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Hidden Figures, 2016
This based-on-a-true-story historical drama follows three Black NASA workers, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) as they jockey and fight for their positions within the government organization. Katherine's work in particular becomes important as she is added to a team calculating orbital paths for the first American manned flights into space.
I had put off watching this film for years because I really loved what I read of the book (long boring story: read half of the book but ran out of renewals and just need to reborrow the dang thing!) and was worried at how Hollywood the story would become in a film version. While there were some places that you can see the hand of big-screen storytelling, I thought that overall it captured a lot of the experiences of the women.
Henson, Spencer, and Monae all do a great job of portraying people who are very intelligent and who must constantly toe the line of being deferential to the white authority figures who surround them while still managing to advocate for themselves. Johnson's story in particular is so inspiring to me (I was an enthusiastic math major, but never had that natural talent that some mathematicians have): she graduated high school at the age of 14, and graduated college at the age of 18. And as someone who routinely watches families play games so that their children can attend certain schools for sports reasons, it warms my heart that Johnson's parents made it work to split their time between two towns so that their daughter could complete her education.
Something that I think the film does really well is show the way that what you might call "passive racism" (or really any passive prejudice) can make life so difficult for a person. There are no scenes of anyone getting in Johnson's face, calling her slurs, vandalizing her car, pulling cruel pranks, or anything of that nature. But at the same time, the men in her division don't want to share a coffee pot with her. One of the wings only has a white bathroom forcing Johnson to make a long walk just to use the bathroom. (In reality this happened to Jackson, not Johnson.) There are so many baked-in elements of status quo that the women must push through just to be on equal footing. When Jackson wants to apply for an engineering position, she's told she needs extra course work. The problem? The only two places to take the courses are white only schools. Jackson has to go to court just for the chance to take her classes.
And just as the film shows the damage of passive racism, it shows the benefits and limitations of passive allyship. There are people who show respect and kindness toward the main characters. The head of the space task group, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), recognizes Johnson's abilities and cultivates her work under his leadership. John Glenn (Glen Powell) also shows respect for Johnson's skills, preferring that she rerun the numbers before his space launch. (This is based in fact but given a more thrilling spin in the film by showing the recalculations happening right before the launch as opposed to in the days leading to the launch). But something that kind of sits there in the film is that none of these people do anything really active to help. There's a scene of Harrison heroically tearing down a "Colored Bathroom" sign, which is totally made up. Those who give the women chances do so largely out of necessity. Would Al Harrison care that Black women are being forced to walk long distances to a bathroom if those long walks weren't interfering with his work? I don't think so.
With the one exception of the bathroom sign scene, the film admirably resists any white savior tropes. John Glenn comes off as incredibly accepting of the women, and when I revisit the book I'll be interested to note what it actually says about the nature of their interactions.
As with any "true story" movie, I get a bit antsy about events being changed to make them more cinematic. And while I realize that books and movies are different things, there are elements from the book that I wish had been in the film. Something that's stuck with me from the book all these years is the account of one of the female mathematicians who had a mental breakdown, covering her entire office in scribbles about "finding infinity." That said, based on what I know about the real events I didn't feel that any extreme liberties were taken. The movie resists making anyone a Mary Sue, and neither does it excessively villainize anyone. What's nice about that is that it really lets you focus on the amazing achievements of these women and the role they played in the space race. There are two fights in the film: the women fighting for equality and NASA fighting to get their astronaut home safely. I thought that the integration of these two dynamics was well done.
There are also some solid supporting performances, including Mahershala Ali as a man who woos Johnson, Olek Krupa as a Polish engineer who encourages Jackson to go for the position, and Kirsten Dunst as a supervisor who engages in petty power struggles with the women and especially with Vaughan.
Very pleasantly surprised by this one, and it makes me want to dig back into the book.
Hidden Figures, 2016
This based-on-a-true-story historical drama follows three Black NASA workers, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) as they jockey and fight for their positions within the government organization. Katherine's work in particular becomes important as she is added to a team calculating orbital paths for the first American manned flights into space.
I had put off watching this film for years because I really loved what I read of the book (long boring story: read half of the book but ran out of renewals and just need to reborrow the dang thing!) and was worried at how Hollywood the story would become in a film version. While there were some places that you can see the hand of big-screen storytelling, I thought that overall it captured a lot of the experiences of the women.
Henson, Spencer, and Monae all do a great job of portraying people who are very intelligent and who must constantly toe the line of being deferential to the white authority figures who surround them while still managing to advocate for themselves. Johnson's story in particular is so inspiring to me (I was an enthusiastic math major, but never had that natural talent that some mathematicians have): she graduated high school at the age of 14, and graduated college at the age of 18. And as someone who routinely watches families play games so that their children can attend certain schools for sports reasons, it warms my heart that Johnson's parents made it work to split their time between two towns so that their daughter could complete her education.
Something that I think the film does really well is show the way that what you might call "passive racism" (or really any passive prejudice) can make life so difficult for a person. There are no scenes of anyone getting in Johnson's face, calling her slurs, vandalizing her car, pulling cruel pranks, or anything of that nature. But at the same time, the men in her division don't want to share a coffee pot with her. One of the wings only has a white bathroom forcing Johnson to make a long walk just to use the bathroom. (In reality this happened to Jackson, not Johnson.) There are so many baked-in elements of status quo that the women must push through just to be on equal footing. When Jackson wants to apply for an engineering position, she's told she needs extra course work. The problem? The only two places to take the courses are white only schools. Jackson has to go to court just for the chance to take her classes.
And just as the film shows the damage of passive racism, it shows the benefits and limitations of passive allyship. There are people who show respect and kindness toward the main characters. The head of the space task group, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), recognizes Johnson's abilities and cultivates her work under his leadership. John Glenn (Glen Powell) also shows respect for Johnson's skills, preferring that she rerun the numbers before his space launch. (This is based in fact but given a more thrilling spin in the film by showing the recalculations happening right before the launch as opposed to in the days leading to the launch). But something that kind of sits there in the film is that none of these people do anything really active to help. There's a scene of Harrison heroically tearing down a "Colored Bathroom" sign, which is totally made up. Those who give the women chances do so largely out of necessity. Would Al Harrison care that Black women are being forced to walk long distances to a bathroom if those long walks weren't interfering with his work? I don't think so.
With the one exception of the bathroom sign scene, the film admirably resists any white savior tropes. John Glenn comes off as incredibly accepting of the women, and when I revisit the book I'll be interested to note what it actually says about the nature of their interactions.
As with any "true story" movie, I get a bit antsy about events being changed to make them more cinematic. And while I realize that books and movies are different things, there are elements from the book that I wish had been in the film. Something that's stuck with me from the book all these years is the account of one of the female mathematicians who had a mental breakdown, covering her entire office in scribbles about "finding infinity." That said, based on what I know about the real events I didn't feel that any extreme liberties were taken. The movie resists making anyone a Mary Sue, and neither does it excessively villainize anyone. What's nice about that is that it really lets you focus on the amazing achievements of these women and the role they played in the space race. There are two fights in the film: the women fighting for equality and NASA fighting to get their astronaut home safely. I thought that the integration of these two dynamics was well done.
There are also some solid supporting performances, including Mahershala Ali as a man who woos Johnson, Olek Krupa as a Polish engineer who encourages Jackson to go for the position, and Kirsten Dunst as a supervisor who engages in petty power struggles with the women and especially with Vaughan.
Very pleasantly surprised by this one, and it makes me want to dig back into the book.