Decoding Alan Turing

Christopher Racster's short film features interviews with experts and admirers of cryptographer Alan Turing, the brilliant Cambridge-educated mathematician who helped to crack Nazi Germany's Enigma Code (and is credited by some with creating the first computer), but also suffered a tragic end because he was gay. Author Andrew Hodges (Alan Turing: The Enigma) notes that as a student Turing “saw the future of computing,” including artificial intelligence. Racster also visits Bletchley Park, Britain's wartime decryption center, where Dr. Tony Sale discusses Turing's codebreaking activities, beginning in 1939. Toward the end of the war, Turing and his team were deciphering 3,000 messages a day, which Sale describes as “an enormous contribution to the war effort.” Bletchley tour guide Hugh Davies states that Turing made no secret of his sexual orientation, although it was illegal in England at the time. In 1952, however, Turing faced criminal charges for homosexuality and went to Norway, but other legal problems followed. In 1954, he was mysteriously found dead at age 41, with a cyanide-laced apple nearby. Turing's fame continues to endure around the world, and an A.M. Turing Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery for outstanding technical contributions in the field. Interspersed throughout the interviews are archival photographs and clips from the 2001 feature film Enigma and the 1996 TV biography of Turing, Breaking the Code, starring Derek Jacobi. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)