[ale] Hollywood is making a movie about Alan Turing, but I already know it sucks

[Lightner, Jeff]

In an era where "Brokeback Mountain" was made as a movie, "Glee" and "Modern Family" are made with openly gay main characters on TV and there is even a cable channel called Logo I doubt it can truly be said "Hollywood" isn't about making anything about "gay".

It IS true however that Hollywood is about making money.    While geeks like us (even those of us who aren't gay) might be interested in his story in all its aspects it may be true that the mass of folks aren't.    Of course most geeks like us already know Turing's story.

But then again entertainment folks have been wrong before.  Originally Friends was passed over by one network because they thought the masses wouldn't be interested in a group of NYC yuppies.   Years ago CBS canceled Beverly Hillbillies even though it had high ratings because a moron executive didn't want his network to be viewed as low class.





-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Tim Watts
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 12:19 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Hollywood is making a movie about Alan Turing, but I already know it sucks

Actually, what sucks is that NYT article.  I haven't read anything that muddled in I don't know how long.  That quote was about the movie/book Enigma which did, in fact, do Turing a significant injustice.  "The Imitation Game is not a Hollywood movie" was, I think, Mr. Moore's point.  Presumably that means they'll be more true to who he really was.
But to tell you the truth I still wasn't sure by the end of the article.
Journalism today, amirite?


On Wed, 2014-11-05 at 20:39 -0500, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> The Imitation Game is coming to a Theater Near You.  It's a biopic
> about Alan Turing during WW II, but they have made him over into a
> Breeder involved in a heterosexual love triangle.  " Hollywood is “not
> really designed around making movies about gay English
> mathematicians,” Graham Moore, who wrote the script for “The Imitation
> Game,” said in a recent email." (
> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/movies/the-imitation-game-dramatizes-the-story-of-alan-turing.html ).
>
>
> This is approximately equivalent to making a film of the life of
> Frederic Douglass, but -- for marketing reasons -- making him a white
> plantation owner.  I am an enthusiastic heterosexual, but this really
> offends me.  Alan Turing saved hundreds of thousands of English lives
> during World War 2, and his country repaid him by chemically
> castrating him and driving him to suicide.  And now they won't even
> tell his story with respect.
>
>
> -- CHS
>
>
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