[ExI] turing movie

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Tomasz Rola
Subject: Re: [ExI] turing movie

On Mon, Aug 04, 2014 at 10:03:46PM -0700, spike wrote:
>  
>> Hey cool!  There's an Alan Turing movie coming in four months:
> 
>> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/
> 
>> Cool, this might be excellent.

>...This WILL be excellent. Just think of it. Turing and Knightley are being
parachuted into the dark heart of nazi Germany...Now go watch the movie,
then reread this email and cry because after Chaplin silent movies the
cinema went downhill accelerating.

--
Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--

Well yes, the probability that they will mess up the story in order to sell
it to the unwashed mass approaches unity.  But hey, movie people need to
make a living.  Or rather they need to make insane profit; it's the way
Hollyweird operates.  Evolved that way, nothing they can do about it.

But it does leave a number of questions such as:  Why do we assume the
masses are unwashed?  What if the masses wash regularly?  How does one
differentiate oneself?  By not washing?  Similar questions arise with
faceless masses, for as one approaches a crowd of such, one sees that every
single one of them have a face, and likely are washed.  So now does one need
to lose face in order to escape being one of them?

Consider also that I made the same cynical comments as in the first
paragraph when I heard a movie was being made of Card's Enders Game.  I went
to the theatre for the first time in several years because my company gave
me tickets.  I was so pleasantly surprised to find that the moviemakers did
an excellent job of translating that terrific book into video, even fixing
some of Card's most vexing problems.  (Sorry Mr. Card, they did.  It was one
of those very rare cases when an excellent book spawned an even better
movie.)

Hollyweird had a wonderful opportunity here, with this historical narrative.
They can take the actual truth, a most compelling story, where the enigma
machine was cracked by mathematical technology, use the actual facts, no
real embellishment.  They get a gay character for free, no need to write one
in with the often-clumsy way moviemakers do, they get an actual genius
rather than some hokey made-up Will Hunting character, they get an actual
war with millions of living breathing beings whose lives are hanging on the
success of that project.  They get it all from real life history; don't need
for silly car chases or helicopter crashes, they don't need shootouts (the
actual war supplies all those), they don't even need shot-in-the-dark
speculation, since plenty of historic documentation of Bletchley Park exists
from eye-witness accounts.  

So please, I beg them, just tell the actual story.  The beautiful Keira
Knightley is a gift, a bonus.  The actual historic truth is all this
compelling story needs.  Please, please don't screw up this, oh Hollyweird
producers, I beseech the hell outta thee, don't do it; just tell the truth,
tell it.  We will buy it, and we will love it.  

spike