Hidden Figures

I'm not sure how these films were selected for release but they certainly made sure that there was a nice selection of diversity for the Oscars this year so that we didn't have a repeat of the 'whiteoscars' that we had last year.

Hidden Figures, like Fences, deals with this idea of Racism but instead of accepting that your world is different from the 'white people' this film challenges that view and instead says 'if you're good enough we'll change things'. This time we are thinking of highly intelligent women working in NASA, all be it in a completely different part of the NASA complex who are hardly considered to be worth anything until they need someone really good with numbers and a woman who is great as an un qualified mechanic. Three women win their battles. One woman, Katherine Johnson becomes the woman whose maths are needed before a man can take off for space. She corrected the maths of the entire mechanic team, changed their thinking and found out the formulas to make the mission to orbit the earth possible. She goes on to be part of the team responsible for sending a man to moon and her name is no longer missed off of reports that contain entirely her work.

The two other woman go on to take control of their own destiny as well. One becomes the only 'coloured' woman to go to a 'white only' night class to complete mechanic training to become a qualified NASA mechanic. She wins her court case to enable her the right to go to them and then she goes on to make history. The other woman goes on to be the supervisor of thirty other 'coloured' women operating a system that was going to replace them all. She was denied the role of supervisor even though she was already doing that job without being given the pay or the title. She's one step ahead of them and learns how to operate the machines so that when the IBM screws up she can sort it all out. She single-handedly secures the jobs of thirty people.

Kevin Costner in his role removes segregation and treats Katherine with respect. He is the standout character- his is the strongest character. The stories of these women's lives are so important because I know nothing about NASA and learning that actually her research was so important is fantastic. Watching 'Sheldon Cooper' be a similar character and watching him get his ass kicked by those women is fantastic, better than fantastic because Jim Parsons is so 'Sheldon', which means that he is probably just being himself that watching his arrogance take a serious kick is just really enjoyable.

Hidden figures is powerful and everyone should take the time to watch this film.