Vaughan is doing the job of supervisor of the team of black women “computers” but is repeatedly denied fair recognition. This immensely engaging feature film extends the point further: the crucial “computers” here are human and female, and black. Hidden Figures, released in the UK on February 17, is based on the true story of three women working at NASA in the 1960s, and the subject of a book by Margot Lee Shetterly. In fact, the “job of programmer”, says Light, “originated as feminised clerical labour”. Nearly 200 women contributed to this aim of speeding up calculation, and six were directly involved with the novel task of “programming” the ENIAC. The job of operating the ENIAC, a giant electronic calculator built to churn out ballistic tables in the Second World War, was undertaken by a female workforce. More pertinently, Jennifer Light has argued that these computers were women. My favorite is the typical upbeat and jazzy Pharrell song “Runnin’.” It plays when Katherine makes her epic runs from her desk to the colored bathrooms, and I couldn’t help but dance in my seat a little when it started playing in the theater.A few years ago a flurry of excellent historical publications reminded us that the “computer” wasn’t always a box of electronics.ĭavid Alan Grier’s When Computers Were Human (2013) described how the drudgery of repetitive calculation, essential to endeavours such as astronomy or the production of mathematical tables since the 19th century, had been the work, as the title suggested, of human “computers”. The whole soundtrack is already on iTunes. It was the climax in the movie when all the audience members were on the edges of our seats a little bit, like, “Please let him make it to Earth safely without being engulfed in the flames of the rocket ship.” It would have been beautiful to see to see him safely walk off of that space ship.Īnother note about the movie: Pharrell Williams produced the soundtrack and added some great music. My complaint about the film is that I wish they would’ve shown John Glenn’s landing off of the rocket ship. Though they get angry, and they definitely had some good reasons to be angry (this is an understatement), they never let themselves quit. They listen to each other’s problems, dance, make fun of each other, laugh and make the best of their situations. What I love the most about the women is that though their lives are difficult, they have fun and uplift each other. Mary, my favorite, is the bold and sassiest one, and Katherine is the sensitive one. Dorothy is the mother figure of the three, the oldest, and her sense of humor is sort of like a mother’s - playful and taunting, but scolding at times. The characters were so relatable, almost like I could see different sides of myself in all of them. Each of the women have a sort of sassiness to them that had the audience and me down laughing at times. Though the movie doesn’t sugarcoat the sixties-era racism the women experience, the film’s humor makes watching “Hidden Figures” an uplifting experience. READ To Rush or Not to Rush: College Sorority Rush Life My emotions flared at the blatant racism shown to the women, such as in the beginning of the movie when the ladies have a run in with a typical racist police officer, or when Dorothy has a conflict in a library after she dares to read book outside of the “colored” section. But the personalities of the women, the humor and great plot development made it anything but boring.ĭirector Theodore Melfi does a great job of making an interesting plot line, including Katherine’s budding romance with the Naval Officer and the growing tension at the NASA base. Though the films “ The Birth of a Nation,” the upcoming “ Fences” and the recently released “ Loving,” all tell important stories that need to be told about black people, it was so refreshing to see a lighter black history movie, one with an all-female leading cast, that brings to light to one of the many amazing achievements of our people.īefore seeing this movie, I was a little doubtful on how much a movie about scientists could captivate my attention (science and math are my least favorite subjects in school). I was pretty excited to see “Hidden Figures.” I love any movie about the history of my people, but this story is so different from all the other movies that are coming out lately. The movie showcases a story somehow neglected by our history books about three black women (and an entire NASA department comprised of black women): Katherine Johnson (Hensen), Dorothy Vaughn (Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Monae) who worked at NASA in the 1960s while America was competing with Russia to put the first man on the moon. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer, is one of many films coming out this year centered around black history. “ Hidden Figures,” directed by Theodore Melfi and featuring three of my faves, Taraji P.
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