(272'609 votes)Three female African-American mathematicians play a pivotal role in astronaut John Glenn's launch into orbit while dealing with racial and gender discrimination.
Hidden Figures, an American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi that hit the theatres on December 2016 is an adaptation from the non-fiction book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly narrating the historical tales of African-American female mathematicians working at the NASA during the Space Race. As a critically acclaimed film, it features three versatile protagonists such as Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe alongside Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glenn Powell at al. in supporting roles. Even though considered as a white saviour narrative by some, this film portrays the outstanding achievements of women of colour who defied racism for which it bagged the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performances by a cast in a motion picture. The film was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016 that grossed around $236 million. The film holds a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDB (based on 431 reviews), 93% on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 324 reviews) and 74% on Metacritic (based on 47 reviews).
PLOT
The film narrates the story of three African-American women mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan working at the Langley Research Centre in Hampton, Virginia in 1961 who have been victims of workplace discrimination and segregation based on race and sex. Given their skills, they get assigned to the Space Task Group assigned for the launch of the Friendship 7 (the first American orbital spaceflight) headed by Al Harrison. During the course of action, when Harrison confronts Katherine about her long duration breaks, she explains angrily how she is forced to walk half a mile for the nearest coloured women bathroom as she is not allowed in any other and how she is treated differently by her white colleagues in the team. Later, Harrison abolishes the coloured bathroom sign and includes Katherine in every meeting to calculate the trajectories and the space capsule’s re-entry point. After resolving a flaw in the space capsule design when Mary applies for an official NASA engineer position, she gets rejected for not holding any degree from an all-white school. After a lot of toil, she completes her engineering degree making her NASA’s first female Afro-American engineer. At this point when women are being used as human computers in the background, Dorothy learns that NASA has installed advanced computers that threatens to replace the human workforce. After the long denial, she decides to teach herself as well as her coworkers about programming and successfully leads as the programme supervisor. What happened on the D Day and how the defiance against racism and sexism by these three women changed history is for you to witness.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT
The film talks about the harsh truth of white supremacy that has been persistent since the onset of civilization. The hate, torment and discrimination surrounding people of colour is a burning issue on current date. It takes one person to change history and the film showcases three such resilient women who decided to stand their grounds and fight for equality as well as equity. The excellent screenplay, historical accuracy, apt visualization of oppression and discrimination, magnificent writing, outstanding direction and the emotional tone behind the story make the film a landmark in the history of cinema. The outstanding portrayal of manifestation of outbursts at the bigotries after a gradual slow burn is the icing on the cake. The epilogue of the film displays the achievements of these women that set an eternal example for generations to come. Day by day when the world is getting more modernized, the concept of humanity is getting faded. This film might be an eye opener for those who still hold on to the trivia of racism and sexism.
A word to the wise: Your skin colour and your gender does not define who you are.
