Movie Review: Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures is a movie about three smart colored women during the Cold War. This movie explains America’s problems in the ’60s in Virginia. This is an important detail. Virginia is the most segregated state in the US. The movie makes key points like segregation, discrimination, women's education, civil rights, women in NASA, friendship, and dealing with all of this plus being a single parent. Our main character Katherine is a single mom of three kids. She is a strong, smart woman who is working in Nasa. She has two best friends, Dorothy and Mary. They also work at NASA. They are very supportive and wish each other the best. To give an example of their friendship Mary and Dorothy wait for Katherine on her first day at the Space Program.

The first time segregation and discrimination were noticeable was when Katherine entered the Space Programming Office with her stuff. One of the men working there handed her a trash bin and said it hadn't been emptied last night implying he only thought she was a custodian. Also, we understand that there is something called a “colored ladies' bathroom” which is only at the West Campus. Katherine had to run for 40 minutes approximately, three times a day to relieve herself and go to the bathroom. And it wasn’t just the bathrooms; The library, the bus, and even the water fountains had “colored” sections. This shows that the privileged people didn’t want to sit or be in the same environment as the “colored” ones. One of the things that Mary’s husband said was very remarkable. ”Freedom is never granted to the oppressed. It’s got to be demanded.” The message was that those who held power or privilege were unlikely to beg for freedom.

But the ones

who are oppressed need to fight or demand their freedom through struggle, advocacy, or resistance. We can understand that the struggle for civil rights often involves conflict, resistance, and disruption, which can sometimes be viewed as “uncivil” by those in power or privileged by Mary’s husband's words “Civil rights ain't always civil.”. Mary’s husband plays an important role in Mary’s work. Mary wants to become an engineer at NASA even though Nasa doesn't commission females for the Engineer Training Program. This shows that even though there are many intelligent people in Nasa, gender discrimination continues. However, Mary doesn’t give up on her goal and takes this to the court. In my opinion, the judge did not seem like someone who would allow a colored person to attend a segregated school. Mary’s speech may have changed that idea but most likely he thought that if he allowed Mary to become a successful woman in engineering he would get the credit. That is why he allowed it not because he thinks that segregation is a bad thing. Mary’s husband doesn’t like the idea of Mary becoming a female engineer yet in the end he supports her. Also, Mr. Z supporting Mary when she tells him she got a court date shows that there are people who think that women in male fields can succeed and they are people who believe that segregation is a stupid thing. One thing that caught my eye was when the astronauts were greeting the people who work at NASA.

The only astronaut greeting the colored workers was John Glenn while others just smiled or ignored them completely. This was the first sign that John Glenn was a man of his word and a good man who didn’t believe that colored people were evil. John Glenn does this even though Ruth says that it isn’t necessary. We can see Ruth’s change throughout the movie. In the beginning, she seems more distant to colored people but in the end, she gifts a pearl necklace to Katherine for her engagement. In the middle of the movie, Katherine has enough and has a mental breakdown. During this, she phrased that Nasa doesn’t “color” people well enough to afford pearl necklaces. Ruth also implies it was Mr. Harrison’s idea. Mr. Harrison is an honest man who listens to what she says. It was clearer after Katherine’s meltdown that he rips the “colored” label of a coffee pot. The workers in the office put it next to the regular coffee pot they always use but after seeing a colored person touching it they got a new one labeled colored on top of it. As well as Mr. Harrison breaking the “colored ladies' bathroom” sign on the West Campus. This is the first act of trying to break segregation and make a change. All of this shows that Mr. Harrison is a great man who cares about Katherine. This is a reason it hurts my heart when Mr. Harrison had to fire Katherine. Also apologizes when he does it even though he mentioned earlier in the movie he doesn’t apologize to his workers. This shows that Mr. Harrison indeed valued her. If I had to talk about Dorothy and Ms. Mitchell’s relationship I would say they weren't friends but I was bewildered because of the bathroom scene where Ms. Mitchell mentions the girls from her department were interested in the new IBM program and Dorothy says that would concern the supervisor. Ms. Mitchell smiles in a polite way rather than a forced smile. This gave me the signal that maybe Ms. Mitchell was a good person and she was considering Dorothy to be the supervisor of the IBM program. Also before that, Ms. Mitchell offers Dorothy to just work in the IBM program however Dorothy doesn’t accept the job offer unless she could bring the other colored women -who are computers- with her shows the real connection among the colored women. Going back to John Glenn, he has to trust the rocket he is in and the people who do the math before he gets in. In the end, when Paul and Mr. Harrison realized the numbers, the machine calculation was wrong. When they tell John this he specifically asks Katherine to check the numbers, shows his trust in Katherine, and is ready to risk his life fully trusting Katherine's work. 

In the end, I felt like my heart wasn’t beating. I felt the hopelessness of Paul and the other workers. Hearing John’s voice verbatim made me have goosebumps. It was an amazing ending. Mr. Harrison’s words to Katherine were exceptional.

In conclusion, the movie was excellent and made spot-on points and also nailed supporting these points with fantastic acting and cinematography. It was a wonderful way to remember strong, independent, intelligent women's effects on our lives.