The Unlikely Sherlockian Connection
Between Benedict Cumberbatch and ‘The Imitation Game’
NOVEMBER
12, 2014 | 08:36AM
Spreading the word about Alan Turing has become something of a
mission for those involved in the film, especially Cumberbatch, who noted that
audiences seem to be responding to the mathematician’s remarkable tale. “The
majority of the reactions that I’ve heard of afterwards, people are going ‘why
the hell haven’t I heard of this man? Why didn’t I know this story?’ And I feel
the same; he should be in history books as well as on the front covers of
science books. He should be on bank notes with Darwin
and Newton
“He’s
a war hero, a gay icon,
and the founder of the computer age. He really is that important — he invented the idea of the
universal machine, which still exists. Computers anywhere in the world, no
matter what language you speak, operating the same system, that was his
concept. The internet would’ve been a disaster for manufacturing and consumerism and computers if the universal
machine wasn’t already in place as something that he’d implemented, because everything would’ve
had to change… Now, when you put his name in Google, it links him with me,
which I’m very flattered about, but which I had to apologize to his family
about at the London premiere — it’s sort of the wonderful irony in a way, that’s
the same algorithm
that he used to crack the code,” he added.
But
Turing didn’t crack the Enigma
code alone; though he wasn’t much of a team player, the government assembled a
number of code breakers to work the problem alongside him, including Hugh
Alexander (Matthew Goode), John Cairncross (Allen Leech) and Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), the only female member of the team.
“What’s interesting about Joan
is that her story, her real story, follows exactly the same argument as feminism today,”
Knightley noted on the red carpet. “What she was up against was a place at the
table and equal pay, and it’s amazing how, of course women’s rights have come
on a huge way since the 1940s but, the argument at the center of feminism today
is still a place at the table and equal pay. So I thought that was very
interesting.”
Goode — currently appearing in
CBS’ “The Good Wife” — and Leech, who stars on “Downton Abbey,” hope that the
film can affect positive social change, given the way Turing was victimized for his genius
and his sexuality.
“A tagline of the film is that it can take
someone different to achieve the kind of greatness Alan Turing did, and I think
it’s too easy these days when someone is different, especially in a school
environment, to shun
them and make fun of them, and there are repercussions to that,” Goode noted.
“Luckily, this man still fought his way through and was able to change the
course of the world in many ways.”
Leech agreed, “I hope
people recognize… what this man could’ve achieved. Rather than celebrating the
fact that he was different, we persecuted him for it, and look what we lost.”
“The Imitation Game” hits
theaters on Nov. 28.
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/benedict-cumberbatch-alan-turing-imitation-game-sherlock-1201353771/
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- Cumberbatch
WHEN- not given
WHAT- Cumberbatch
commented on Alan Turing
WHY- Cumberbatch played
Alan Turing’s part
WHERER-not given
HOW-not given
Keywords：
1. icon崇拜對象
2. manufacturing從事製造業的
3. consumerism消費主義
4. implement執行
5. irony諷刺
6. algorithm演算法
7. enigma不可解的事物
8. feminism爭取女權運動
9. victimize使犧牲；受迫害
10. tagline高潮下的結尾
11. shun避開
12. persecute迫害
