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Alan Turing, a British mathematician, joins the cryptography team to decipher the German enigma code. With the help of his fellow mathematicians, he builds a machine to crack the codes.
PG-13 | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller 8
as of February 2014, not yet released
To see a vast array of lectures, search for: The National Museum of Computing. Excellent resource for first person accounts of Bletchley, Colossus, and Alan Turing. Here’s one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrvvHJu6Olw
2. Breaking the Code (1996 TV Movie)
Loose biography of Alan Turing, starring Derek Jacobi. “The New York production of “Breaking the Code” by Hugh Whitemore opened at the Neil Simon Theater in New York on November 15, 1987 and ran for 169 performances. Derek Jacobi was nominated for the 1988 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and recreated his stage role in this film production.” online.
3. Code-Breakers: Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes (2011 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 60 min | Documentary, War 7.9
This documentary celebrates less well known codebreakers who made significant contributions to the allied war effort : William (Bill) Tutte and Tommy Flowers. Definitely worth watching.
A British “Timewatch” episode. Well done.
Online.
If you’re interested, the following is not in IMDB. Lecture/Youtube
Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, was built during World War II, but kept secret for more than 30 years. Professor Brian Randell tells the story about how he stumbled across a reference to its existence and eventually led to the UK government lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding this pioneering computer in 1975. Prof Brian Randell’s presentation was given in the new Colossus Gallery in The National Museum of Computing on 7 February 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl6pK1Z7B5Q
4. Codebreaker (2011 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 62 min | Documentary, Biography, Drama 7
Also known as: “Britain’s Greatest Codebreaker”
Find a number of Bletchely Park/ Alan Turing videos on this youtube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23yie-779k&list=PLI87gMMb4YVMf_EXbp_7_fGMx2UDT2FAN
“The highs and lows of Alan Turing’s life, tracking his extraordinary accomplishments, his government persecution through to his tragic death in 1954. In the last 18 months of his short life, Turing visited a psychiatrist, Dr. Franz Greenbaum, who tried to help him. Each therapy session in this drama documentary is based on real events. The conversations between Turing and Greenbaum explore the pivotal moments in his controversial life and examine the pressures that may have contributed to his early death. The film also includes the testimony of people who actually knew and remember Turing. Plus, this film features interviews with contemporary experts from the world of technology and high science including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. These contributors bring Turing’s exciting impact up to the present day, explaining why, in many ways, modern technology has only just begun to explore the potential of Turing’s ideas.”
- Written by Patrick Sammon
” This award-winning film tells the story of one of the 20th century’s most important people. Alan Turing set in motion the computer age and his World War II codebreaking helped save two million lives. Yet few people have heard his name, know his tragic story, or understand his important legacy. In 1954, Turing committed suicide at age 41 after being forced to undergo chemical castration because he was gay. He left behind a lasting legacy and lingering questions about what else he might have accomplished if society had embraced his unique genius instead of rejecting it.”
From the Filmmaker: It’ll be released worldwide on digital platforms in mid-March. Exact date is TBD. You can get updates on Facebook at Alan Turing Film or on the film’s website: TuringFilm.com.
DVD on sale, online.
5. The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing (1992)
Documentary Biography- not in depth but great introduction into Turing.
Online.
If you’re a diehard Fan Of Alan Turing, check out this, lecture too. Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) Not in IMDB: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkir7nYTP5Y
Share Festival 2012 | Open Your City 09th nov — 6PM — Regional Museum of Natural Science ” Alan Turing. Strange Oceans of Thought” youtube educational
To celebrate the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth, Share Festival is featuring a special cameo by science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling. His keynote address explores a hypothetical fiction to present the great mathematician in a new light. Both a mathematician and logician, Alan Turing was a founding father of computer science and a wartime hero. But Alan Turing was also homosexual. Under pressure from police questioning, he confessed what at his time was a crime and was sentenced to punishment by chemical castration. A few months later, at the age of 41, he committed suicide. Bruce Sterling takes this story and complicates it even further to explore how a wartime hero, whose work contributed to breaking the Nazi’s legendary Enigma code, was annihilated by the very nation he had helped save. In his fictitious version of events, Alan Turing is German, the deciphered code belongs to the British, and to end the war the Americans drop the A-bomb on Europe.
Plunging into the strange oceans of Alan Turing’s thought leads Bruce Sterling to reflect on artificial intelligence, sexuality, contemporary art and creativity, bringing him to the conclusion that the influence of computers on traditional art has been “colossal” and much bigger than that of mass production, like a “Walter Benjamin on steroids.”
Not Rated | 60 min | Documentary 8.4
Fabulous! Intelligent, riveting Documentary from the BBC veteran. {Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. (Wikipedia)} This series contextualizes Turing’s contribution to AI and cryptography.
“Investigates the nature of information and the pivotal role played by British mathematician Alan Turing in the development of computers.”
Online.
7. The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014)
TV-14 | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery 7.9
Four women who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII reunite to track a serial killer. Interview with a real life Bletchley Girl, and information about BletchleyPark can be found here: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/about/FilmandTV/awind.rhtm
158 min | Biography, Drama, History 6.4
Subtitles in English.
