True Stories 32: 10s—The Imitation Game

So how’s it going? Still on that New Year’s diet? Still following those resolutions? Hopefully, discussing The Imitation Game [2014] by Graham Moore will take your mind off of those obligations for a moment or two.

There’s another film about this subject, the code breakers in England during WWII, and that’s Enigma [2001] by Tom Stoppard—a film that I absolutely love. But I’ve talked about it before in these blogs so I thought a look at The Imitation Game, which covers the same incidents/time period, might be interesting.

Overall, viewers and critics seemed to prefer The Imitation Game over Enigma—but I’m definitely in the Enigma camp, though The Imitation Game is totally worth talking about.

Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ndMlrJXf0

And perhaps a better look at the film can be had by looking at this short video that takes you behind the scenes of the making of the film. You’ll hear everyone involved with the film talk about everything from the script to the production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- WXVyjwuIok

The film tells a story about how Alan Turing cracked the German codes during WWII. And most people know that cracking those codes was integral to the Allies winning the war. But the excitement of how it was done is fascinating to watch.

Like a lot of films based on real events, there are many inaccuracies in this film. Watching the film, you’d pretty much think Turing broke the code single-handedly. But, in fact, someone else on the team cracked the initial code that led to Turing building his machine—and that person isn’t even in the film.

Why do things like this happen? Why do facts get changed? There’s one reason—the story. Everyone involved with the film wants to make the story as strong as possible. If that means beefing up the role of one of the characters so that we, the audience, can be invested in him and his success, well, those changes are made. The point is, your main character, like the white knight on his horse in the fairy tale, needs to ride into the village and solve the problem.

It's a question, when you’re writing, of ‘where do you draw the line’ though, isn’t it? How far will you stray from the facts to improve the story. Personally, I think it’s a moral dilemma—mainly because SO many people who watch the film will assume it’s accurate. So you have to ask yourself what your main job is—to write an engaging true story even though that means you have to fabricate a few things, OR to write an engaging true story that is… true. Personally, I think the latter is more of a challenge, and more rewarding.

Next week, we head to another war as we look at American Sniper.

Copyright © Diane Lake

08Jan23

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