoxious super-geek? Did he really stutter? Is the portrayal of a rejected, lonely boy, bullied at school, misunderstood by peers, disliked by superiors real? Or merely melodrama; for obviously tragic heroes tugs at human hearts and sells more tickets. Whatever, undeniably his was a brilliant mind buried inside a not-quite-ordinary personality. Perhaps geniuses all have a touch of madness about them. As his ex-fiancee and co-worker expresses it, "The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't (normal)". And I am sure she wasn't referring to his homosexuality. After all, if you are a genius, you are genius; sexuality has nothing to do with it. Same irrelevance with race, age, gender. Yes, we can condemn the act of his prosecution, but the fact remains that was the law in those days, and he was guilty of offending it. Incidentally, that same law is still written in our Malaysian books today, and already used against a very famous Malaysian no less.
So to me, Turing's homosexuality was just Hollywood tying in an emotional angle to the man. I was struck more by the moral dilemma that presented at the climax after the team finally cracked the code. They now had knowledge of their enemy's movements, plans and strategies. With 1 phone call, they could activate reprisal and preventive action to counter the Nazi advance. Yet apparently Turing refused to allow the information to be relayed to proper security channels; he denied his own team-member's appeal to save the latter's brother whose ship was already targeted to be bombed. Because if they acted, the enemy would know their code had been broken and come up with something else, and they would all be back to square one. And the war would never end, the Nazis may even win with a new unbreakable code. The world couldn't afford to let that happen. So a conspiracy of lies was set up, which involved British secret intelligence agency MI6, such that only they could decide 'statistically' when to go on the offensive and when to let the Nazis win.
In short they were all playing God, deciding who should live and who should die. It turns my stomach to think that my life could be in the hands of a machine; that I am just a 'statistic' in a war game over which I have no control and no idea even that I am in it. If true, was this justifiable? Is it really for the 'greater good'? To let some die so more/others could be saved? Fair? Of course not, if you or your loved ones happen to be whom a numbers-crunching machine considers a 'dispensable disposable'. Necessary? Yes is a brutally honest answer.
I walk out of the cinema thanking God I am most certainly not a number to Him. He has already invented a program that can save everyone from a death worse than physically dying. Way before Turing's idea of sacrificing some for the sake of a bigger good, God already sent 1 Man to die for the world. It wasn't fair for Jesus to hang on a cross paying the price for all of mankind's sin. But it was necessary. So it was done. Thank God it was done; because of Him doing it, today I am not just alive, but I have resurrection eternal life.
"You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die....than that the whole nation perish.” -John 11:50
"Therefore, as through one man (Adam)'s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man (Jesus)’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life." - Romans 5:18
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