Correcting History's Oversights

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2017)

Now that more black voices are being heard in Hollywood, I realize how badly one-sided history has been taught to American students. Thank God it's changing.We are better off knowing the full story.
In the last few years, films like "12 Years a Slave" and "Selma" have brought to life stories too long neglected, and "Hidden Figures" is a revelation. I grew up in the Apollo era; every rocket launch was a national event, with every American reaching for the stars. The turmoil in the streets notwithstanding, the space program provided a sense of optimism for the future. That was the era in which "Star Trek" was born, and through "Star Trek" some of that hope survives still.
Yet, in all that time, nobody told us about three black women who did as much as anyone else to make it happen. We did not know that a black woman helped to get John Glenn into orbit. (In Ron Howard's otherwise excellent "Apollo 13," we are never told about that same woman's role in saving the flight.) These and other oversights are corrected by "Hidden Figures."
The film tells the story of NASA mathematicians Katherine G. Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn, though Johnson, excellently portrayed by Taraji P. Hanson, is the film's main focus. All three work at NASA in 1961 Virginia. The film doesn't flinch from the blatant racial discrimination of the era. The only bathroom reserved for black women, for instance, is half a mile from Katherine's desk.
Vaughn's story is almost as compelling as Johnson's, but also funnier; there's a reason Octavia Spencer is up for an Academy Award. Anyone who's been working beneath his abilities and had a frosty relationship with his supervisor will identify with Vaughn immediately, and appreciate how she resolves it. I also have a personal reason for appreciating Spencer; she reminds me of every black female boss I've ever had.
Actually, there are three facets to "Hidden Figures" (and I wish Hanson's hadn't been so well hidden): the civil rights aspect, the excitement and progress of the space program, and, at last, a film which doesn't denigrate intelligent people. "Hidden Figures" is easily accessible by anyone, but does not portray having intelligence as a bad thing. Since most Hollywood films are aimed at the dumbest possible market, I can tell you that this alone makes "Hidden Figures" a welcome breath of fresh air.
I should mention Kevin Costner, who plays project head Al Harrison. Al is generally calm and distant, as you would expect a NASA engineer to be, but he has one scene where he isn't. It's a complete departure and an unnecessarily jarring note.
"Hidden Figures" isn't perfect, by any means. The plotting is fairly conventional, and the scenes of the women at home could fit into just about any movie. The script doesn't try to give its characters much in the way of depth, but that's not the filmmaker's purpose, anyway. There is a whole aspect of American history which has been overlooked for far too long, and "Hidden Figures" does a worthy job of making that right.