Hidden Figures
starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons
screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
directed by Theodore Melfi
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Called Dream in Japan, Hidden Figures is based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Sheltterly (2016). Based on real events and real women, Hidden Figures is a biographical drama featuring three American black women - Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine G. Johnson and Mary Jackson - working for NASA in the early days of the space program, during segregation and civil rights-era America. They are called “calculators” because their job is to do the mathematical calculations involved with rocket development and design, rocket launches, orbit trajectories, spacecraft re-entry, etc. The word reminded me of the word “typewriter.” Originally, “typewriter” meant the person (woman) who typed on the typing machine, not the typing machine itself. IBM computers were only just being introduced to NASA at the time of the story, threatening the women’s work there. It’s mentioned in the film - I didn’t research it but I’m sure it’s true - that the IBMs could do 27,000 calculations per second! (The number of calculations per second that a computer is capable of depends on its design, its materials, and the size of its CPU [Central Processing Unit]. By comparison, computers today are capable of trillions of calculations per second.)
The film is dominated by the difficulty of black women working in a mostly white environment during segregation. They have to run half-way across campus to find a Colored Toilet, for example. Kevin Costner plays a strong male department head who is more committed to the success of the program than the imposition of segregation in his department:
“Here at NASA we all pee the same color.”
The title refers to the fact that as African-American women working in a largely white world, these colored women are hidden. Their work, while important, is not highly regarded and liable to be claimed by white co-workers, while their existence as blacks in society is dismissed, hidden, pushed aside and rejected.
Just a note about 1960s engineering culture: white short-sleeved shirts with narrow, black neckties and pocket protectors. You get to see lots of that. Lots.