Enigma - The Movie

Advantages: Nice watchable film, little unsuitable language
Disadvantages: watch it and see - none that I noticed.

...Enigma (directed by Michael Apted) has Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) returned to Bletchley Park after a nervous breakdown to try and break secret German codes after they were suddenly changed and became undecipherable. His girl-friend Claire (Saffron Burrows) had dissapeared and along with her room - mate Hester (Kate Winslet) start looking for her. To crack the codes it requires a convoy of much needed goods to steer directly into the path of waiting German u-boats, so that they can get the position and course of the convoy (which those in Bletchley Park already know) from German radio messages and if they get enough of them, they can use this to decipher the new codes, which they eventually do, but at the cost of a number of ships and lives. There is also the problem of a traitorin Bletchley Park who has to be discovered...

gander 30.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Enigma (DVD)

Enigma - well not completely

Advantages: Its British, Its a spy film and Saffron is cute
Disadvantages: The camera gives it all away

...I had heard of this film a long time ago, before they had even started filming for it. Apparently Kate Winslet and her then husband were going to use their film studio to retell the story of the Enigma machine (which broke the codes of German U-boats) thereby putting history straight and telling the film U571 to bog off. This is quite an elaborate way of doing it though it has to be said. I guess the complexities of the script owe much to Tom Stoppard who is good at weaving difficult fictional stories around historical fact (Shakespeare in love was great for Shakespeare bringing inspiration for his plays from his own life happenings). I loved what they did with this WWII story though, combining Romance and Spy novels into one - great stuff, haven't seen a good spy film in yonks. Dougray Scott is a codebreaker for the Government, he...

treeman 17.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of Enigma (DVD)

Testing Out The Enigma

Advantages: Intriguing story, keeps you guessing right up to the end
Disadvantages: Awful pacing at the beginning of the movie... the movie is almost in reverse!!

...This is a review of a TEST SCREENING of the not-yet-released movie Enigma starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet and apparently produced by THE Mick Jagger. Please be aware that the released version of this movie may be much different to the movie I saw more than a month ago. So how did I get involved in this screening? Well, my friend went to see a movie over the weekend and got enticed by a person hanging around the lobby of the cinema asking if she’d like to see a FREE movie – yes please she said and she kindly offered to take me along. Anyway onto the movie... Enigma is a World War II drama involving, surprisingly enough, the Enigma machine and the code-breakers of Bletchley Park. This is not your typical Hollywood war extravaganza with blood and guts and plenty of explosions, rather this is a more cerebral...

Midnight 26.09.2001 (03.10.2001) · Read review
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Review of Enigma (DVD)

The enigma inside

Advantages: Good nights, more discerning crowd, good value
Disadvantages: ends at 2:00am, only one floor

...Enigma is situated on Ship Street above the Jazz Rooms, so at least in winter you don't get completely frozen by the searing wind coming off the Downs when you leave it (unlike the clubs on the seafront!) As the Zap, Escape and Honey club descend into more and more epic house cheesiness, places like the Volks, Jazz Rooms and Enigma are becoming a favoured destination with those who have more discerning clubbing tastes throughout the week. One night in particular at the Enigma which has a lot to recommend it is Phonic Hoop. A mixture of deeper house, beats 'n breaks, funk, hip-hop and any other musical nuggets you can, it has succeeded in attracting some 'name' DJs. So the music is pumping, the only downside is that as it is not on the seafront, the night must end at 2:00am. The club itself is a bit rough-hewn but not overly so...

blinderben 20.02.2001 (28.03.2003) · Read review
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Review of Enigma (Brighton)

(Code)cracking film

Advantages: Very good all round combination
Disadvantages: Nothing really

...Enigma is the title of the 2001 film starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet and based on the book of the same name by Robert Harris. The film centres on the work done by the cryptoanalysts of Bletchley Park, who attempted to decipher the Enigma code of the Nazis during World War II. The tale is based loosely on real facts but is a very good spy thriller, with a twist of romance added in for good measure. 1943: Bletchley Park, England. With the Germans increasing the changing rate of their codes, the cryptoanalysts are constantly working day and night to get a breakthrough, break the code and seal a victory in the Atlantic, widely thought of as the key to winning the whole war. With over a trillion combinations, brilliant mathematician Tom Jericho is brought in from his teaching to devise a formula. Attempting to reunite with his...

pmcds 24.01.2009 (13.02.2009) · Read review
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Review of Enigma (DVD)

