By focg on Alan Turg’s outsir nature as a facet of his sexualy, The Imatn Game succsfully brgs gay culture to the mastream
Contents:
- THE IMATN GAME DIRECTOR FENDS FILM'S LACK OF GAY SEX SCEN
- BUT IS IT GAY ENOUGH?: THE IMATN GAME
- THE IMATN GAME DIRECTOR MORTEN TYLDUM: WE DIDN'T NEED GAY SEX SCEN
- <I>THE IMATN GAME</I>'S ALAN TURG -- A GAY MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
- ‘IMATN GAME,’ ALAN TURG AND THE CHEMIL WAR ON U.K.’S GAYS
THE IMATN GAME DIRECTOR FENDS FILM'S LACK OF GAY SEX SCEN
* the imitation game gay *
Later, he pneered digal putg and artificial telligence before killg himself 1952 followg his nvictn for gross cency – that is, gay sex. But mak his gayns unambiguoly clear and shows how his adolcent sire for another boy is bound up secrecy, reprsn, shame and grief – a tragic ndn but one that also fuelled his tellectual foc and self-sufficiency wh such tremendo plex chicken-and-egg relatnship between persecutn and perceptn is at the heart of queerns, but gets ltle regnn the tim of bland pop monoculture and the LGBT mastream’s yearng for normaly.
If I have a gay character a movie, I need to have a sex scene — jt to prove that he’s gay? His whole relatnship, how he falls love and the importance of him beg a gay man, was all about secrecy. The only reason to have a sex scene the film would be to satisfy crics who feels that every gay character needs to have a gay sex scene.
”The Imatn Game is up for eight Osrs, cludg bt picture and bt actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, who has ed the film to support a mpaign to get other gay men arrted durg the same perd pardoned for their crim. Equally well-known, at least Bra, is the fact that Turg was gay, a homosexual, to e the termology of the day, and that he reputedly mted suici 1954 at the age of 41 after receivg hormone therapy as a rult of a nvictn 1952 for gross cency.
BUT IS IT GAY ENOUGH?: THE IMATN GAME
Alan Turg is a prime example of the kd of historil figure people ce as proof that one's sexualy has no bearg on one's acplishments. Turg sentially vented the puter and formalized much that wh , cludg the algorhm and the ncept of artificial telligence. Acrdg to Wston Churchill, Turg ma the sgle biggt ntributn to the Alli' victory World War II. How uld possibly matter that he was also gay? * the imitation game gay *
The film has also attracted cricism some quarters for unrplayg Turg’s homosexualy, and foregroundg a (non-sexual) relatnship wh fellow mathematician, Joan Clarke, played by Brish actrs Keira Knightley. But bis such personal tails, the film’s more general portrayal of homosexual life the 1940s and 1950s do stand up to cril scty.
Blackout durg wartime afford opportuni for homosexual liaisons that many wouldn’t have experienced before. However, homosexualy remaed illegal unr the hated “Labouchère” amendment to the Crimal Law Amendment Act 1885, which outlawed “gross cency” between men.
In this sense the film ptur the perpetual threat that homosexual men had to live wh. The war years may have been relatively kd to homosexual men but prosecutns for sexual crim creased the perd immediately after the war, reachg a peak 1961.
THE IMATN GAME DIRECTOR MORTEN TYLDUM: WE DIDN'T NEED GAY SEX SCEN
"It’s kd of prejudiced to say that if you have a gay character a movie, you need to show explic gay sex." * the imitation game gay *
The police pursu of Turg The Imatn Game provis an sight to the importance the police gave to prosecutg homosexual “crim”.
A groundbreakg study by Michael Schofield, published 1960, revealed the diversy of homosexual liv the perd and the myriad ways they negotiated through the unniable difficulti they often faced. In his tobgraphy, London journalist Peter Wilblood, who was another high profile victim of homophobic laws and police tactics, claimed was necsary for him to watch every word he spoke, every gture that he ma.
Turg’s sexual discreetns The Imatn Game is an accurate reprentatn of how most homosexual men had to behave.
<I>THE IMATN GAME</I>'S ALAN TURG -- A GAY MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
There has been a growg appreciatn queer amia that there was often tolerance and acceptance of men leadg homosexual liv at a domtic level, not jt om immediate fai and lol muni, but also om landlords and landladi. But while there may have been a certa gree of tolerance toward homosexualy, pecially for those men who lived “rpectable” and quiet liv, crimal proceedgs remaed a real threat for many.
‘IMATN GAME,’ ALAN TURG AND THE CHEMIL WAR ON U.K.’S GAYS
Patrick Higgs’s review of urt s Heterosexual Dictatorships (1996) shows that homosexual liv ntued to be led across the breadth of the untry throughout the 1950s, albe the shadow of the law, and volved men om all walks of life. For example, the urt rerds show a se om Rotherham, Yorkshire, where 17 unskilled and semi-skilled men plead guilty to 41 charg of homosexual acts.
In the same year Barnsley, 12 men nfsed to homosexual acts.
Dpe, or rather bee of the ocsnal high-profile trial and the number of ls famo prosecutns, homosexualy was largely phed to the dark recs of society. In practice no-one spected other people of beg homosexual. Aga, the prumptn that Turg uld not possibly be gay across the film if only as a mor sub-plot, but strik a te chord.