HIDDEN FIGURES

US, 2016, 127 minutes, Colour.
Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, Glenn Powell, Kimberly Quinn.
Directed by Theodore Melfi.

Here is a film which should please many audiences. It received Oscar nominations including for Best Film.

There is an ambiguity in the title: more obviously, it refers to the women, the African-American? women, who worked assiduously for the American space program. But, with so many of them and their computer skills, the hidden figures were those on the computers and, more especially, the formulae and equations that had to be developed for spacecraft, for astronauts, for the competition with the Russians, for the race to the moon.

While the film is predominantly about the space program, is also a film about American racism, the realities of segregation at the beginning of the 1960s, at the time of greater progress for Civil Rights and the work of Martin Luther King.

The opening sequence of the film is set in 1926, in the south, a young girl, Katherine, being taken to an examination board for possibilities of a scholarship, and her quick and ingenious solutions to blackboard equations. Well-educated, by 1961 she is at work in the computer room, the Coloured Computer room, working on computers with a good number of her black sisters, supervised (without the official title and salary as Supervisor) by Dorothy Vaughan.

Katherine is a wonderful opportunity for Taraji P.Henson, well-known for television work and supporting film roles. She brings great energy as well as a courtesy and decorum (and some insistent communications when necessary) to the portrait of a woman who was a maths expert. Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer (also nominated for this role) brings strength as well is humorous support as Dorothy. The third person in the trio of significant women for the film is Mary Jackson, Janelle Monae, who has the skills to be an engineer but authorities find it difficult to conceive of a woman, let alone a black woman, as a NASA engineer.

The setting is NASA and the three women, all with families, live in Virginia. The film shows a great deal of the realities of segregation, special parts of transport at the back, particular rooms, specific entrances, drinking fountains, and, especially, separate toilet facilities. It is hard to believe as we see this discrimination but civil rights legislation was yet to come a few years later.

In charge of the space program is Al Harrison, played with authority by Kevin Costner, a character who wants the best maths advisors and who comes to admire Katherine very strongly (and facing the reality of separate toilet facilities when he discovers the effect on Katherine and her work). The women’s supervisor is Mrs Mitchell, played by Kirsten Dunst, a rather prim woman, devoted to rules and regulations, a surface sympathy for the women under her supervision – but, later in the film, when she declares to Dorothy that she is sympathetic, Dorothy replies that she believes that Mrs Mitchell sincerely believes that she is sympathetic.

Jim Parsons plays Paul Stafford who works with Katherine, not sympathetic, even rather supercilious, but who, in the end, is to acknowledge Katherine’s genius.

The drama of the film is the preparation for spaceflights in 1961, especially in the aftermath of Yuri Gagarin going into space and the blow to American pride in coming second. There is extraordinary intensity of work, calculations for flight paths, re-entry points, circumstances changing within minutes and more calculations required. Katherine uses a blackboard and is able to show clearly her skills in calculations. Later, she makes the point about going into briefing sessions to be up-to-date with changing circumstances – and Stafford’s complaint that this is not the place for a woman, let alone a black woman.

In 1961, NASA introduces huge IBM computers but the experts do not have the know-how to program and to use the computers – something which Dorothy, going into the computer room in her spare time, is able to work out, teach her computer staff to use, and they are transferred as a group to staff the computers in 1961-62.

There are some human stories in the background, Katherine being a widow with two daughters and a military man, retired (Mahershala Ali) who begins to court her, Mary Jackson and her husband’s wariness about her studying to be an engineer (where she takes her case to a Virginia court because the only locations for her course is a whites-only college).

The audience is also introduced to Alan Shepherd on the preparations for his flight and, especially, a very genial John Glenn who trusts Katherine’s calculations, especially for the uncertainties for his flight and orbits.

Audiences may be familiar with all this background from the 1982, The Right Stuff.

While the film is interesting with its characters and storylines, it is also a tribute to these women – with photos and footage at the end of the film of the actual women, and the trajectory of their careers, Dorothy seen as an expert with computers, Katherine, 97 at the time the film was made, having contributed to the space travel over many decades.

1. A popular film with audiences and with critics? Awards nominations?

2. A story from the 1950s and 1960s? The space race of the period, Russia, the Sputniks, the dogs and mannequins, Gagarin? The Americans, behind the Russians, the determination to go to space, to the moon?

3. A story of race issues, segregation, the practicalities, especially in Virginia and its laws, separate toilets, separate parts of rooms, the back of the bus…? Indications of change, campaigns, Martin Luther King?

