After a long time I happen to taste my salty tears this weekend; courtesy two movies: Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. One is a story of Dr. Alan Turing, a famous mathematician who broke Engima, a German machine and how his persecution pushed him to suicide. The second movie is on Stephen Hawking; I'm tempted to put Sir before his name, but he didn't accept the knighthood, and the struggles he and his family went through as a result of his debilitating illness. One gets to see the kind and cruel side of society in these two movies.
In the first movie, one gets to see the cruel side of society that acknowledges Dr. Alan's homosexuality as a perversion. In fact the judge orders the war hero and mathematician to choose between incarceration and chemical castration. I shed the first tear when Dr. Alan tells his ex-colleague and ex-girl friend Joan Clarke why he choose chemical castration over incarceration.
Before I share the reason with you, let me tell you about Joan. When Dr. Alan calls off his engagement with Joan by announcing his sexuality to her, Joan responds that she can live with Alan even without sex. In a world where sex defines people and their relationships, Joan chooses emotional connect and companionship over physical pleasure. A friend can help you finish the journey of life.
Now coming back to the reason; Chistropher and Alan were in love with each other and Chris got Allen interested in cryptography which later helped Alan crack the German code and help allies win the war. The first cryptic message between the juveniles expressed their love for each other, but it ended abruptly when Chris passed away due to Tuberculosis. Dr. Alan never forget his love, and in fact he named the machine he built after Christopher. To prevent another separation from Christopher, he choose chemical castration over incarceration.
Dr. Alan was in his early 40s when he committed suicide. Across the world there are many Alan's trapped in their closets being afraid of persecution. Sadly, the society acknowledges only those who imitate and live by its script and sucks the rest into its Black Hole.
Coming to the second movie, we see the responsible side of the society when Stephen Hawking is diagnosed with a debilitating motor nerve disease and given two more years to live. Stephen's professors didn't look at him with sympathy, both Stephen and his father asks Jane, Stephen's girl friend to break up with him and explains the hardships ahead of her if she chooses Stephen, lastly the music teacher at the Church comes forward to help the family and get over his own grief and tragedy in life through selfless service.
Stephen and Jane against the odd decide to tie the knot and embark their lives together. At a time when the first child was beginning to crawl, Stephen's illness brought him on his knees and he was competing with the infant for both attention and care. Progressively, the diseases takes a toll on the couple, their marriage, Jane's PhD and confines Stephen to his wheel chair. What the disease couldn't do was not prevent the couple from having two more children and not only complete his dissertation on black hole, but also disprove it later.
Jane is a practicing catholic, while Stephen is an atheist. While the disease begins to push Jane and Stephan apart, faith brings together Elaine, a attendant to teaches communication to Stephen after he lost his speech and Jonathan, a music teacher and a widower from the church to help Jane manage her three children. Isn't understanding each other's needs and wants more important than understanding the unknown?
I shed tear every time honesty and sacrifice came face-to-face with reality and hardships of life. The Theory of Everything ends with Jane explaining their separation and peaceful coexistence through Big Bang and Relativity. Both Stephen and Jane and their families also understand the need for their separation and let them embark on their new lives with Jonathan and Elaine respectively shedding a new meaning to marriage, companionship and life. It takes two to ru(i)n a marriage and in this case society helped four of them find their happiness and get another life from the Black hole.
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