In 1933 three Polish civilian mathematicians (Rejewski, Rozycki, and Zygalski) led the way in cracking the “unbreakable” Enigma code used by the German military from 1928 to the end of the Second World War. They secretly worked for the Polish military Cipher Bureau (Biuro Szyfrow headed by Langer) which devised working clones of the Enigma machines as well as other code breaking devices. The Cipher Bureau sent two Enigma clones to the French (Bertrand) and British (Knox, Denniston, and Menzies) cryptologists just two weeks before the German invasion of Poland, September 1939. Amidst the invasion chaos, the Polish Cipher Bureau escaped to Bucharest, eventually receiving help from the French. They continued their secret decoding for the Free French under the nose of the Vichy French, until German occupation of Vichy forced the Polish decoders to scramble to escape. Despite torture, the military cipher officers refused to divulge their knowledge of the Enigma to the Nazis. At war end, Churchill indicates his desire to keep the Polish cipher work secret. This movie (made just at the end of the life of one of its main heroes) is the first of the recognition of their great contributions. Sold in North America as “Enigma Secret”
- Written by rm from dc
9. Decoding Alan Turing (2009)
17 min | Documentary, Short 6.4
have not found it yet. Seeking link.
For a discussion with one of Turings’ Bletchley Park Colleagues, check out: Captain Jerry Roberts, UCL German alumnus and WW2 codebreaker, on 11 March 2009 he delivered his talk – ‘My Top-Secret Codebreaking During World War II” at UCL about his experiences breaking the ‘Tunny (the Lorenz)’ at Bletchley Park. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1bJHG95Xn8 He was a senior codebreaker and linguist in the Testery, who cracked Hitler’s Most Secret Tunny code: a much more complex 12 wheel cipher system than the well-known 3 wheel Enigma.
Tunny was declassified only in 2002. Most people in ‘the Testery’ have died by now, the work of the Testery remains seriously undervalued and poorly recognised by the public, Testery’s achievements had very little or nothing.
Captain Roberts is the last British survivor of the Tunny codebreakers. For the last 4 years, he has been campaigning for proper recognition for Bletchley Park’s “Heroes”, especially for his colleague Bill Tutte who broke the Tunny-system to help shorten the War by at least 2 years. If Bill Tutte had not broken the Tunny system, if the breaking of Tunny messages had not been so vital, there would have been no need for a Colossus at that time.
R | 119 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance 6.4
This fictionalized account of a Bletchley Park codebreaker on the trail of a mystery girl does not mention Alan Turing. Mick Jagger produced, and lent his authentic Enigma device to the film.
Online.
11. Dear Alan: A Tribute to Alan Turing (2011)
have not found it yet. Seeking Link.
12. National Treasure Special Edition – Ciphers, Codemakers and Codebreakers (2007 Video)
Haven’t seen this documentary yet… still looking for it
13. The Secret War (1977–1978)
50 min | Documentary, History, War 8.4
“A crumbled piece of paper recovered from a crashed German bomber had written on it a list of navigational aids: light and radio beacons; it also included a codename, ‘Knickebein’ – ‘The Crooked Leg’ a name unknown to British intelligence. The unravelling of the secrets of Knickebein by British scientists led to the Battle of the Beams and the first moves in electronic warfare.
The story of re-commissioning the transmitter to prosecute the war was a huge state secret. Many of the BBC engineers involved signed the Official Secrets Act and until late in their lives were mostly reluctant to make their story public. There are surprisingly few public records to help historians.
The scientific boffins within the intelligence agencies tasked Professor R.V. Jones with finding out how the transmitter might be used. Based at Bletchley Park , Jones scoured pre-war files of the Secret Intelligence Services to see if there was any evidence of a German secret weapon.
At the same time as this research was ongoing in early 1940, BBC engineer Tony Bridgewater was asked to return to Ally Pally to get the transmitter up and running on a care and maintenance basis; he was almost certainly unaware of what for. They would soon be pressed into service…..”
“AptsArchive” channel on YT
Bletchley Park The Keys to the Reich. Made by Channel 4 this film documents the breaking of the German Enigma code and the impact it had on the Second World War.
A great interview can be found on YT:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p3mhkNgRXs From Codebreaking to Computing: Remembrances of Bletchley Park.
In this 1992 interview Jack Good and Donald Michie discuss their crypto-analytical work during World War II at Britain’s Bletchley Park. The technical aspects of Germany’s Enigma and Lorenz Geheimschreiber, the code-breaking Bombe, Heath Robinson, and Colossus machines, and the personal contributions of Max Newman, Alan Turing, and Tommy Flowers are explored. Donald Michie, in the final part of the interview, offers some details on the origins of artificial intelligence research.
Bletchley Park. I’m not sure which of these IMDB listings refers the Documentary series available on YT.
Not Rated | 73 min | Thriller 6.4
Low Budget and not a great film- but if you’re really into Turing and Maths, you’ll likely want to watch it once. At the time of this writing, it can be found online.
Info-World-Hub 