2015 Oscar Nominated Film

For this weeks category, 2015 Oscar Nominated Film, I choose to watch "The Imitation Game", which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay (which it won), Best Film editing. Benedict Cumberbatch was also nominated for Best Actor for the movie as well as Keira Knightly for Best Supporting Actress. I mainly wanted to watch this movie because it is about World War II, which I find very interesting. I had high expectations since the movie was nominated for multiple Oscars, and most of my expectations were met if not exceeded. While the movie was about World War II, it did not concentrate on the fighting of the war on the front lines, but rather behind the fighting where Allen Turing worked and designed a machine called "Christopher" to defeat the German machine 'Enigma'. While the movie starts off making Allen look like an arrogant jerk, which is what most people judge him to be based on first impressions, one of my favorite things about the film was the character and story development of Allen. He does come across as a jerk who believes himself to be better than everyone else because of his intellectual talents, but the movie begins to show flashbacks that explain why Allen is the way he is. These parts especially tugged at my heart strings as the movie shows a young Allen being bullied as a kid, simply because he thinks differently than everyone else. I think it was very critical for the movie to show these scenes, because it allowed the audience to better understand Allen and be on his side as he faces difficulties trying to defeat 'Enigma' because of the way he thinks. Later on in the movie, it is revealed that Allen is gay, which plays a large role in his flashbacks as well as a weight he must carry in the form of a secret that could have him arrested. This part blew my mind, to think that at one time it was actually illegal to be homosexual, and one could face jail time because of it. After Allen cracks the "Enigma' he goes on to be a professor, and as the story jumps to present time, he is accused of being a homosexual. This leads to him going before a jury and having to decide between 2 years in jail or having to take hormonal pills to 'cure' him of homosexuality. He chooses the pills which have bad effects on him, and he is discredited for all his hard work, leading him to commit suicide because he hated himself for not being 'normal', even though his work saved millions of lives. This part of the movie made me very sympathetic towards Allen, as it seems impossible for me to grasp the fact that the law could force him to take hormonal pills and the fact that he was discredited all of his hard work, simply because he was gay. The movie ends by sharing that in 2013, Allen Turing was finally recognized for his work that led to the invention of the computer. "The Imitation Game" consisted of a lot of bridging shots to help show that time had passed, which I liked because it made the plot of the movie appear to happen over a long period of time. The movie also used a lot of medium shots when characters were speaking, which I thought was a good technique as it helped to establish a connection between me and each character. This movie seemed to express the themes of Man vs. Society, as Allen worked to prove that his work was important and crucial to ending the war while everyone else saw him as being too weird to consider his relevance. It also expressed the theme of Man vs. Himself, as Allen fought to keep his own secret and be happy with the fact that he was not 'normal', which led him to eventually commit suicide. Overall, I enjoyed this movie because along with the fact that it made me think intellectually, it also made me feel for the main character in hopes that he would achieve his recognition and made me think about the idea that just because someone thinks differently than you doesn't mean they are wrong. I also enjoyed the fact that it was based on a true story, which gave the movie even more meaning. I would give "The Imitation Game" a 9 out of 10.