Movie Review: Hidden Figures
By Vivian Lee & Melissa Michels
You arrive home after a strenuous day of work to greet your children. They inform you that earlier that day they performed emergency drills at school. Their professor instructed them to hide under their desks and cover their heads in the event of a surprise attack from the Russians. The only thing you can be certain about is that it’s a time of uncertainty.
The next day at work you enter a board meeting with the nation’s most honored officials. You are not only the first women to sit in on such a briefing, but the first African-American women in a period of segregation and social injustice. The lead pilot for the upcoming mission asks, “How can we calculate the go no-go point of entry for my mission?” Silence fills the room.
Then seconds later without hesitation you state the coordinates. You don’t know how these officials will react but you are confident in your mental calculations. The pilot smiles and asks how the team will be able to ensure his safe return to earth. Eyes shift. Every person in the boardroom and young eyes across the nation are awaiting America’s next attempt to rival the Soviet Union. Your boss turns his head to face you and hands you the chalk. “Take a crack at it…”
How can we win a race to the future when we’re still struggling with issues from the past?
How can we win a race to the future when we’re still struggling with issues from the past? That’s the question Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson asked themselves as they drove to work at NASA Langley Research Center each day, working to help the United States advance in the Space Race during a time of uncertainty against the Russians. As three African-American women, they had to continually demonstrate not only their competence but also their brilliant wit and determination simply to be considered equals to their white male counterparts.
First. As Mary Jackson stressed to the judge who would be the deciding vote on her admission to attend night classes at an all-white high school, there is an importance in being first. We as human beings like being first. First place often conjures images of fame, glory, or a large trophy. Many firsts in America have become common knowledge among us: George Washington was the first president of the United States, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, Barack Obama was the first African-American president of our country. We’re told to remember these firsts because they’re important. They’re groundbreaking. They made history. Hidden Figures is the story of many firsts, but they were not firsts that became common knowledge in our country’s history. No less important, no less revolutionary, they were buried away and almost forgotten. The entire nation cheered as they watched former astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 mission. Who they didn’t see was the hard-working Katherine G. Johnson behind the scenes; she was the one who diligently performed the calculations that would ensure his safe journey and return.
No one can question the bravery Glenn had in voluntarily boarding a chunk of metal that would later become a flaming fireball falling out of the sky. But there’s something to say about the bravery exhibited by Johnson in walking into work each and every day, with all eyes staring at her. Eyes telling her she didn’t belong, not on an intellectual level, but because of the color of her skin. Working amongst colleagues who wouldn’t dare share a coffee pot with a colored woman, running half a mile across NASA’s campus every day simply to use the nearest colored restroom, Johnson continually displayed bravery and tenacity, showing that under no circumstances would she quit.
Hidden Figures received a score of 93 percent from Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3/10 stars on IMDb. We wholeheartedly agree with these high ratings and would take it further by giving this movie an A! As women in the growing, yet still male-dominated, field of computer science we found this movie truly inspirational and uplifting. The weight of the daily struggles each of these women endured is inconceivable and learning about their individual stories and how they paved their own roads to success gives us hope that with dedication and perseverance, the sky’s the limit.
