Codebreaker (2011 film)
| Codebreaker | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Clare Beavan Nic Stacey |
| Produced by | Paul Ashby Jennifer Beamish Clare Beavan Ryan Greenawalt Patrick Sammon Paul Sen Bennett Singer |
| Written by |
Craig Warner Simon Berthon |
| Starring |
Ed Stoppard Henry Goodman Paul McGann Jean Valentine |
| Distributed by | Channel 4 |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
62 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Codebreaker (2011), original UK title Britain's Greatest Codebreaker, is a TV film aired on 21 November 2011 by Channel 4 about the life of Alan Turing. The film had a limited release in the U.S. beginning on 17 October 2012. The story is told as a discussion between Alan Turing and his psychiatrist Dr. Franz Greenbaum. The story is based on journals maintained by Dr. Franz Greenbaum and others who have studied the life of Alan Turing and also some of his colleagues.
The film starts in October 1952 after Alan Turing (Ed Stoppard) has been convicted. He is talking to his psychiatrist, Dr. Franz Greenbaum (Henry Goodman). Dr. Greenbaum and Alan continue to discuss; Alan informs Dr. Greenbaum that he cannot talk about his war time activities. Dr. Greenbaum informs him that he can talk about anything he wants. Sir Dermot Turing, nephew of Alan, is shown and he goes on to explain how life was for John Turing (Alan's brother) and Alan Turing during their childhood. David Leavitt appears next and talks about Turing's school time activities. David further explains that Turing was good at mathematics and athletics. His favourite sport was running.
The scene shifts backs to the discussion between Turing and Dr. Greenbaum. Turing speaks about a school friend he was interested in, Christopher Morcom. They were in different houses so they could meet a couple of times a week. Turing worked on improving his handwriting because Christopher would make fun of it. Turing goes on to explain that he cared more about what Christopher thought about him than what he thought of himself. Christopher Morcom QC (nephew of Christopher Morcom) goes on to explain that Christopher and Turing became close friends during their school days. They were planning to join Cambridge University but on 13 February 1930 Christopher died.
The scene again shifts backs to the discussion between Turing and Dr. Greenbaum. Turing informs him that he wrote letters to Christopher's mother and even managed to acquire his photograph. He still has the photograph in his wallet, and he shows it to Dr. Greenbaum. Turing later goes on to publish his paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem". A computer in those days did not mean a machine, it meant a person who calculates or computes. Turing proposes automating these tasks, proposing a universal Turing machine. It involved performing mathematical operations using zeros and ones. This became the basis of modern computers. Steve Wozniak goes on to explain how normal people these days carry and use Turing machines in the form of mobile phones, cameras, computers, etc. Alma Whitten explains that there are almost no fields of modern science and everyday life which are not impacted by a Turing machine.
...
Wikipedia