"Hidden Figures" -- true story about the black female NASA mathmeticians whose calculations

[CTyankee]

got John Glenn in USA's first man to orbit the earth and safely returned to earth.

I watched the whole movie today on a movie channel and was very impressed.

Those women suffered so much sexist and racist treatment and they never gave up. It's downright inspiring. They literally had to use the "colored" women's restroom at NASA hq in VA, in a building away from their office. The restrooms were often out of soap and paper towels.

If you haven't seen it, you can probably find it online. I recommend it to you as a great experience.

(I think it is very interesting that I knew nothing about these women until this movie was made -- kinda makes you wonder how much black/women's history just gets underplayed...)

[DFW]

1. I saw the movie last year.

One of the best films I had seen in years. Beautifully made and perfectly cast.

[CTyankee]

2. IIRC, didn't it win an Oscar for best picture?

[DFW]

4. I have no idea. I don't follow those things.

But it sure as hell deserved to!!!

[mcar]

11. Moonlight got Best Picture

Remember the big mistake, announcing the wrong film?

[CTyankee]

13. Oh, yes!

I had forgotten that! Thanks for reminding me...

[mcar]

20. My pleasure

[byronius]

3. GREAT MOVIE. Great story. Awesome cast. Loved that film.

[bdamomma]

5. Great movie

I have seen it numerous times on TV, and it doesn't bother me to watch it over and over again. The women who worked for NASA were exceptional women, and they were dedicated to their jobs. Great movie and cast.

[Angry Dragon]

6. Good Movie

[Demovictory9]

7. It's a great movie. Audience applauded where I saw it

Stayed thru credits to see the real folks

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. "kinda makes you wonder how much black/women's history just gets underplayed..."

All of it.

[RandomAccess]

9. Not underplayed. Not even forgotten.

Purposely squelched. Just like all women's history, only more so.

[mcar]

10. An excellent film

And a great way to finally give these women credit for their amazing contributions.

[csziggy]

12. The film is great - but the book is better!

I highly recommend the book. The movie compresses the time frame and does not really show the years of effort put in by the women who were hidden from public view. The book covers that and the fight for equal rights that was happening in the larger world at the same time.

[Blue_Tires]

14. Katharine Johnson was at the Langley open house back in October

but she had left before I arrived...

Fun Fact: Much of that movie was filmed on the campus of Morehouse College -- You can even see my freshman dorm and my old parking space!

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Outstanding Movie!

Watched it for the 4th time probably while you were watching it.
Great story! Love the Glenn line about wanting to know what the smart girl thought!
Everybody in that movie is superb!

[CTyankee]

16. Cosstner's character was interesting,too. His "awakening" moment is wonderful to watch...

I love the scene where he literally destroys the "colored women" bathroom sign...

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Me Too!

He is reading her the riot act, and she goes off! He then takes the "colored" tape off the coffee pot!
Great thing at end: she gets demoted to the pool, but at the end, it's just Harrison, Paul, and her, at the front desk! Not a line of dialogue! Her value has been affirmed.

[Control-Z]

24. That part never made sense to me.

I understand his"awakening" and loved the symbolism. But what I'm talking about is this - Catherine left every day for a noticibly lengthy amount of time. She is shown running down the halls, out into the rain, through the parking lot and even across the road, iirc. Right? So when the boss (Costner's character) rips down the "colored women" bathroom sign with the entire office watching, where were they? They appear to be out in the hall near their office. But as we know, the closest colored women's restroom is down some halls, out through the parking lot and across the road. There was no colored restroom or sign for him to tear down anywhere near their office - or anywhere in the building, for that matter.

[greyl]

25. Yes, and the entire sign event was made up for the movie.

https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/d3xmja/oscar-nominated-hidden-figures-was-whitewashed-but-it-didnt-have-to-be

[Control-Z]

31. Thank you for the link.

Funny, it addresses the scene that bothered me, though, not exactly for the same reasons.

[TlalocW]

17. I preferred its original title - Diary of a Math Black Woman

I have a degree in math. I get to make these bad jokes.

It was a fantastic movie though.

TlalocW

[smirkymonkey]

18. Great film!

I would highly recommend it. It makes me sad to see how the history of so many exceptional people of color (and women) gets ignored or erased completely. The film makes you wonder how many more heroes are out there that we have never heard of.

[honest.abe]

19. My wife and I loved that movie.

It really hit home for her being a woman engineer in construction, although she is Asian she still feels the prejudice of being a female in a profession dominated by men, many with big egos and big bias.

[edhopper]

22. It was a great movie

But dramatized. Johnson has said that inside the math room she was treated very much an equal.
And she used the regular bathrooms.

[Duppers]

29. This is true.

[misanthrope]

32. Yeah, the "artistic license" taken with the history in that film irritated me

The story is compelling enough on its own without altering it.

[Old Terp]

23. Saw it last year in Southern Maryland with a few fellow senior white females.

It was a diverse audience and we all stood and clapped at the end. There was even a bunch of spontaneous hugging around. That happens a lot these days. We are on the same team and we can spot each other.

[zipplewrath]

26. Great movie in so many ways

Science quite often ignores the majority contributors for the significant contributors. The sad part about the social aspects of science is that much of the "work" is done by people who don't necessarily understand what they are doing, but conversely are decidedly instrumental to what they are discovering. In hidden figures, the important part that is hard for the average non-geek to understand is that the "computers" in the movie were the ones who figured out how to calculate the physical realities that the "white male geeks"
knew existed but didn't necessarily know how to quantify. It was collaborative but the women were indispensable.

[Upthevibe]

27. I just love this movie! I saw it when it was in the theatre

and I've seen it several times on HBO. I've DVR'd it and can now watch it at will. I love watching uplifting movies over and over again. I hope stories like this continue to come out....

[happy feet]

28. Please also read the book

It's research done into the Hidden Figures and thoroughly recounts the history. A very interesting read. Of course, the movie condenses characters, time and organizations but is still true to the story.

[Duppers]

30. Some facts...

"Did Katherine Johnson feel the segregation of the outside world while working at NASA?

No. "I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research," says the real Katherine G. Johnson. "You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job...and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it." Even though much of the racism coming from Katherine's coworkers in the movie seems to be largely made up (in real life she claimed to be treated as a peer), the movie's depiction of state laws regarding the use of separate bathrooms, buses, etc. was very real. African-American computers had also been put in the segregated west section of the Langley campus and were dubbed the "West Computers." -WHROTV Interview

In Margot Lee Shetterly's book, Hidden Figures, she writes about a cardboard sign on one of the tables in the back of NASA Langley's cafeteria during the early 1940s that read, "COLORED COMPUTERS." This particularly struck a nerve with the women because it seemed especially ridiculous and demeaning in a place where research and intellectual ability was focused on much more than skin color. It was Miriam Mann, a member of the West Computers, who finally decided to remove the sign, and when an unknown hand would make a new sign a few days later, Miriam would shove that sign into her purse too. Eventually, the signs stopped reappearing at some point during the war."

From this informative article:
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/hidden-figures/


Btw, my hubs has worked at NASA Langley for the last 39 yrs. and met Katherine Johnson. I met her last summer and posted about the day in this thread:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029622890