Movie Rewind - Enigma and book review
March 6th 2007 08:02
Hi Everyone
About a month ago I read the book Enigma by Robert Harris, book blurb below:
It is March 1943 and the War hangs in the balance . . . At Bletchley Park Tom Jericho, a brilliant young codebreaker, is facing a double nightmare. The Germans have unaccountably changed their U-boat Enigma code, threatening a massive Allied defeat. As suspicion grows that there may be a spy inside Bletchley, and Jericho is suspected, his girlfriend, the beautiful and mysterious Claire Romilly, suddenly disappears. With the help of Claire's best friend, Hester, Jericho sets out to find Claire, clear his name and unmask the spy. The answers will change his life forever... Steeped in the atmosphere of wartime England, based around an actual event, Enigma is a thriller of genius: a compelling mystery of codes and codebreaking, love and betrayal set inside the birthplace of the secret state.
Now as I had family that fought in the Battle of the Atlantic, this book appealed to me and it's the first one of the authors that I have read. After the reading the first page, you get the impression of what war time England was like and having come from that part of the world, I could identfiy quite easily with what the author was describing. I found it well written, good solid characters and well plotted, as the chapters smoothly joined each other without the reader having to flick back a few pages to refresh. I should imagine Robert spent quite some timeon research making sure all the details were right as even though this is fiction, it is still set in a major time of conflict that is well documented, so the details would have to be right. Overall a good book, the type you could take on holiday etc. Not one of my favorites and doubt I would read it again but worth a read from the historical side too.
Now obviously you know the plot, so I won't go over that again, anyway the movie starred Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Jeremy Northam and Saffron Burrows. This movie was good, although you would need to watch it without any distractions etc not because it's complicated more just so you can get into the era of the 40s. The costumes and sets were great and I thought the actors played the parts really well, even the slimy smooth detective.
If you want lots of action then this isn't the movie for you as its bit of a thinking person's movie and when they are waiting for the wolf pack of subs to attack the convoy, you can feel the tension in the air.
Get this out on a wet Sunday afternoon in winter with a wine or cocoa .
So this isn't too long a post tonight, I will post another with some details which will make more sense if you read the book or hire the dvd out.
Hal
About a month ago I read the book Enigma by Robert Harris, book blurb below:
It is March 1943 and the War hangs in the balance . . . At Bletchley Park Tom Jericho, a brilliant young codebreaker, is facing a double nightmare. The Germans have unaccountably changed their U-boat Enigma code, threatening a massive Allied defeat. As suspicion grows that there may be a spy inside Bletchley, and Jericho is suspected, his girlfriend, the beautiful and mysterious Claire Romilly, suddenly disappears. With the help of Claire's best friend, Hester, Jericho sets out to find Claire, clear his name and unmask the spy. The answers will change his life forever... Steeped in the atmosphere of wartime England, based around an actual event, Enigma is a thriller of genius: a compelling mystery of codes and codebreaking, love and betrayal set inside the birthplace of the secret state.
Now as I had family that fought in the Battle of the Atlantic, this book appealed to me and it's the first one of the authors that I have read. After the reading the first page, you get the impression of what war time England was like and having come from that part of the world, I could identfiy quite easily with what the author was describing. I found it well written, good solid characters and well plotted, as the chapters smoothly joined each other without the reader having to flick back a few pages to refresh. I should imagine Robert spent quite some timeon research making sure all the details were right as even though this is fiction, it is still set in a major time of conflict that is well documented, so the details would have to be right. Overall a good book, the type you could take on holiday etc. Not one of my favorites and doubt I would read it again but worth a read from the historical side too.
Now obviously you know the plot, so I won't go over that again, anyway the movie starred Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Jeremy Northam and Saffron Burrows. This movie was good, although you would need to watch it without any distractions etc not because it's complicated more just so you can get into the era of the 40s. The costumes and sets were great and I thought the actors played the parts really well, even the slimy smooth detective.
If you want lots of action then this isn't the movie for you as its bit of a thinking person's movie and when they are waiting for the wolf pack of subs to attack the convoy, you can feel the tension in the air.
Get this out on a wet Sunday afternoon in winter with a wine or cocoa .
So this isn't too long a post tonight, I will post another with some details which will make more sense if you read the book or hire the dvd out.
Hal
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