Powerful reminder about what life was like for Black people in 1961

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2017)

Hidden Figures (2016) was co-written and directed by Theodore Melfi. It's a drama, based on real people and real events. The time is 1961, at the height of the Cold War. The U.S. and Russia are competing in almost every way, including the race against each other for priority in space.
NASA was headquartered at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. Even though this was federal property, discrimination against Blacks was routine. As I watched the film, I thought about the levels of discrimination that we see. Of course, there's always the threat of physical violence. (We get a short glimpse of police violence against Blacks in the movie.) Hampton, Virginia, was, indeed, the site of physical violence against Blacks in the 1960's. (In fact, it still is.)
However, there were other levels of discrimination. Some were petty, but still humiliating, such as making a Black woman use a "Colored" coffee pot. Others were far more severe-- keeping Blacks from being promoted to positions of authority within NASA. Some were even worse--telling a Black woman that she could only apply for engineering school if she took some pre-engineering courses at a nearby school. The only problem was that the school was still Whites only.
Three highly talented Black women set out to overcome the discrimination and provide NASA with mathematical help that the organization desperately needs. These women--all of whom did, indeed, work for NASA--were Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. (Portrayed by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe.) Henson, Spencer, and Monáe are fine actors, and they do well as individuals, and as a group. The plot of the movie revolves around their attempts to get treated fairly at their work site.
Kevin Costner does a good-enough job as Al Harrison, the NASA Director. Kirsten Dunst does an excellent job as Vivian Mitchell, who is in middle management. She's officious, uncaring, and very White. When the women complain to her, she just gives them a false smile and says, "Well, that's NASA." She doesn't make the rules, but she doesn't try to change them either.
People have called Hidden Figures a "feel-good movie," which in some respects it is. On the other hand, who can feel good about the racism in our society, then and now?
This is an important movie, but not because it makes you feel good. I think the message is that some highly talented people can break through prejudice and prove just how good they are at what they do. That opens the way for other highly talented--and less talented--people to follow them.
We saw this film on the large screen, but it will work well on DVD. It's a worthwhile movie and definitely worth seeing.