I didn’t want to write about race. But it’s hard not to mention race here, these days, and especially when it comes to this movie. The other day, I was going through my Instagram feed when I found out that the movie Hidden Figures was available to the public in select areas before it’s official date January 6th. This was such great news.
I didn’t hesitate. There was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity to see Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Janelle Monáe, Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), and many others on the same screen. My ticket was purchased. I made sure to pick the seat closest to the screen. I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about a movie. I was ready to be one of the first to devour that movie. I wasn’t going to let any scene or moment go past me. I made my way through the theatre that day. It was just a handful of people. But obviously they were people like me, excited to see the movie first.
A quick recap for those of you that don’t know: the movie Hidden Figures is based on the true story of the life of three female African American scientists that worked for NASA during Segregation. That being said, I didn’t want to write about race when I decided that I was going to write about Hidden Figures. But it’s hard not to mention race here, these days, and especially when it comes to this movie.
These three women, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, face so many obstacles in their work place in a time period where segregation is at its peak. They find themselves part of the system that is the epitome of the patriarchy more specifically white patriarchy at NASA and black patriarchy with their husbands and males friends. (Although I want to say that, these women did have great allies as well in the patriarchy, men that knew it was normal to have a smart black woman and men who learned to accept smart black women.)
They broke the rules like no other African American woman has ever done by being the first in every task that is handed to them. They didn’t pick the color of their skin, but they sure as hell picked to not let that stop them from become great. And it paid off, because Katherine Johnson’s boss, says as he frantically destroys the sign that labeled the restroom as a restroom for colored folks, “Here at NASA we all pee the same color.”
Most importantly, this movie showed that women, all women, have the potential to work and still hold a family together, which we saw through all three of these women. It also showed how the biggest obstacle women face is men and their mentality. The inability for some men to accept that women sometimes know much more and can do much more if they are given the opportunity.
I was extremely captivated by this movie from the way they used the environment these women lived in to develop and thicken the plot. From the clothes, to the music to the time period, the witty jokes that made the theatre giggle despite the importance of the subject, and the whispers between the characters that let us into their intimate space making the movie come alive in front of our eyes.
Here are two quotes, this is what I took away from this movie:
“Any upward movement is movement for us all.” Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer).
“We all get to the peak together or we don’t get there at all.” Al Harrison (Kevin Costner).
