Written By Patrick Ryan Sarte
As the sunshine glares upon the faces of Katherine, Mary and Dorothy, they greet you with a broken down car, a cute friendly banter, and a journey that would soon unfold as one of the best historical space events ever recorded. The film will tug on your heartstrings as you get absorbed in the amazing story on how three brave women made big sacrifices and achievements for Science and Humanism which will truly pique your interest.
The movie hidden figures was directed by Theodore Melfi who is an American screenwriter and also a producer. The movie became a hit back in 2016 that made Melfi receive an Oscars Nomination for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Hidden Figures focused on the American’s side of the story in the historical space race and also tackled different social issues that occurred decades ago. The film depicted a lot of manmade social constructs in 1960 and showed inequality amongst people who were living in America at that time.
The movie revolves around the lives of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan and their battle against bigotry, sexism, and racism, as they help anchor the win on the space race against Russia. They try to overcome the unthinkable during a time of unprecedented belittling of one’s gender, skin color and ideals. These social issues mentioned can still be seen in our day and age but are not as normalized globally anymore and it's because of the contribution of the trio that helped in extinguishing such degrading beliefs and the movie in itself foretold these issues to a fine detail.
These three women were clearly masters of their craft, as they waged war through the unknown: Katherine, a Mathematician computer in NASA, was not only intellectually gifted, she was also kind, caring and family oriented. She was one of the brightest minds who led NASA to where it is today; Mary, the very first African American female Engineer in NASA, was powerful, held her head up high and stood up for what was right. She absolutely despised the current system at that time and the unfair advantage a person’s color can be; and Dorothy, the head of the West Computing Division of NASA, was made with a heart full of love and built with the tenacity of hard metal. She mounted resistance amongst any obstacle that came her way, and her adaptability to problems was remarkable! These amazing women did the impossible by helping with the launch of the Friendship 7 space shuttle in all aspects ― controlling computations using multiple IBM 7090s calculators, getting proper launch and landing coordinates, and more. They also paved the start of the road to help destroy the norm of inequality by these achievements.
The two-hour film doesn’t feel as long as it looks as time seems to pass by so quickly when you are engrossed in its cinematography, storytelling, and amazing cast. Speaking of cinematography, the film used the old aesthetic of the United States of America with old school cars and cement made roads with a very warm feel that will make you feel what the characters were feeling at the time. The cast made the film all the more pleasant to watch as they portrayed how achievers alike in reality had their own share of struggles as well. These struggles when it comes to family, finances or even a job workload that seems to be never ending. For the trio though, there was a hidden pressure to succeed in their roles in NASA but they will keep afloat to prove the unequal society wrong. The film of course added a bit of their own take on the tale as the story is fiction but it also shows the historical truth behind what was happening behind the doors of NASA back in the day.
Although with the main cast being the center of attention, the minuscule details such as the little posters named “colored computers” or even the sounds of hard metal banging in soundless, tense and crucial scenes made it feel like the creators took note of the smallest of background detail that made everything jive together. With that in mind, scenes with complex discussions of Mathematics, also gave a better understanding on how NASA gained access to their information about how they found out the unknown, hence the name of the movie, Hidden Figures.
When bright minds collide, brilliance shows in both parties. This film showed that without degrading either of the parties, all great ideas should be seen as a step forward and not as competition. The movie recreated real life achievements of real people in such a fashion that it didn’t highlight the achievements themselves, but the struggle and will power that made them break through all the turmoil and overcome the impossible. The amazing prowess to show a history that shaped the future into our present makes this a must have in your movie watch list as it is one of the best historical films ever made out there.
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