The Imitation Game

Citation

Jane Chaplin, Sal Hampson and Peter Roscoe (2016), "The Imitation Game", Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 73-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAOA-02-2016-0011

The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing, Enigma Code Breaker, resident of Bletchley Park and homosexual, whose mathematical genius changed the shape of the Second World War and whose sexuality brought about his own downfall.

Do any viewers leave this film feeling guilty at their silence?

Within living memory for us all – be it of the Second World War, the breaking news of the role of Enigma, cracking the code, Turing’s death or pardon – facets of this story have peaked in the news over the past 70 years.

Perhaps shockingly to contemporary audiences, the government of the day, through their agents of the state gave overt weight to particular values – with Turing, the war hero sacrificed for Turing, the despicable homosexual criminal. The fact that the impact of Turing’s heroics was not fully known at the time, does not seem credible in this day and age, when it is apparent that his actions saved millions of lives. Perhaps this says something about how Gays are portrayed in history – Turing depicted as a mathematical genius, extreme in his self-belief, inadequate socially with little acknowledgement beyond a note in the final text-scroll of his contribution to the giant leap forward in computing.

Looking through Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) eyes, The Imitation Game represents the appalling attitudes of a past age regarding the LGBT community and the effects of that attitude on the way in which individuals were treated. Wrapped around the historically important story of Enigma, the scenes related to Alan Turing’s sexuality and the treatment he received at the hands of authority in those times – up to 1967 – give a clear indication of how that treatment affected so many lives.

This is a film where the main character’s sexuality was minimised, reflecting the reality of living in a period prior to major changes in the law (and perhaps attitudes of the 1960s). The characters reflect the fear, and the vulnerability to blackmail or “outing” and the persecution of the authorities against particularly homosexual men, entrapment and callous attitudes shown by authority towards LGBT communities.

Perhaps this film illustrates for young people today what has been won for them over the last 50 odd years, explaining some of the fear and misunderstanding within the LGBT community itself, especially amongst people of an age who were affected by the now hard-to-believe legal position of the past for the LGBT community, with its harsh depiction of the Police. This film may help youngsters to understand why what has been achieved is so precious – and recognise prevailing struggles – there is still much to do especially for the T element of LGBT into the future to remove stigma and poor attitudes within the community as a whole.

People viewing this film who are not from the community and those within the community can witness those outdated and unreasonable attitudes and their effects, which hopefully inform and enable people today to consider all as individuals with important roles in the wider community and respect people for that.

Will the younger generations remember Turing for Enigma or for his royal pardon? How do we remember Oscar Wilde?

About the reviewers

The authors are all involved in SAND – Safe Ageing No Discrimination, a group working to improve the experiences and increase the expectations of older and LGBT people in Shropshire. Sal Hampson is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: lgbtsand@gmail.com