Comments on: My 2014 Academy Award (Oscars) Predictions!

By: Christopher Winter

Christopher Winter — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 16:59:22 +0000

Oops — make that “Lethbridge-Stewart.” Sorry, Whovians.

By: Christopher Winter

Christopher Winter — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 16:55:52 +0000

Dan Andrews: Strange that they’d have [been] discussing Enigma in public places given the level of secrecy they kept on Bletchley for years after the war finished.

That was my point: they wouldn’t have done that in real life. Or if they had, they would have been gone from Bletchley Park before you could say Brigadier Leftbridge Stewart.

By: Brainstorms

Brainstorms — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 06:05:04 +0000

Considering that The Abyss won an Oscar in 1990, you may be right…

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 03:27:03 +0000

Maybe abysmal is the new good.

By: dean

dean — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 02:18:32 +0000

I’m the same with just one exception to that – I did see ‘The Theory of everything’ and would highly recommend it.

Second that, and the comment about the actor who played Hawking.

I have not seen any of the others, but I have noticed on rather odd thing. Many friends of mine, and of my wife, have seen Boyhood. They all described it as abysmal (yes, yes, biased sample, clearly not random, and all of that, I’m aware). I just wonder at the gap in opinion between “abysmal” and Oscar-worthy.

By: Dan Andrews

Dan Andrews — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:25:51 +0000

Thanks, Christopher—-those were the ones I had heard about too. If it is a powerfully good movie though, I could probably get into the story without being jarred out too easily by the inaccuracies—so, we’ll probably watch it now when it comes on DVD (my wife is a big BC fan anyway so won’t be too hard to persuade her to watch a “stodgy old movie about WWII”).

Strange that they’d have discussing Enigma in public places given the level of secrecy they kept on Bletchley for years after the war finished.

By: Douglas C Alder

Douglas C Alder — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 16:17:23 +0000

Haven’t seen any of them – haven’t gone to a movie in decades. May watch one or two of them if they come out on Netflix but probably won’t. Just not that into movies.

By: Christopher Winter

Christopher Winter — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 14:34:58 +0000

I expect a good many of those listed will win in some Oscar category. The Imitation Game is the only one I’ve seen (two days ago) and it is a powerfully good movie.

Yes, it’s full of historical inaccuracies. But accuracy, in most cases, would have weakened the drama. To mention a few: No conflict between Turing and Dennison; No conflict between Turing and the rest of his team; Turing was actively recruited by Bletchley Park and was always in charge of his team; Joan Clarke was also recruited, and was said to be “rather plain”; Turing never worked with Cairncross.

I guess that’s enough to list. The one thing that bothered me about the plot was the team’s frequent discussion of Enigma in public places.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 03:32:38 +0000

Actually, I should add a column … “Didnt know it existed”

By: Dan Andrews

Dan Andrews — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 03:24:37 +0000

Not seen them either. Usually we wait till our library gets them on DVD and then borrow them, providing it is a movie we wanted to see. I did want to see the Imitation Game, but heard its historical accuracy suffered badly in regards to Turing’s contributions and the team efforts at Bletchley. I may pass on that now especially since I have recently signed out the book, which I hear is quite good.