This documentary short, selected for several 2009 film festivals, including Outfest and Imagine Science, presents an overview of the life, and suicide, of the British mathematician Alan Turing, who wrote a classic 1930s paper anticipating the personal computer, and helped lead the work that broke the German Enigma code machine, one of the great espionage triumphs of World War II. Turing committed suicide after being outed as a gay man and undergoing a forced “medical” treatment that would supposedly cure his homosexuality.
The film is brief, leaving some questions unanswered, which could well serve as a way to promote analysis and discussion in several classroom disciplines.
Libraries collecting in film studies, gay studies, twentieth century English history, math, and computer science should certainly select this DVD, and larger public libraries should also consider acquiring Decoding Alan Turing.
Reviewed by, Dave Combe
EP Foster Library
Ventura, CA