Enigma

Theatrical release poster

Directed by Michael Apted
Produced by Mick Jagger
Lorne Michaels
Screenplay by Tom Stoppard
Based on Enigma
by Robert Harris
Starring Dougray Scott
Kate Winslet
Jeremy Northam
Saffron Burrows
Music by John Barry
Cinematography Seamus McGarvey
Edited by Rick Shaine
Production
company
Jagged Films
Broadway Video
Distributed by BVI (UK)
Manhattan Pictures (US)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Enigma (movie))
Enigma is a 2001 film directed by Michael Apted from a
screenplay by Tom Stoppard. The script was adapted from
the novel Enigma by Robert Harris, about the Enigma
codebreakers of Bletchley Park in World War II. This was
the final film to be scored by John Barry.
In 1943 amid the largest convoy deployment from the US to
Britain, cryptanalyst Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) returns to
Bletchley Park to help the codebreaking team reacquire their
ability to read U-Boats' Enigma communications. Obsessed
with his missing former girlfriend Claire (Saffron Burrows),
he and Claire's roommate Hester (Kate Winslet), also
employed at Bletchley, work on unraveling the mystery of
Claire's disappearance. Although the story is highly
fictionalised, the process of encrypting German messages
during World War II and decrypting them with the Enigma
is discussed in detail, and the historical event of the Katyn
Massacre is highlighted.
The film was co-produced by Mick Jagger, who provided
funding for the film, as well as access to his own Enigma
machine. It was shot in England, Scotland and the
Netherlands. Critical reviews were largely positive,
although there was criticism of the largely fictional storyline
which does not mention the real codebreaker Alan Turing,
nor give due credit to the Polish cryptanalysis foundation
Cipher Bureau.
1 Plot
2 Main cast
3 Production and premiere
4 Criticism
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Enigma (2001 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_(movie)
1 of 4 7/28/2014 3:00 AM
Release date(s) 22 January 2001
(Sundance)
18 August 2001
(Edinburgh)
28 September 2001 (UK)
19 April 2002 (US)
Running time 119 min.
Country United Kingdom
United States
Germany
The Netherlands
Language English
Box office
$15,705,007 (Worldwide)
[1]
The story, loosely based on actual events, takes place in
March 1943, when World War II was at its height. The
cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, have a
problem: the Nazi U-boats have changed one of their code
reference books used for Enigma machine ciphers, leading
to a blackout in the flow of vital naval signals intelligence.
The British cryptanalysts have cracked the "Shark" cipher
once before, and they need to do it again in order to keep
track of U-boat locations.
The film begins with Jericho returning to Bletchley after a
month recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by
his failed love affair with Claire. Jericho immediately tries
to see her again and finds that she mysteriously disappeared
a few days earlier. He enlists the help of Claire's housemate
Hester Wallace, to follow the trail of clues and learn what
has happened to Claire.
Mr. Jericho and Miss Wallace, as they formally address each other, work to decipher intercepts stolen by Claire
and determine why she took them. Jericho is closely watched by an MI5 agent, Wigram (Jeremy Northam), who
plays cat and mouse with him throughout the film. Meanwhile U-boats closing in on one of the ship convoys
from America allow Jericho and the team to work on breaking back into reading Shark.
Jericho and Hester's research uncovers the British government's cover-up of the Katyn Massacre for fear
knowledge of it might weaken American willingness to remain in the war on the same side as Joseph Stalin.
Cryptanalyst Jozef 'Puck' Pukowski (Nikolaj Coster Waldau), working at the Park, learned of Katyn from Claire
and was so incensed by the massacre which claimed the life of his brother that he set about betraying
Bletchley's secrets to the Nazis in order to take revenge on Stalin.
Claire is presumed dead as Jericho trails Puck to Scotland and catches up with him just as he is about to be
taken on board a U-boat, but Wigram and the police have been waiting for the sub and it is bombed and sunk.
A short scene after the war sees Jericho and Hester married with a child on the way. As Jericho waits for her in
London, he notices Claire walking across the square.
Dougray Scott - Tom Jericho
Kate Winslet - Hester Wallace
Saffron Burrows - Claire Romilly
Jeremy Northam - Mr. Wigram
Nikolaj Coster Waldau - Jozef 'Puck' Pukowski
Tom Hollander - Guy Logie
Donald Sumpter - Leveret
Matthew Macfadyen - Cave
Robert Pugh - Skynner
Enigma (2001 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_(movie)
2 of 4 7/28/2014 3:00 AM
The scaled-down model of a World War
II U-boat used in the film. The model
was donated to the Bletchley Park
museum.
Corin Redgrave - Admiral Trowbridge
Nicholas Rowe - Villiers
Edward Hardwicke - Heaviside
The film was shot on location in England, Scotland, and Holland, with Bletchley Park mansion substituted by
Chicheley Hall.
[2]
Other locations include the Great Central Railway Loughborough and Tigh Beg Croft, Oban,
isles of Scotland. Interiors were filmed at Elstree Film Studios.
[3]
The film was produced by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Jagger makes a cameo appearance as an RAF
officer at a dance. He also lent the film's design department a four-rotor Enigma encoding machine he owned to
ensure the historical accuracy of one of the props. The festivities around the London premiere of the film are
shown in the 2001 documentary Being Mick.
The filmand by association the bookhave attracted criticism for
their portrayal of the Polish role in Enigma decryption.
[4]
Critics
argue that in the film the fictitious traitor turns out to be Polish, while
only slight mention is made of the contributions of prewar Polish
Cipher Bureau cryptologists to Allied Enigma decryption efforts,
[5]
while historically, the only known traitor active at Bletchley Park was
British spy John Cairncross, who passed crucial secrets to the Soviet
Union.
[6]
The so-called "Greatest Convoy Battle" took place between 7 and 11
March 1943 (10 convoys and 38 German submarines in Atlantic),
although in the movie it seems to be represented as occurring at the end of April 1943.
U-571 (2000)
Cryptanalysis of the Enigma
Enigma machine
Ultra
^ "Enigma at Box Office Mojo" (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=enigma02.htm). Retrieved 2010-09-29. 1.
^ Sleeve notes from DVD. 2.
^ IMDb: Locations for Enigma (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157583/locations) Retrieved 2013-04-01 3.
^ Norman Davies oskara "Enigm"|lang=pl (http://www.filmweb.pl/Norman+Davies+oskar%C5%BCa+%22Enigm 4.
Enigma (2001 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_(movie)
3 of 4 7/28/2014 3:00 AM
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Enigma
(2001 film).
%C4%99%22,News,id=3946)
^ How Poles cracked Nazi Enigma secret (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8158782.stm), Laurence Peter, BBC
News, 20 July 2009
5.
^ The Cambridge spy ring - BBC News, 13 September 1999 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/09
/99/britain_betrayed/444058.stm) Retrieved 2007-08-09.
6.
Review by Andrew Hodges (http://www.cryptographic.co.uk
/enigmareview.html)
Enigma (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157583/) at the Internet
Movie Database
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enigma_(2001_film)&oldid=615856698"
Categories: 2001 films English-language films British films British spy films British thriller films
British war films War romance films World War II films World War II spy films
Films based on thriller novels Elstree Studios films Pinewood Studios films
Films directed by Michael Apted Mick Jagger Bletchley Park Cryptography in fiction Films set in 1943
Screenplays by Tom Stoppard Film scores by John Barry
This page was last modified on 6 July 2014 at 19:35.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Enigma (2001 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_(movie)
4 of 4 7/28/2014 3:00 AM