Hidden Figures (2016) [Blu-ray]
Drama

Tagline: Based on the untold true story

The film recounts the true story of the African-American mathematics genius, Katherine Johnson, and her two fellow colleagues, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who helped NASA win the Space Race. Using their mathematical calculations, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

Storyline: As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes. Written by 20th Century Fox

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, April 11, 2017 Advertisements for Gifted, a film about an extremely precocious child, are all over television currently as this review is being written, and as I watched the opening of Hidden Figures, I had a passing thought about Gifted's titular character played by Mckenna Grace—no matter what traumas she supposedly experienced, at least she was white and living in contemporary times, when virtuosity of any kind in the young is hopefully better recognized and fostered than the way it was (meaning wasn't) when the African American women at the core of Hidden Figures were children. Perhaps kind of weirdly, Gifted also features Octavia Spencer, one of the co-stars of Hidden Figures, a film which offers Taraji P. Henson miles (as in miles) away from her depiction of Cookie in Empire: The Complete First Season, as real life wunderkind Katherine Johnson, a character who is in fact seen as a child in the film's opening scenes. It's the 1920s in the rural south, and while little Katherine shows an unbelievable aptitude for complex mathematics, she's African American, which means public schooling isn't available for her after an almost astonishingly young age. Luckily, she's surrounded by mentors who recognize her incredible gifts, and who arrange for Katherine and her parents to move to a locale where a private institution can more properly nurture her talents. But what could an African American woman expect to be able to use those talents for? That's the intriguing unspoken question that lingers around Hidden Figures, as it segues into the early sixties, where Katherine, Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) are all employed at NASA as part of the United States' then burgeoning attempts to compete with the Soviet Union, which (as armchair historians will know) was already shooting satellites into orbit and proclaiming its technological superiority to the world.

Hidden Figures rather smartly addresses the cultural norms of the early sixties in a number of ways, including the first scene showing the adult characters, where their car has broken down as they attempt to get to work at Langley Research Center. When a white policeman shows up, it seems that disaster is in the cards, especially when Mary's innocent if slightly snarky comment about why they're at that particular spot in the road is taken as "uppity" by the cop. Once they show him their identification badges, though, his attitude rather interestingly changes, since there's a great threat than "uppity" African Americans in his mind—namely, those savage Commies who are out for world domination courtesy of Sputnik.

The film quickly starts to detail the lives of the women at NASA, where of course they're often perceived as second class citizens despite their superior skills. While the stories of all three focal characters are detailed at various points, Hidden Figures is probably most consistently concerned with Katherine's tale, since her knowledge of advanced geometry gets her a plum assignment working for (fictional) Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), the guy in charge of making sure the Mercury capsule successfully gets into orbit and then (perhaps even more challengingly) returns to Earth unscathed. There are multiple levels of outright bias displayed against Katherine, who has the twin "deficits" of being a woman and African American supposedly working against her. Even something as apparently simple as finding an "appropriate" restroom to use turns out to be a major hurdle for the character, since it's shown (in what is evidently a mind boggling piece of general historical accuracy if not with regard to this particular character's real story) that the research group still had "separate but equal" facilities for people of color.

Perhaps because Katherine's story deals with actual, honest to goodness life or death ramifications in terms of her mathematical abilities, the simultaneously unfolding sagas of Mary and Dorothy may not have quite the same level of immediacy, despite how emotionally resonant they are. Dorothy is attempting to get official recognition of her supervisory status, something that doesn't seem to be in the immediate offing, while Mary, who is the same kind of savant in engineering that Katherine is in geometry, decides that a career in that field is in fact a possibility, despite signs to the contrary. One thing that may set some folks' teeth on edge, at least slightly, is how supportive some elder white men, including Harrison, are of these women, when the actual historical record might suggest at least a modicum of reactionary dismissiveness toward women in general, and African American women in particular. That said, the film doesn't shirk from the hostility the women face, and in fact it's that very hostility which will most likely touch many viewers' sense of conscience and justice.

The largely unknown story of Hidden Figures is so compelling and memorable that it helps the film overcome some overly rote storytelling contrivances. Most audience members are going to know going into this enterprise that seeming nemeses like Harrison or engineer Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) are going to have their collective eyes opened to the talents of women like Katherine, but even given that preordained fact the film manages to work up significant emotional heft, largely due to the pitch perfect performances. It's almost shocking in a way that Hidden Figures only managed to rack up one Academy Award nomination for acting (Octavia Spencer in the Best Supporting Actress category), since the film is filled with both commanding lead performances as well as a glut of nicely etched supporting work from a large and varied cast which also includes Kirsten Dunst as a seemingly pretty "uppity" white supervisor (who of course also has her eyes opened). Director Theodore Melfi (who also co-wrote the screenplay, adapting the reportedly more historically accurate book) keeps things moving at an often breathless pace, and things are further buoyed by an accurate looking production design, one which points out the almost barbaric seeming "technology" that actually helped thrust John Glenn into orbit in 1962.

There are some kind of goofy elements thrown into Hidden Figures which probably didn't need to be there, and the film has a tendency to stuff a few too many subplots into the proceedings, but the performances are just outstanding and the general storyline so commanding that it really hardly matters. Technical merits are strong, and Hidden Figures comes Highly recommended.

[CSW] -4.4- I agree with this reviewer:
Mary Jackson: "Every time we get a chance to get ahead they move the finish line. Every time." Based on true events and actual people, this is an inspirational and heartwarming story about three black women who held key positions at NASA during the critical stages of the manned space program of the 1960s. The 60s were a time of transition for Civil Rights and you may find it difficult to accept that Jim Crow segregation laws still existed in Virginia where the NASA facility was located; but I was there and I know it did. That part of the film came as no surprise, but I was surprised that three black women - Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson - held such key positions in NASA. My hat is off to Fox 2000 and the rest of the production team that researched the background and put this story together. Two veteran actors - Taraji P Henson and Octavia Spencer - deliver outstanding performances as Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan. That comes as no surprise; but relative newcomer, Janelle Monae, who is primarily a pop singer, delivers a knockout performance as Mary Jackson. Thoroughly entertaining as well as informative, this one carries my highest recommendation!
.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box



º º