ENIGMA
UK, 2001, 119 minutes, Colour.
Dougray Scott, Kate Winslett, Jeremy Northam, Saffron Burrows, Nikolaj Coster Valdau, Tom Hollander.
Directed by Michael Apted.
A drama about British code-breaking during World War II might seem to those born well after the events to be a period piece. After the events of September 11th and the war against terrorism, the gentility of English code-breakers and their action adventures might seem more than a touch pre-historic.
Yet, World War II has been something of a measure of how to deal with a clear and evil enemy. Already this year we have had Enemy at the Gate and Pearl Harbour. Where it cannot compare with the present is in its limited technology (with the exception of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan). Nor can it compare with the current rapidity of information on a security level or simply with modern radio and television. Looking at the elaborate pre-computer in the code-breaking room in Bletchley Park in 1943, we see a vast, cumbersome yet ingenious machine. So, as we watch World War II films these days, we are making comparisons with today's global consciousness and alliances. The personal involvement and heroism of sixty years ago seems both quaint and impressive.
There has been media argument about the German's code-making Enigma machine and how Britain obtained it. An American film of 2000, U 571, had more than a touch of fiction, claiming it was the Americans who got it. This week there has been complaint that Enigma denigrates the Poles who, in fact, brought the machine here. Whatever the factual detail needed for a documentary, this film is based on a Robert Harris' novel, a fictional story with some bases in actual events.
Perhaps this is reviewing audience mentality rather than the film itself. Enigma has strong credentials. Sir Tom Stoppard has adapted Harris' novel. Michael Apted has directed espionage thrillers like Gorky Park and spectaculars like The World is not Enough. They have made a quite literate film in a generally old-fashioned style. I'm not sure whether everyone will understand some of the explanations of encryption and breaking codes - but I don't think we were meant to, just to have an impression of complexity and the urgency for deciphering the information. This becomes even more dramatic as the team try to locate German submarines converging on a large merchant navy convoy in the North Atlantic.
Dougray Scott, who was a dominating villain in Mission Impossible 2, plays the opposite here, and quite convincingly, a highly intelligent mathematician who has experienced a nervous breakdown. Kate Winslett also plays against type as a dowdy, bespectacled secretary who nevertheless becomes the heroine of an old-style adventure in the John Buchan vein. Jeremy Northam, with his clipped accent, hat and coat draped over his shoulder is surely straight from those stiff upper lip days. Saffron Burrows as an enigmatic mixture of secretary and femme fatale has a rather more difficult time trying to be both mysterious and convincing.
A postscript tells us that those who worked in intelligence in Bletchley Park were not acknowledged publicly until the 1970s. This is not exactly a tribute, but it is an interesting story making them better-known.
1. The significance of the Enigma machine during World War Two? A fiction based on the people working at Bletchley Park? The story of British Intelligence - combined with fiction to make this film?
2. The re-creation of the period: London in the '40s, during the war and post-war? Bletchley Park itself, the code breaking rooms, the museum, the offices? The British countryside? Scotland? The credits and the insertion of archival war material? The scenes in Poland, the mass grave? Scenes at sea, the Merchant Navy, the submarines, warfare? The musical score by John Barry?
3. The structure of the film: the focus on Claire and the relationship with Tom? Her walking through Trafalgar Square? The flashback to the work at Bletchley Park? The insertion of flashbacks as Tom told his story and as he remembered? The insertion of the Polish sequences and the sea sequences during the action? Post-war in Trafalgar Square?
4. British code breaking, the experts, their being brought to Bletchley Park and spending the war there? The house, the offices, the elaborate machines? The community, living around the town, the number of workers going in and out of Bletchley Park? The other centres of intelligence, the rooms, the telephones, the machines to send messages? How accurate a picture did the film offer of the intelligence? The consequences for information from the Continent, for information about submarines, merchant fleet, saving lives? The postscript about the secrecy surrounding Bletchley Park until 30 years after the war?
5. The focus on Tom and his return to the Park? His being dishevelled, the haunted look, his nervous breakdown? The filling in of the past: his being recruited, the skill of his work, breaking the Enigma and the Shark code? His infatuation with Claire, following her, the sexual relationship, her leading him on? The tantalising him and taking his possessions, their falling out? His growing desperation, following her, offering her any secret? His return and her disappearance, going into her room, finding the codes in the floor? The search at the site with her clothes, her presumed death in the lake? The irony of her work, being planted by Wigram and working for him, the relationship with Tom, the relationship with Puck? Her falling in love with him, giving him the information about his brother, her being dangerous to Puck, the faked death and her disappearance? Her living on in people's memories, in Hester's memory, Hester's grief for her death? The final sequence of her being glimpsed in Trafalgar Square? The enigmatic role of Claire, relationships, loyalty and betrayal, her surviving?
6. The character of Tom: his being spurned by Skynner, present at the briefing with the admiral? His being rejected and ousted, various people supporting him? Logie and his support? The information coming in, the challenge to the breaking of the code, his pessimism? His being reinstated, his insight into getting weather reports and positions and using that information and date for breaking the reworked code? The long nights, the continued work, the messages coming in, the Enigma machine working?
7. His meeting Hester, her sharing the cottage with Claire, their friendship? Hester and her dowdy appearance, the clashes with Tom? Her being recruited but not being promoted as the men were? The discussions about the code, her going into the Central Bureaus to check the Kestrel documentation, meeting Tom in the dining room? Their beginning to work together, his telling her the secrets? Their going to the other centre and getting the documentation? The Enigma machine in the boot of the car, their being pursued by the police, going into the empty barn, beginning the decoding? Her continuing the decoding at home, finding the names of the 4000 Polish military killed by the Russians and found in the mass grave? This leading to the identification of Puck as the brother of one of the dead and his role in the espionage? Her work at Bletchley Park, her attraction towards Tom? The aftermath and her being pregnant and married to Tom?
8. The staff in the Enigma room: the officer who had been on the ships and whose eye was destroyed and face burnt, his being in command, the decisions, Tom giving him the bottle of whiskey? The range of boffins, their personalities and backgrounds, communists, aristocracy, Puck as the Polish refugee? The man in charge and his confidence in Tom?
9. Wigram and his mysterious presence, his manner of dress, coat and hat? Listening in to the briefing, observing Tom, looking at the material in the museum? Turning up at Claire's house, the interrogation of Tom, searching him? Tom hiding the documentation with the toilet newspaper? Wigram's continued reappearance, supervision of security? His following Tom and Hester in the car, the barn, the search? The discussions with Tom, Tom realising something of the truth? His going to the train following Puck, finding Wigram in the train, their setting up Puck to see whom he would lead them to? The police and surveillance on the train?
10. Puck and his background, his dead brother, his anger at Stalin and the Russians, giving secrets to the Germans? The relationship with Claire, his love for Claire and she for him, giving him information? His being discovered, racing to the train, getting off the train, police pursuit? Tom realising that he would go to Scotland, the image and the postcard? Tom driving to Scotland, finding Puck? Wigram and the police and the officials on the cliff, the submarine surfacing, the planes attacking and the destruction of the submarine? The final encounters between Tom and Wigram? Wigram as the old-fashioned image of British security?
11. The war situation in the Atlantic, the convoys, the submarines, the breaking of the code, the convoy getting through and supporting Britain, the turning point of the war?
12. The popularity of this kind of war and espionage film? The traditions of the British war movies? The traditions of the old-fashioned adventure novels of John Buchan and other writers? The writings of Robert Harris and more contemporary authors looking back and interpreting the war on a serious level as well as on the espionage and adventure level?
