Hidden Figures

Excellent movie! I saw this years ago and decided I like it enough to I want it in my collection!

Where do I begin to praise the merits of one of the most inspiring and heartwarming films of 2016? HIDDEN FIGURES is simply poetry in motion from its phenomenal cast to its gorgeous period setting to its incredible and true story. Here is a very different story about African Americans. It sheds light on a time when things were slowly moving forward. There have been several movies in the past few years about the horrors of slavery and the violent days of the Civil Rights Movement. Those stories needed to be told, but HIDDEN FIGURES is a gentler story about the fight for equality. Our three heroes Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) have stable family lives and live in comfortable middle class homes. They are much like many women in the early 1960's with one major difference - they are all mathematical geniuses with minds far surpassing those of the average person. Although they have to work in the "colored" section of NASA, these three women are already far ahead of the game than most women (white or black) in the early 1960's with jobs at NASA. Their brilliant minds were held back because of their gender and the color of their skin, yet these human computers fought to be accepted and to play a vital role in the US manned space mission. HIDDEN FIGURES is such a pure visual delight watching Henson, Spencer and Monae circumvent the restrictions of the day to become the first in their field. Although the violence of the era is touched upon mildly, this is really the story of their normal but brilliant women just wanting to use their minds and be given a fair chance. This story is told with dignity and respect and a dash of humor. Katherine gets to work in the elite section with the "big boys' but with a few caveats. She is not accepted by the men for just as much because of her gender as for her race. A poignant fact is shown with a bit of humor. Anytime Katherine needs a bathroom break, she much use the "Colored" restroom in another side of the NASA campus-- 1/4 mile away. So a couple of times a day, Katherine runs with her work on her bathroom break. Funny but a sad homage to the segregationist laws of Virginia in the day. I could continue to praise HIDDEN FIGURES as one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Taraji P. Henson simply lights up the screen as do the other stars. Here is the perfect cast in a perfect film telling an overlooked story of dedication and inspiration.

This is so offensive on so many levels. Imagine young black women getting the opportunity to get a practical, marketable education. Imagine black nuclear families with a responsible, loving husband living with them, building a life with them, teaching them, learning with them, growing with them as a family. Imagine young black women wanting to accomplish something great, something positive, in their lives. To be a part of a larger vision. To work hard and be the best at what they do. Imagine young black women getting jobs because they have worked hard to gain the knowledge, skills, abilities, and merit to earn those jobs, then excel at them. Imagine a world where young black women would have the opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills, abilities, and merit - to even have the basic qualifications necessary to get the opportunity to work hard for them. Imagine young black women earning a family wage, contributing to society, and paying taxes - living a "normal" nuclear life with their families. Amazing. What this film shows is how much white people were offended by black people back in that era, and how offended most white people are today at the idea this ever happened. People grew. People learned hard lessons from their failures. People evolved. Not all people, it's an on-going process, but it is a continuing process. A process which needs to be cultivated by everyone, not just whites. Horrible mistakes were made, but people learn from failure better than success - failures are lessons more meaningful and memorable. Failure sucks, and scars are important reminders of lessons best not forgotten. People should get credit for learning and evolving, in today's world, no matter how things have changed for the better, no credit is ever given, which hampers the effort. You want people to evolve? Teach them, work with them, don't just berate them. That applies to all facets of life, especially marriage. Celebrate steps accomplished to encourage, don't just demand more. Imagine how different the black experience would be if the Gov't provided a solid, practical, meaningful education to them, instead of the worthless education they historically had - the same empty education they are now perpetrating on ALL American children. An "education" where high school grads can't read, write, or do simple math, or even read a tape measure. Years ago, I worked with a lady who was married to a young black man. They were a very nice couple- very sweet. During that time, he was featured on the cover of TIME magazine with 9 other young people. They had been deemed the 10 best young minds in America. It didn't matter what any of them were - what "category" they were. What an honor at the time. I don't believe you would see any media do that today. Today it's all about hate and division. Politicians continue to do all of us wrong. Imagine where we would all be today if they worked to educate us and bring us all together to contribute to society and each other instead of motivating hatefulness and ignorance. You want to change the world? Educate ALL children with marketable skills and dump the media and politicians who work hard to hamper that effort and only preach hate to control everyone's lives. Politicians, media, etc., who work to de-evolve everyone and turn them back into the racially intolerant ignoramuses they were years ago. LBJ was the Godfather of oppression. He had the skills to make it look like he was doing the black population a favor while actually setting them up for massive failure which is still rampant today. That chain needs to be broken thru good, solid, practical, marketable education. Everyone should turn their racial efforts and drama into attaining that - demanding that. Over time, people with skills will work together to build. Skill and work ethics will prevail. I have seen it work. I have worked closely with people from all over the planet for decades. Color never mattered, skills and contribution did. This would be a whole different planet if society made cooperation and education paramount. Don't complain - contribute. Make your world a better place.

