Movie: Hidden Figures (2016)

[Art Blade]

I just finished watching Hidden Figures, it was good and entertaining.
Instantly recognisable name: Kevin Costner.

Funny how I keep having those moments: Yesterday I was talking about Robin Hood with Kevin Costner, today I randomly have him in the film I'm watching. Years have passed without watching anything with him. "This" keeps happening to me in a way that I watch any random film 1 and then back to back another random film 2 and one random actor pops up in both of those two films.

Alright, Hidden Figures.

It is about three black women all of whom would have already had great jobs and a brilliant career if they had been white -- their struggle, will, energy, and excellence -- brilliant minds -- in the end make them the first black women with a reputation at NASA. Based on true events.

Finally a film with black female actresses in main roles that is neither a drama nor a comedy. The film, thankfully, is a good mix between pointing out the horrors of segregation/racism and everything related to it (without drowning it in a pathetic and moralising way) and sexism (a man's world) and bright and light moments. So it is entertaining, you keep sitting there hoping that they'll make it and they make it. All around the time when the space race between Russia and the USA was on, so you get to see the 1960s fashion, cars and all that with a nice pace to it: it's actually never getting boring. The tree actresses did a great job and I was glad to see Kevin Costner again (nice acting) who is the key figure regarding overcoming race and gender barriers.

All in all, I had a good time watching that film, it's definitely worth watching. Although I don't care much about ratings, I did notice a 7.8/10 and 100k+ votes at IMDb which is remarkably good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[fragger]

I saw Hidden Figures a few months ago and yeah, I found it very entertaining. I'd had my doubts. I thought it might turn out to be one of three things: an ugly and confrontational depiction of racism; a trumpet-blowing feminist odyssey; or an overly-melodramatic chick-flick. But it was none of those things. It was an objective and intelligent film, with lots of light moments to alleviate things, and the subject matter was handled in a no-nonsense, down-to-earth fashion - no soap-boxing or preaching. Being a space nut, it was the background subject matter that convinced me to give the movie a go, and I'm glad I did.

It was interesting to observe how NASA got by in the early days when computer technology was in its infancy and largely non-existent. But of course, the movie focusses on the plight of three brilliant mathematicians who have to contend with the triple-whammy of being female and black and living in a South that was still trying to cling to its Jim Crow past, right on the eve of the Civil Rights movement. So the women have some pretty daunting social obstacles to overcome, but they ultimately rise above it all with their dignity and integrity intact.

The movie captures the look and feel of the late 50s to early 60s superbly. Production values are very high, and all of the cast turn in faultless performances. I think it's far and away the best thing Kevin Costner has done for quite some time.

Above all, it was refreshing to see a movie which dealt with segregation and racism without ever getting ugly or violent - well, apart from the intrinsic ugliness of racism, of course. The women also had to deal with sexism on top of it all, and this was in the days before the "Women's Lib" movement took off, so they had no effective way of speaking out against it. But there was no violence and no excessive foul language in the movie - in fact, I'm pretty sure there wasn't any bad language at all.

I second Art's recommendation of Hidden Figures, an entertaining and uplifting movie. Well worth a look

[Art Blade]

nice one, fragger

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yes, I would recommend it as well, for either the person interested in history, NASA, race relations, etc. it is a film that could appeal on several levels. My cousin who was 12 at the time saw it on a school trip and it had enough to keep him interested, or so he said.

I had known of these women from my interest in the space program, but not a lot of detail, so it was nice to fill in the blanks.

[fragger]

I had already fleetingly heard of Katherine Johnson, the lady who teaches herself how to program those early punched-card computers in the film, but I knew very little about her. The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility is today named in her honour. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barrack Obama in 2015.