Fact: Alan Turing did not singlehandedly invent and physically build the machine that broke the Germans’ Enigma Code like portrayed in the movie The Imitation Game film with Benedict Cumberbatch.
Most of Benedict’s portrayal of the cryptanalyst (who so happened to be gay) was spot on. Alan Turing was indeed a marathon runner, indifferent to politics, was absolutely exceptional at mathematics (which comes to no surprise), and made unsuccessful advancements on men… duh! Alan Turing really had one true love named, Christopher Morcom who eventually passed after his battle with Tuberculosis. Alan was never able to confess his love.
Moving forward, in 1939 Britain declares war on Germany. Turing moves to Bletchley Park where under Commander Alastair Denniston forms a cohort of cryptoanalysts. While the movie indicates that Turing created his own machine from scratch, in reality, Polish cryptanalysts assembled the first machine prior to Alan ever even becoming a cryptologist. Turing was brought into the group mainly to create a faster machine than what the Polish had assembled for breaking the enigma code.
Furthermore, Turing didn’t created the machine by himself like is revealed in the film. In fact, the mathematician Gordon Welchman collaborated with Turing in the design but was never mentioned in the movie. Many other aspects of Turing was somewhat altered in the movie that was brought about by Cumberbatch. They made him out to be somewhat on the autistic spectrum and created this narcissistic side to Turing that wasn’t necessarily true. Most of what is written in Hodges biographical The Imitation Game book, has been partially exaggerated. What is presented doesn’t necessarily give credence to the Alan Turing film.
