Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures

I finally got a chance to see the movie, Hidden Figures, with my sister, Darlene. I figured from the subject of the story—black women’s roles in the space race of the sixties—and the trailers I saw that I’d like it, and I did, though for different reasons than I’d assumed. The story included hard-hitting reminders of the unfairness of Jim Crow laws yet was basically a sweet, old-fashioned picture of the triumph of the human spirit.

The three main women in the story either had or wound up with loving partners, adorable, well-behaved kids, and a loving community, all of whom supported them in their careers, unusual at that time for women to hold, let alone black women. Based on historical women who were pioneers in their fields at NASA—the mathematics and engineering of space travel (humans who provided math support were called computers back then) and the beginning of the use of main-frame computers—the real ladies no doubt had far more personal and work-related problems than this movie wanted to handle.

The Story Arc

A well-written story basically has three acts, tension that builds to the story climax, and a short epilogue that makes sure all the story threads have been finished satisfactorily, not necessarily happily, but in context with the theme of the story.

Hidden Figures starts with a little girl, brilliant in math and fast-tracked to a Negro school for the gifted. It quickly transitions to that girl, now grown, working at NASA and eventually being recognized for her contributions to the space program. The movie has a good blend of conflict, tension, and humor.

It is more a feel-good movie than a hard-hitting social commentary that perhaps gets its point across all the better by not shouting about the wrongs heaped on people for no other reason than their sex and color, and instead shows the main characters’ persistence and courage in bucking social conventions intended to keep them from succeeding in the main stream and the respect for each other’s abilities when white supervisors and coworkers had little incentive or interest in providing the same.

I love when stories based on real people end with pictures and short biographies of what happened to them after the picture ends. These three women, brilliant and creative, were instrumental in getting an American to the moon. It would be interesting to know what fields their kids went into and how their mothers’ experiences molded their own.