Wonderful movie based on historical fact. Highly recommended.

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Made me want to stand up and cheer!!! I loved it so much, I bought the DVD after I had rented it though Amazon.

Great movie Worked amazingly Great family movie

A review of the movie Hidden Figures directed by Theodore Melfi Hidden Figures, by Theodore Melfi, is an inspirational historical fiction movie based on a true story. The movie is set at NASA during the 1950s or the time of the Space Race. The first thing people think when they think of the “Space Race,” is the astronauts who risk their lives to better their country and move it forward. However, people do not think of the mathematician, scientists, engineers, and programmers that dedicated all their work to bring the astronauts up to space. The movie is about three black women, Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan, who worked up the ranking in NASA to achieve what no other African American had done at the time. They worked with NASA in an effort to launch John Glenn, an astronaut, up to space and orbit the Earth to beat the Russians in the Space Race. Not only does the movie show the hard work these ladies clocked in, but the female empowerment that took place to achieve where they needed to be. Although the movie did a commendable job of showing women empowerment, it twisted history and added fictional events and characters to make it seem more heroic. The movie, Hidden Figures, does an incredible job of sending an inspirational message to their audience during the movie. It shows how one can do anything they set their mind to, as long as they work hard to achieve it. In the movie, Goble, Jackson, and Vaughan fought to earn where they were in the rankings in NASA by working hard and advocating for themselves. Although they were eventually successful in doing so, they still faced hardships. These hardships included racism and sexism, as well as the challenges that come with a harder job. What makes these ladies so remarkable is how they worked hard in their day jobs and came home to take care of and work for their families’ needs. Not that many people recognized all of the women mathematicians and engineers, and this movie focused on them and brought these ladies’ stories to people's attention. Some of the hardships they faced in the movie included being successful women in a male-dominated field, being as treated as a janitor, having to attend classes at an all-white college to become an engineer (an effort to prevent blacks from becoming engineers), having your voice suppressed by others, and being withheld important information that is required to complete your work. All of these hardships were faced and overcome by Jackson, Vaughan, and Goble. Also, John Glenn, the first astronaut to orbit the Earth, asked Katherine Goble to double-check the calculations that the machine had made before he went on his mission to orbit the Earth. He said that he would only go as long as Goble said the numbers were correct. The movie shows how these ladies got far in NASA by working hard, despite them being in a racist and sexist world. The message this movie is trying to send is truly inspirational because the audience will be empowered to work hard for what they want. Although Hidden Figures empowered people, especially women, to fight and work hard for what they wanted, the movie twisted the truths so that it would be dramatic and emphasize their inspirational message. One thing that was false in the movie was how Katherine Goble experienced a tremendous amount of segregation during her time working for NASA. In reality, Goble did not receive much segregation due to the fact everyone was trying to launch a man into space. The segregation she received at work was nowhere near the segregation and racism she received in the movie. Also, Paul Stafford, one of Goble’s coworkers, was made up by the director. He was made to portray the prejudiced and sexist attitudes people had towards black women at the time. The character did a multitude of derogatory actions that included demoting her to secretary, not allowing her to attend briefings, as well as deleting her byline on official reports that she had worked on. The biggest difference between the movie and the true story was that there was a multitude of people who worked on the project, not just these three ladies. There were sections and branches that reported to the directors and all of these people total up to way more than the movie portrayed. The movie added many fictional scenes to make the lives of Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan more challenging to make the movie more dramatic as well as convey the message of female empowerment. Although the movie conveys a female empowering message, it includes many fallacies about the true story of these three women at NASA to make the movie inspirational. Overall, the movie is fantastic because it still sends an inspirational message of female empowerment to the audience and has a positive impact on them. Although these women were shown as absolutely incredible in real life and the movie, the movie also created fictional events to make their lives look even more heroic. The only reason stars were taken away from the rating was because the director made up fictional scenes and characters to dramatize the movie more, but the positive about the movie strongly outweigh the negatives. This movie should be recommended to any age group because everyone should receive the message the movie sends, which is to always work hard for what you want, no matter what. This movie should not be recommended to people who only want the history behind the movie because they might be provided with false facts. All in all, this movie should be recommended to anyone who seeks an empowering and heart-warming movie.

After seeing excerpts on YT, was not disappointed. Good movie.