Posted on 02/17/2017 7:29:19 AM PST by originalbuckeye
Not since Sister Act has a film fronted by black women had quite the commercial impact of Hidden Figures, which has crashed through the $100 million barrier at the US box office and even scored a place on the Best Picture line-up.
Underrate the star power of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe at your peril; by the end of their film, you’ll certainly be doffing your hat to the women they’re playing, too. Hidden in the sense of historically obscured – their contributions to the space race neglected and marginalised – this trio of Nasa employees had key roles to play in getting John Glenn into orbit in the early 1960s, and safely back.
Taraji P Henson, keeping a lid on her natural exuberance, tops the bill as one-woman computer system Katherine G Johnson, who gets bumped up from the blacks-only wing of Nasa’s Virginia HQ and tasked with checking the calculations on space-flight trajectories, while her white colleagues, almost all of them men, glare at her suspiciously and minimise any credit coming her way. She’s pitted against Kevin Costner’s Al Harrison, a gruff taskmaster who grasps her mathematical genius more quickly than most, and gets one big, slightly unfortunate white saviour scene when he finds out the distance she’s been dashing just to get to the “colored” restroom, halfway across the entire campus.
According to the book’s author, Margot Lee Shetterly, the real Johnson used any loo she damn well pleased – but while you extend the movie licence to scoff in a generalised way at the era’s absurd, demeaning rules, having Costner personally knock down the “colored ladies” sign with a heroic quip feels like a gesture of solidarity too far.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Did you all know that Newton was actually a black chick?
I saw the movie and it was terrific.
I never would have thought that watching a movie about black female mathematicians would be so good. Sounded boring to me, but it was not.
Lots of actual footage from the era as well.
The movie starts out fine, then within minutes we’re back into the “blame whitey for everything.”
I sat fuming for most of the movie, thinking the younger generation of kids are going to think “again” that there was not one decent white person living in the 1960s with regard to treating black people with dignity.
No, you add to it the stereotype of Kevin Costner acting like the king pin, who intervenes when he finds out that the black workers had to walk a mile to their own bathroom.
The movie is disappointing and again has the objective of reintroducing racial stereotypes.
Even at the end of the movie, when the white supervisor had the chance to show respect, dignity and class...they make sure that he doesn’t, as if prejudice is in the genes of all white people.
Don’t waste your money.
We really wanted to see it and also thought it was really good. We are ‘Space Race’ people. I thought it was well done, but was taken aback by the admission that the ‘bathroom problem’ wasn’t true for Ms Johnson. Finding that out diminished the movie a bit for me. Not that I wanted it to be true, just that I consider it incendiary and manipulative to put that type of falsehood into a movie with such a great story. And those women were brilliant. I’m glad their story is receiving the interest that it is receiving.
Wife and I liked the movie. It was heavy on showing the stupidities of segregation, where darn near every white was bigoted at a personal level, and the office space was segregated by policy.
The mathematics was compressed for the screen, in the same way that racism was concentrated for the screen.
The marriage proposal scene was very touching to this old cream puff.
And it showed people going to church and Christians loving and supporting each other when going through tough times.
These movies and their messages fall on deaf ears for anyone under 50; all we’ve seen is decades of underserved diplomas, degrees, jobs, and promotions given to blacks to promote “diversity”.
As long as affirmative action is allowed to stand legally, these movies “keep it real” as much as SpongeBob Squarepants...
IIRC, the whole “Roots” storyline was completely fabricated...
Without the the bathroom lie, and the white supervisor who takes credit for Ms Johnson’s work, it would be a boring movie.
I figured out what it would be like from the trailer, and decided ahead of time to not bother.
Something else. I went to a later show. When my date, and I entered the theater with our tickets, that we bought in advance, we had to walk pass several young black teenagers who were standing around the doors to the theater. They had just come out of the theater, I presume from seeing the first showing. When we approached the doors, one of the young black men moved to allow us to pass, as any one would do, as I passed him, I heard him say in a rather loud voice, “Excuse me.”...and then “That white guy didn’t say excuse me.” I acted like I didn’t hear him and just walked by into the theater, when I turned around he was glaring at me.
In short, if you’re white you will feel extremely uneasy watching this movie. ALL, not some, ALL of the white characters are portrayed as racist, smug, smart alecs that you just want to slap silly. They do petty things, like have a “black only” coffee pot for Ms. Johnson who not only happens to be the only black person in the NASA offices, but the woman as well.
Kevin Costner plays this workaholic guy, who gives you the idea that he treats everyone the same, ie poorly, and he acts appalled when he hears that Ms Johnson has to walk a 1/2 mile to use the restroom.
I love movies like Amistad, and 12 Years a Slave. You cringe, but you come out with a real genuine sense of how things were in this country, but here’s the thing, both present the fact that with all this hate and anger and racism there were still some good brave white people that did what was right.
I was a teenager in Chicago in the 60s, and I know there was racism there and in the south, but this movie gives you the impression that there was NOT ONE SINGLE WHITE PERSON AT NASA THAT CARED AT ALL ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE OR SEGREGATION. EVEN WHEN THE BLACK PEOPLE ARE MORE EDUCATED, CLEAN AND POLITE AS THEY ARE.
I agree.
It would have worked just as well if they had simply followed the story and shown her having the courage to use whatever bathroom she pleased.
It may be a ‘good’ movie but the idea that these women were instrumental in get Glenn through space is BS There was a team of hundreds of which they were a part not to mention in this ‘true’ movie most of the characters are fictional.
That's like the movie Tuskegee Airmen (1995, I think). So badly made, so many made up characters "uh, they were composites of the real men" diluted the message and real bravery of the men who WERE there.
Overplaying their hands every time.
The movie appears to be designed to generate anger and grievance from the black watchers, for political reasons.
I sat fuming for most of the movie, thinking the younger generation of kids are going to think “again” that there was not one decent white person living in the 1960s with regard to treating black people with dignity.
...
Well, that’s true of most Democrats and that’s all movie people know.
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