HIDDEN FIGURES

AN EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT MOVIE!

Yesterday Lou & I spent a rainy afternoon at the movies watching "Hidden Figures", the Oscar nominated film about three black women who worked at NASA in the 1960s. It is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time - at least one made primarily for adults.

It is based on the true stories of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn & Mary Jackson. I have not met one person who knew the story of these brilliant, pioneering black women before this movie. Many African American women were intricate pieces of our early space program. How is it that it took 55 years for this amazing story to emerge?

The real Katherine Johnson (portrayed by Taraji P. Henson) is the only woman of the three still living at age 98. There is much "artistic license" taken in movies based on a true story. Unlike the movie portrayal, Katherine has said she did not experience much segregation at NASA although she knew it existed. John Glenn personally asked that she double check the figures right before his historic orbiting of the earth. That was true & did happen as the film showed.

Dorothy Vaughn (portrayed by Octavia Spencer) became the first black supervisor at NASA. She was the leader of the "West Computers" which is the name given the black women mathematicians. The "West" side was the area for the black employees. The term "computers" was used for all people who did the calculations prior to the use of machine computers. Darrin's flight instructor was a "computer" in her youth - he always thought the job title was humorous.

Mary Jackson (portrayed by Janelle Monae) fought to take night classes at a white school in order to qualify to become NASA's first black female engineer while she worked during the day as a "West Computer". Many of these events occurred at different times than portrayed in the movie but these three women were intelligent, well qualified & vital to our early astronauts returning safely to earth.

One of the things that surprised me is that this film is rated PG. There was no sex, no violence, no car chases, no explosions & yet it was a totally compelling story that was beautifully written & filmed. I was heartened that in this day & age there are still amazing storytellers that can move people to tears.

The lead women did wonderful jobs of portraying these intelligent, determined women. They were all accomplished mathematicians who did the job far better than their white male counterparts. I certainly hope someone wins an Oscar for one of these roles.

I am discovering that I really like Kevin Costner as an actor who is exceptional at the nuances of a character. Research showed that his character was a composite of several directors. The same was true of Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) & Kirsten Dunst who portrayed NASA supervisors.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to be entertained & inspired without all the loud, craziness of many of today's films. I can't remember the last time applause broke out in the theater at the end of a movie! It did yesterday & I wholeheartedly joined in through my tears!