Enigma (2001)

There are nit-picky things to complain about but it was an alright movie.  They do some nice twists and turns.  I wondered who the matronly but attractive glorified secretary was and it was Kate Winslet!  It’s a movie about enigma in WWII, who wouldn’t want to watch it?

So go watch it.

I didn’t like how they ignored the actual history of Enigma, specifically completely ignoring the Polish completely.  I didn’t like how Jericho was clearly modeled after Turing who was a homosexual man and very unlikely to be interested in Claire.  To be honest, it’s a weird sort of fusion of Turing with William Friedman’s efforts on PURPLE.  Bletchley and Katyn definitely deserve more discussion and realistically, any movie that does that is acceptable for me.

The story is slow to take off and Jericho isn’t much of a hero or anti-hero for my taste.  It’s worth taking it all the way to the end though and I’d recommend watching it.  If you’ve read any of the more comprehensive in scope WII histories of intelligence activities, you’ll find some enjoyment in the synthesis of historical events into one narrative.

IMHO, the actual story of Bletchley Park is interesting enough to not change history to suit one’s needs but I understand they were trying to tailor it to people’s expectations.

Did anyone else think Hester went both ways?

–Kryptosfan