The War rests on one Mans Shoulders

Advantages: Compeling Read, Keeps you hanging on till the end.
Disadvantages: Takes about 50 - 75 pages to get going but stick with it

...his hypothetical what if the German?s won the war, he turned his attention to a fictional account of real events in war torn Britain. Throughout the book there are a number of interesting twists that hold your attention and Harris does it particularly well. He creates a very real picture through his very vivid descriptions and although he has been criticised by people who worked at Bletchley during the war for an inaccurate description of the place it works for the purpose of this book. Of course by not making it identical to the real thing it adds to the fiction side of things and I believe that will have been the angle that Harris will have been aiming for. There was a danger that Harris could have become far too bogged down in the technical aspects of the Enigma machine and the decoding process. Thankfully he side steps what would...

Andy.mack 18.02.2003 (23.11.2009) · Read review
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Review of Enigma - Robert Harris

The Enigma

Advantages: I am almost completely recovered
Disadvantages: A lot of it's true

...This is a short story I wrote based on a personal experience. Parts of it are exaggerated, and some bits are downright lies, but essentially it's true. At any rate I'm OK now (please read the note at the end) * * * * The Enigma I hold my breath and stare at the smooth plastic curve inches above me. The capsule enclosing me vibrates like a rocket getting ready for blast off. Despite the standard issue earplugs, my ears explode with the deafening noise. "Breathe in now," a calm, measured voice intones above the roar of the machine. I lie very still, my palms clammy, my heart racing. How did I end up here? Two months ago I was an ordinary sixteen year old taking my exams. Today I am an enigma. It all started when I awoke in the dead of night, drenched in cold sweat and with a stabbing pain in my stomach. This was...

CC2000 16.11.2002 (23.11.2002) · Read review
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Review of Fiction

The birth of a whole new musical genre

Advantages: Groundbreaking
Disadvantages: Now new ground to break

...???? The birth-Concept of the Project ???? Enigma is not as the name might suggest a group or band, but a one-man project created by Michael Cretu. In a 1990 Virgin press release he stated that "Old rules and habits have to be rejected and dismissed so that something new can be created" and thus he embarked on the Enigma project and release his first album under the Enigma name (he has also written albums under the names of Trans Atlantic Air Waves & Cretu and Theirs) he released MCMXC a.D. (roman numerals for 1990 ? the release year). He wished to remain annonymous of this project, stating in a Billboard article " ?with Enigma I have created a complete piece of music that I wanted to stand alone. There is a sene of mystery in the music that I wanted to leave untouched by the preceptions and preconceived ideas that came with the past...

rickterry 29.12.2003 · Read review
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Review of Enigma

PUTTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Advantages: very real feel to it, in the good old traditions of British Spy thrillers.
Disadvantages: Saffron Burrows - weak as the 'love interest'

...At last the truth – the REAL Story behind the Enigma machine! This film is based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Harris and is pretty much an all-English affair. No Hollywood ‘tarting up’ of the story here. So what of the story? It centres around the undercover world of codes, espionage, the occasional British stiff upper lip and lots of clandestine activity. Unlike the American version of how the US Navy managed to break the codes and steal the ‘Enigma machine’ in ‘U571’, here ‘Enigma’ tells of an England that actually did exist. Not that anyone knew at the time, because the whole proceedings were shrouded in secrecy – for obvious reasons! The film follows the fortunes of Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) - a codebreaker at Britain’s secrets HQ at Bletchley Park...

flashpointz 02.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of Enigma (DVD)

SOYX SW I CWMZF NBZQ

Advantages: Complex, interesting, well put together
Disadvantages: Keep your head screwed on for gods sake!

...Nope, I haven't learnt to speak fluent Russian, and the site hasn't broken! Above is my own little recreation of what the ENIGMA codes looked like. It hasn't been done by hammering the keyboard, but we'll talk about that later. You may remember tales of the ENIGMA machine from TV programmes like Station X, and the rather historically inaccurate U-571. But this film is more like Station X in it's foundation in historical accuracy, which really helps the film along. - Delving into the past The story of ENIGMA is an interesting and complex one. The ENIGMA codes were the codes used by German military in World War II to encode their communiqués so they wouldn't reveal themselves to Allied intelligence. However, thanks to the work of the geniuses at Bletchley Park (near Milton Keynes), the codes were cracked and we got a vital upper...

Excelle 06.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of Enigma (DVD)