4. The title, the reference to mathematics? The reference to the women and their role in space development? The African - American women? Segregated, not promoted? The women, their skills, computers, mathematics? The film as a tribute?

5. The strong cast, African- American performers, white performers?

6. Langley, Virginia, the world of technology and development, science, maths? The authorities, the supervisors? The underestimating of the women, the African- American women and their skills? The sequences in Florida, Cape Canaveral, the rockets, within the rockets, blast off? The rockets in space, recovering Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and the loss of the capsule, John Glenn?

7. The prologue, Katherine at school, 1926, her parents, the school authorities, the scholarship, her demonstrating her capacity for solving mathematical equations? Her capitalising on her education, being employed at Langley?

8. Katherine’s story: 1961, the group of coloured computer women, working in the team? Her friendship with Dorothy and Mary Jackson? The introduction, the car broken down, choose being late, the police escort? A well-educated woman, a widow, devotion to her two children, the quality of her life, her work, care, the presence of her mother? Her being needed, her mathematical skills? Working on the blackboard with equations? Harrison and his wanting her? Paul and his scepticism? For verifying the figures, the heavy work? The irony of the white secretary not knowing where coloured toilet was, the distance Katherine had to go to go to the toilet and return, carrying the manuscripts? The segregation, the men not speaking to her, seemingly not even seeing her? Their providing a ‘Coloured’ mug? continuing to work, verifying, the different tasks and checks? Al Harrison saying that the maths was yet to be developed because it was in new areas? The issue of authorship with Paul removing the page? Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom? Meeting John Glenn, his trust in Katherine? The confrontation, Harrison to go to the cabinet meeting, Katherine’s request, women generally not admitted? The challenge and her being fiercely spoken about the toilet? At home, the church, ex-military man, Johnson, and his brusque comment, the reaction, the other meetings, the defence and courting, the dinner with the children, the proposal? The marriage? Introduction of computers, the women about to lose their jobs, redundant? Glenn in his capsule, the verifying of the figures and Harrison asking Katherine? Her previously watching the launches with her friends, her being invited into the central command centre to watch Glenn? Information at the end about her career, and life, work that she did, the medals, the building named after her?

9. Dorothy, a strong person, with her family, her life, church, her friends? The skills, supervising the women, Mrs Mitchell not allowing her to be called supervisor nor receive the appropriate salary? The treatment of the coloured women? The delight in Katherine being promoted, in Mary Jackson and her engineering studies? Their waiting for Katherine after the first day? Social life? The threat to jobs, the introduction of the IBM computer, the technicians and their inability to work the computer, Dorothy going in in her spare time and five, studying the book, developing the program? Training for women, asking for their transfer and succeeding? Encounters with Mrs Mitchell, Mrs Mitchell saying she was tolerant and Dorothy saying that she believed that Mrs Mitchell believed she was tolerant? Training the white women? The subsequent information about Dorothy’s career, the computer knowledge and its application?

10. Mary Jackson, sassy, her husband and children, the clash with her husband about studies? Wanting to be an engineer? Rules and regulations, the courses available only at whites-only colleges, taking the matter to court, the, her speaking directly to the judge, reminding him of his own career, his being first? Winning and going to the classes, all men, all white? Her successful career?

11. Harrison, able, mathematics, supervising the space program? Working with Paul? Seeking an expert in maths, admiring Katherine, their interactions? The Senate hearings about the finance for the space program, his belief in going beyond? The creation of the maths? The impact of the Russian success, Gargarin in space? The American reaction, working harder? The work for Shepard, the various tests, Grissom and the loss of his capsule? Glenn, Katherine verifying the figures before he took off? His reaction to the segregated toilets? His final congratulations of Katherine?

12. Paul, in himself, wary of Katherine, his documents and the censorship – at her holding them to the light? Work with the authorities? Paul and tolerating work with Katherine, his removal of her name from the title page of the documents, but offering her the mug for herself at the end?

13. Mrs Mitchell, her work, authority, prim, rules and regulations, her not thinking she was prejudiced and the encounter in the restroom with Dorothy? Wanting Dorothy to train the white women?

14. Ruth, the secretary, not knowing where the coloured toilets were, work, her admiration for Katherine?

15. The Polish scientist, encouraging Mary Jackson, his parents in a concentration camp and yet his success in America, his presence in the court, encouraging her?

16. Glenn, his career, his remarks to Katherine, who action, courting her, the dance, the proposal, the wedding?

17. The background of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement?

18. The background of John F. Kennedy and his encouragement of the space program? The film as a picture of achievement and a tribute?