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Jun 08, 2015
Winston Churchill once declared, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Well, the 2001 movie “Enigma” is a mystery with a riddle inside a conundrum. “Enigma” is a fictionalized account of British attempts to crack the German code by a group of cryptanalyst working at Bletchley Park north of London in the early 1940s. The movie stars Kate Winslet; was directed by Michael Apted (the “Up Series” of documentaries); from a screenplay by Tom Stoppard (“Arcadia” “Shakespeare in Love”). It’s a fine drama and can be nicely paired with the recent based-on-a-true-story film (“The Imitation Game”) about Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician widely credited with inventing the theoretical underpinnings of the modern computer. He was also a war hero, of sorts, largely responsible for cracking the so-called unbreakable German’s code, Enigma which was used for transmitting military communications. Churchill believed that cracking the German code was the biggest single contribution to allied victory during World War II. Both movies are good and worth watching.