Persecuted Brilliance gets a Biopic
November 23, 2014
The Imitation Game (2014).
D: Morten Tyldum. DP: Oscar Faura. W: Graham Moore. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch/Keira Knightley/Matthew Goode/Charles Dance/Mark Strong/Allen Leech/Rory Kinnear/James Northcote/Matthew Beard. (Based on the 1992 book “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges).
As the Oscar predictions begin to roll in, there is nothing like a decent star-turning biopic to get people really talking. Among the Weinstein Company’s gets during it’s festival runs (Studio Canal is distributing here in the UK), The Imitation Game pulled a screenplay off the Blacklist and a twenty year old book off the shelf. Couple this with BBC’s Sherlock star, Benedict Cumberbatch, and yo
Based on the life of Cambridge mathematician, Alan Turing, The Imitation Game is structured like a typical biopic and uses three different timelines. The film follows Turing (Cumberbatch) as a young teen at boarding school, his hiring and involvement with the British war effort in cracking the Nazi enigma code, and his final time where he is persecuted for being homosexual. The structure is non-linear, moving through these three periods, which is one of its weakness. Cumberbatch’s Turing is so subtly complex and quietly devastating that this Hollywood glossy structure doesn’t ring true. That being said a linear narrative would have been equally as boring and lacked any suspense, but thankfully the film is not ruined.
The driving force of The Imitation Game is certainly Cumberbatch. Lithe like his Sherlock, he creates a Turing built on language and genius that has licked his bullied wounds and moved on. He has moments where he teeters on the brink of Sheldon Cooper land, but his instincts seem to bring him back. Cumberbatch is supported well by Keira Knightley’s Joan whose connection with Turing has lovely tenderness to it. Although surrounded by other deft English actors the camera hardly strays from Cumberbatch. There are consistent shots of the back of head throughout the film, giving Turing a faceless quality that reminded me of the secrecy of not only the breaking of the code, but of his life in general.
Similar to 2009’s The Blind Side, 2010’s The Fighter, 2011’s The Iron Lady, and even Cumberbatch’s in last year’s The Fifth Estate, the crux of this film is the performance. Much has already been written about how much any biopic can be accurate, and specifically if The Imitation Game address Turing’s personal life enough. I do not think the film marginalizes his persecution as a homosexual, but it certainly isn’t the focus of the narrative. His brilliance at cracking the code and his development of the computer have been overshadowed, even made invisible by his personal life. This is the tragedy and I believe the film’s goal is to reveal that. The sadness is compounded when his pardon was only given in 2013, nearly fifty years after his death. I do not think the film needed to give us more for us to feel that weight, that loss, that disgust at our own history.
Mr. Pitt’s War Film
November 20, 2014
Fury (2014).
D/W: David Ayer. DP: Roman Vasyanov. Starring: Brad Pitt/Shia LaBeouf/Logan Lerman/Michael Peña/Jon Bernthal/Jason Issacs/Jim Parrack/ Brad William Henke/Xavier Samuel.
The token war film of this award season is of course David Ayer’s Fury. Marketed and sold around lead and producer Brad Pitt, the film centers on a group of American tank soldiers deep into Nazi Germany. Virulent and grim, Fury tackles a character driven story plastered in an epic setting.
The most compelling part of the film is the group’s bravado and bond with each other. Brad Pitt’s Don leads his team with a deft fist and a rigorous voice. Although he has aged, the camera still fetishizes Pitt, even when caked in mud. Pitt and Ayer selected a great team in Michael Peña (2012 End of Watch), Jon Bernthal (AMC’s The Walking Dead), Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman (Noah). Lerman, who broke into the scene in 2012’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the newbie on the team whose fear and denial of his soldier status rings true. The real fascination is LaBeouf’s Boyd/Bible whose acting methods have been publicized and are extreme, but he delivers. Will this resurrect his career and public image? It’s really hard to tell just yet.
Of course, Pitt’s Don is not without his own glamour shot. Excused in the narrative as the reverse shot reveals extensive war wounds, Pitt’s pectorals are on full display, filling the screen. The locus on his body actually detracts from a nuanced scene that eventually recovers, but not without an eye roll or two.
All six, including Fury, of films Ayer has directed deal with extensive and oftentimes traumatic levels of violence. In this WWII context Ayer balances the internal violence between the men, including pent up aggression for the enemy, with strict decimation. His script takes us in and out of the tank enough to illustrate cause and effect without homogenizing his characters. Steven Price’s score is great, but too many musical cues force a hand out to the audience too much. I think tanks rolling over bodies is cue enough.
Ultimately, Fury is a loud, focused war film without any specific historical or locational significance. Yet its objective seems to hammer home the violence of war internally and externally regardless of place and time. But Fury‘s undoing is it’s glorification of Pitt and redeeming or even hopeful ending.