《模仿游戏》
——银幕上与银幕下的图灵
2015-12-18宋云峰
∷宋云峰
《模仿游戏》海报
1. 图灵其人其事
During the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park*Bletchley Park: 布莱切利园,是二战期间英国情报机构进行密码破解的秘密基地。, Britain’s codebreaking centre. Turing’s pivotal(重要的)role in cracking intercepted coded messages(破译截获的密码情报)enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic; it has been estimated that the work at Bletchley Park shortened the war in Europe by as many as two to four years.
图灵是计算机逻辑的奠基者,他提出了“图灵机”(Turing Machine)和“图灵测试”(Turing Test)等重要概念,被誉为“计算机科学之父”和“人工智能之父”。美国计算机协会(ACM)1966年设立的以其命名的“图灵奖”是计算机界最负盛名和最崇高的一个奖项,有“计算机界的诺贝尔奖”之称。
From 1945 to 1947, Turing lived in Hampton,London while he worked on the design of the ACE(Automatic Computing Engine) at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Since 1966, the Turing Award has been given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for technical or theoretical contributions to the computing community. It is widely considered to be the computing world’s highest honour,equivalent to the Nobel Prize.
图灵还是一名世界级的长跑运动员。他的马拉松最好成绩是2小时46分3秒,比1948年奥林匹克运动会银牌得主汤姆·理查兹(Tom Richards)仅慢了11分钟。
While working at Bletchley, Turing, who was a talented long-distance runner, occasionally ran the 40 miles (64 km) to London when he was needed for high-level meetings, and he was capable of world-class marathon standards. Turing tried out for the 1948 British Olympic team, hampered(受阻碍)by an injury. His tryout time for the marathon was only 11 minutes slower than British silver medalist Thomas Richards’ Olympic race time of two hours 35 minutes.
图灵因其同性恋行为于1952年被起诉(这种行为在当时的英国仍属刑事犯罪)。为了继续科研工作,他接受了雌激素注射治疗(化学阉割)代替牢狱之刑。图灵于1954年6月7日去世(食用氰化物泡过的苹果中毒),官方勘验确定他的死亡是自杀。
Turing was prosecuted(被起诉)in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen(雌激素)injections[chemical castration(化学阉割)]as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning(氰化物中毒).
As a conclusion,only if the black women break through the cage of race and gender,accept and reconstruct their identities,can they gain the real emancipation and respect.
2009年9月10日,图灵死后55年,在超过三万名网民联名的强烈呼吁和压力下,时任英国首相布朗代表英国政府正式对图灵的遭遇表示道歉。英国女王伊丽莎白二世在2013年也对图灵追授特赦。
In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous(死后的)pardon in 2013.
英国首相布朗的道歉声明:
“Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him... So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better.”
2.《模仿游戏》塑造的图灵
2014年根据安德鲁·霍奇斯所著传记《艾伦·图灵传》改编的电影《模仿游戏》上映后受到欢迎,获得2015年第87届奥斯卡最佳改编剧本奖,主演为本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇(卷福)。
The Imitation Gameis a 2014 historical thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum, with a screenplay by Graham Moore loosely based on the biographyAlan Turing: The Enigmaby Andrew Hodges. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as real life British cryptanalyst(密码专家)Alan Turing, who in the film is hired to decrypt(解码,破译)German intelligence codes for the British government during World War II.
维恩斯坦公司以创纪录的700万美元购买了小说的电影改编权,并投资1,400万美元,将其改编成电影《模仿游戏》。影片上映后获得巨大成功。截至2015年4月《模仿游戏》在全球的票房超过2.19亿美元。影片获得第87届奥斯卡奖八项提名,并获得最佳改编剧本奖。
The Weinstein Company acquired the film for $7 million in February 2014, the highest amount ever paid for U.S. distribution rights at the European Film Market.The Imitation Gamewas a commercial and critical success. By April 2015, it had grossed(总共赚得)over$219 million worldwide against a $14 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing independent film of 2014. It was nominated in eight categories at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director(Tyldum), Best Actor (Cumberbatch), and Best Supporting Actress (Keira Knightley). It won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
影片的名称来源于图灵在1950年论文中所提出的同名试验。在论文中,图灵提出了机器(计算机)是否能像人一样思考的问题(人工智能)。
The film’s title refers to Turing’s proposed test of the same name, which he discussed in his 1950 paper on artificial intelligence entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”. The paper opens: “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?’ This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms ‘machine’ and‘think’.”
3.《模仿游戏》故事情节
The story is nonlinear(非线性的), beginning in 1951 as two policemen, Nock and Staehl, investigate the mathematician Alan Turing after an apparent break-in(入室抢劫)at his home. Turing’s suspicious behaviour and lack of war records triggers Nock’s suspicion that he might be a Soviet spy. During his interrogation(审问)by Nock, Turing tells of his time working at Bletchley Park.
Attention then switches to 1927, when the young Turing is unhappy and bullied at boarding school.He develops a friendship with Christopher Morcom,who sparks his interest in cryptography(密码术,密码使用法), and develops romantic feelings for him.Before Turing can confess his love, Christopher dies unexpectedly from bovine tuberculosis(牛结核).
