Ruined by fiction, over-the-top racism reminders, and Hollywood stereotypes

Rating: 4/10 (31 March 2017)

I was really looking forward to this movie, but too many aspects of it make it inaccurate and hard to recommend.

Stop making serious period dramas and giving the characters modern pop culture traits! The black women in this piece have moments where they act exactly like modern Hollywood stereotypes: sassy, ditzy black women who end up showing everyone who's boss. And of course, they have 21st century attitudes about women, sex, etc. I half expected the script to then call for them to be sleeping with all the astronauts, and heck, why not make the girls all bisexual as well?

This film pulls the racist card NON-STOP. Every chance it gets, there's a white person putting down a black person, or it's constantly reminding you of "us versus them". In an interview with Katherine Johnson, she said she DIDN'T feel like she was personally treated differently when she was at NASA. It was more of a case of segregation, rather than abuse and racist remarks. IMO, this kind of exaggeration in movies only hurts the race issue.

The character Harrison portrayed by Kevin Costner was fictional. He was a mix of a few real-life characters, since apparently the film couldn't get the rights to use the real names. Costner did well, but of course they have him smashing down a segregation sign in true Hollywood fashion (which never happened).

I first found out about Katherine Johnson from the TV show Timeless (s01e08 "Space Race"), so I'm glad that show brought her to my attention.
Do yourself a favor and read up on the real women this movie portrays!