Engaging Story of Endurance

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2017)

This film gives us a set of characters that I never knew existed. They were women involved as "computers" during the early days of the space program. We get to know each of them a bit. Unfortunately, they are defined a bit too much by their work. It would have been interesting to get into more of the day to day pressures they experienced when they were not at NASA. With that said, it still is interesting to see what went on and how they strove for dignity and acceptance in the face of racial prejudice. Of course, NASA was (is) in the South, so hanging over everything are all the things that those who simply lived normal lives had to deal with. I understand that the whole thing with running to the bathroom was fiction. But it made a point. The writing on the blackboard and standing on a ladder is visual, but it was more likely done in notebooks or on pieces of paper. Did an entire group of these women march into the IBM computer room and take over? Probably not en masse. But I gave it a nine because it was a hallmark in showing us what these ladies, who were every bit as competent as their white counterparts, had to do to get respect. The movie is touching and exciting. I was pleased to see the events surrounding John Glenn's historic flight. I remember as a high school kid, how much we feared for his fate. The performers are quite delightful in their own ways. I thought the relationships with the husbands and husbands to be were a bit too contrived, but that's fine. We weren't there. See this movie.