When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939,Turing travels to Bletchley Park, where, under the direction of Commander Alastair Denniston, he joins the cryptography team of Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross,Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles Richards. The team are trying to break the ciphers(密码)created by the Enigma machine, which the Nazis use to provide security for their wireless messages.
Turing is difficult to work with and considers his colleagues inferior; he works alone to design a machine to decipher(解码,破译)Enigma. After Denniston refuses to fund construction of the machine, Turing writes to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who puts him in charge of the team and funds the machine. Turing fires Furman and Richards and places a difficult crossword in newspapers to find replacements(替代者). Joan Clarke, a Cambridge graduate, surpasses Turing’s test, but her parents will not allow her to work with the male cryptographers. Turing arranges for her to live and work with the female clerks who intercept(拦截,截获)the messages and shares his plans with her.
Turing’s machine, which he names Christopher, is constructed but cannot determine the Enigma settings(设置)before the Germans reset(重新设置)the Enigma encryption(加密,密码)each day. Denniston orders it destroyed and Turing fired, but the other cryptographers threaten to leave if Turing goes. After Clarke plans to leave on the wishes of her parents, Turing proposes marriage, which she accepts. During their reception, Turing confirms his homosexuality to Cairncross, who warns him to keep it secret. After overhearing a conversation with a clerk about messages she receives, Turing has an epiphany(顿悟), realising he can program the machine to decode(解码)words he already knows exist in certain messages. After he recalibrates(重新校准)the machine,it quickly decodes a message and the cryptographers celebrate; however, Turing realises they cannot act on every decoded message or the Germans will realise Enigma has been broken.
英国演员奈特莉饰演图灵的未婚妻琼·克拉克
Turing discovers that Cairncross is a Soviet spy. When Turing confronts him, Cairncross argues that the Soviets are allies working for the same goals and threatens to disclose Turing’s homosexuality if his role as an agent is revealed.When the MI6(军情六局)agent Stewart Menzies appears to threaten Clarke, Turing reveals that Cairncross is a spy.Menzies reveals that he knew this already and planted Cairncross among them in order to leak messages to the Soviets for British benefit. Fearing for her safety, Turing tells Clarke to leave Bletchley Park, revealing that he is homosexual and lying about never having cared for her.After the war, Menzies tells the cryptographers to destroy their work and that they can never see one another again or share what they have done.
In the 1950s Turing is convicted of indecency(有伤风化的行为)and, in lieu of(代替)a jail sentence, undergoes chemical castration so he can continue his work. Clarke visits him in his home and witnesses his physical and mental deterioration(恶化). She reminds him that his work saved lives and uses the phrase Christopher used of Turing and Turing once used of her: “Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of, who do the things that no one can imagine.”(有时候是意想不到的人做出了意想不到的事。)
4.《模仿游戏》引发的思考与争议
《模仿游戏》上映后获得了评论和票房双丰收,也引发了一些争议和后续影响。前者集中于电影对图灵其人其事塑造中一些细节的真实性上,而后者则是对同性恋组织进一步争取权益的正面促进。
关于影片与史实出入的主要批评包括影片刻意弱化图灵的同性恋行为,美化图灵的未婚妻琼·克拉克,夸大图灵的社交困难和自闭倾向,杜撰图灵被捕是因为被怀疑为苏联间谍,以及渲染图灵的死亡是因为难以忍受治疗的痛苦。这又涉及到人物传记电影的艺术真实与历史真实的区别,即历史学与艺术(电影)之间的区别。导演与编剧均从艺术的角度对此进行了说明和辩解。
In a January 2015 interview withThe Huffington Post, its screenwriter Moore said in response to complaints about the film’s historical accuracy:“When you use the language of‘fact checking’ to talk about a film,I think you’re sort of fundamentally misunderstanding how art works.You don’t fact check Monet’sWater Lilies(莫内的《睡莲》). That’s not what water lilies look like, that’s what the sensation of experiencing water lilies feel like. That’s the goal of the piece.”
In the same interview, Tyldum stated: “A lot of historical films sometimes feel like people reading a Wikipedia page to you onscreen, like just reciting‘and then he did that, and then he did that, and then he did this other thing’—it’s like a ‘Greatest Hits’compilation(汇编). We wanted the movie to be emotional and passionate. Our goal was to give you‘What does Alan Turing feel like?’ What does his story feel like? What’d it feel like to be Alan Turing?”
在社会影响方面,《模仿游戏》得到同性恋民权组织的肯定和赞赏。2015年1月,主演康伯巴奇、制片维恩斯坦以及图灵的亲属等人发起了为因同一罪名获罪判刑的49,000名同性恋者赦免正名的运动。美国电影明星马特·达蒙、迈克尔·道格拉斯、杰西卡·阿尔巴等演艺界人士也在该运动网站上签名支持。
The LGBT(Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual)civil rights advocacy(辩护,支持)and political lobbying(游说)organisation the Human Rights Campaign honouredThe Imitation Gamefor bringing Turing’s legacy to a wider audience. In January 2015,Cumberbatch, comedian-actor Stephen Fry, producer Harvey Weinstein and Turing’s great niece Rachel Barnes launched a campaign to pardon the 49,000 gay men convicted under the same law that led to Turing’s chemical castration. In February 2015, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Jessica Alba, Bryan Cranston, and Anna Wintour among others joined the petition at Pardon49k.org demanding pardons for victims of anti-gay laws.