Emotionally Powerful & Inspirational History

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2017)

I have a split review. I'll start with the personal/human side of my viewing experience. 'Hidden Figures' does a brilliant job of compressing the story of the historic breaking of barriers by these three impressive, capable, brilliant and brave ladies of color. They deserved a 10-episode miniseries on HBO or Netflix but you still get the spirit of what they accomplished. The lead actresses were excellent, especially Taraji P. Henson as the math prodigy, Katherine G. Johnson.
This movie is not a documentary and should not be viewed as such. This film is a vehicle to tell the story of Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson. In just over two hours, 'Hidden Figures' hits all of the emotional notes perfectly without becoming maudlin or preachy. It is important to learn the personal stories of those who overcame the racism and sexism that dominated our society in the 1950s and early 60s. These women had to fight every step of the way to achieve what they were fully capable of doing and this film honors their legacy. Thankfully, the film doesn't fail to entertain and enlighten the audience.
The narrative is powerful in showing the shocking ignorance and mean-spirited nature of living in a segregated society. We should also feel the frustration and disgust of knowing how much bigotry still exists in our society and the harm it continues to cause us all. We can feel the hope found in the progress made as long as we realize how far we have still yet to go on this journey.
The side of me that is a historian of the space program was constantly jarred by the technical errors in showing the NASA side of the Mercury Program and the role of Langley. The temporal jumps also brought me out of the narrative. The clip of President Kennedy speaking about going to the moon were from his speech at Rice University in September of 1962 rather than from his address before a special joint session of Congress on May 25th, 1961. This is a key distinction because Shepard's suborbital Mercury flight was on May 5th which provided the basis of Kennedy's challenge. There were plenty of liberties taken with the facts and time line to give due diligence to the personal journey of these trailblazing African- American women. I estimate that 99% of the audience (or more) won't be bothered by the artistic license taken by the writers. So please see and enjoy this film.