M
manualman
Guest
So I went to see this film expecting it to be a propaganda piece promoting homosexuality in a similar manner to the way that “The Cider House Rules” was a propaganda piece designed to humanize and legitimize public perception of abortionists.
I was pleasantly surprised to find I was wrong. Or perhaps it was such a piece, but the propaganda was done so badly that it turned out to be a good film!
SPOILERS: The film is about a Dr. Turing, a brilliant mathematician in Britain in WW2 who essentially invented the computer as a means to break the Nazi Enigma cipher system. He is also homosexual. The film does a magnificent job of illustrating a brilliant, but troubled and in some ways broken man who nevertheless had the unique skills and talents to create a previously unimagined means of breaking a code cipher.
Here’s where it gets really interesting. The film does a brilliant job of working to break down REAL homophobia (defined as the hatred of a PERSON because of his homosexual inclinations). If that was the PR goal, it was achieved nicely. It also portrayed the way in which societal rejection and physical harm to people who commit homosexual actions does more harm than good.
But what surprised me was the extent to which the film did NOT attempt to portray his “gayness” as a positive innate feature of his identity. My own catholic views on the sinfulness of homosexual behavior were not challenged in any serious way by the PR message. I was expecting a much tougher sell and expected to, as usual, be called a bigot. Instead, what I saw was a good man, but broken and fallen due to sin and in need of a Savior. Tragically, he instead chose his temptations and the consequences destroyed him in spite of his towering achievements.
The producers probably felt that they put in a nice PR message. They probably think they sent the message that society for too long has oppressed homosexuals instead of valuing the contributions gay people have made. But I saw a subtle difference. I saw Turing harnessing his frustrations and desires and channeling them into his work to a level that made him achieve something nobody before him ever dreamed of. It wasn’t giving in to his temptations that allowed that achievement, it was the control of them that empowered him. When he DID give in to his temptations, they destroyed him.
If you’ve held off on seeing the movie, don’t fret. If the idea that a gay man can be a great man offends you, then you probably need to be offended in order to repent. Because sinners can still be great men, it’s just that their sins aren’t contributors to their greatness. Maybe the movie producers didn’t even comprehend that. Turing was a tragic hero, whose flaw destroyed him in the end. In the movie, he doesn’t seem to have found his Savior. In real life, may God have mercy on his soul.
I was pleasantly surprised to find I was wrong. Or perhaps it was such a piece, but the propaganda was done so badly that it turned out to be a good film!
SPOILERS: The film is about a Dr. Turing, a brilliant mathematician in Britain in WW2 who essentially invented the computer as a means to break the Nazi Enigma cipher system. He is also homosexual. The film does a magnificent job of illustrating a brilliant, but troubled and in some ways broken man who nevertheless had the unique skills and talents to create a previously unimagined means of breaking a code cipher.
Here’s where it gets really interesting. The film does a brilliant job of working to break down REAL homophobia (defined as the hatred of a PERSON because of his homosexual inclinations). If that was the PR goal, it was achieved nicely. It also portrayed the way in which societal rejection and physical harm to people who commit homosexual actions does more harm than good.
But what surprised me was the extent to which the film did NOT attempt to portray his “gayness” as a positive innate feature of his identity. My own catholic views on the sinfulness of homosexual behavior were not challenged in any serious way by the PR message. I was expecting a much tougher sell and expected to, as usual, be called a bigot. Instead, what I saw was a good man, but broken and fallen due to sin and in need of a Savior. Tragically, he instead chose his temptations and the consequences destroyed him in spite of his towering achievements.
The producers probably felt that they put in a nice PR message. They probably think they sent the message that society for too long has oppressed homosexuals instead of valuing the contributions gay people have made. But I saw a subtle difference. I saw Turing harnessing his frustrations and desires and channeling them into his work to a level that made him achieve something nobody before him ever dreamed of. It wasn’t giving in to his temptations that allowed that achievement, it was the control of them that empowered him. When he DID give in to his temptations, they destroyed him.
If you’ve held off on seeing the movie, don’t fret. If the idea that a gay man can be a great man offends you, then you probably need to be offended in order to repent. Because sinners can still be great men, it’s just that their sins aren’t contributors to their greatness. Maybe the movie producers didn’t even comprehend that. Turing was a tragic hero, whose flaw destroyed him in the end. In the movie, he doesn’t seem to have found his Savior. In real life, may God have mercy on his soul.
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