Hidden Figures Movie Review

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“An impactful and empowering story of 3 African-American women that overcame obstacles, stereotypes, and ignorance during a time when being black or ‘colored’, let alone a woman, was looked down upon!”

Until I began seeing the previews for this movie, I had no idea that 3 brilliant African-American women helped NASA and their space program during the 1960’s. Being a former educator, I immediately thought to myself that this is a film that students today need to see! Not just to empower our future females but also to give insight to what life was like during this time period and to show that there were good and bad in every race. To show them that despite the circumstances, you can still go for your goals and dreams! My daughter is 7 years old and I am definitely taking her to see it. Yes, that means I will see it twice.

Hidden Figures is an impactful and empowering story of 3 African-American women, Katherine Goble (Johnson), Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, and how they overcame obstacles, stereotypes, and ignorance during a time when being black or “colored”, let alone a woman, was looked down upon! They were all very intelligent and driven women in their own right. The tenacity and self-worth that these women displayed and ultimately lived by was beyond motivating and made you take a moment to do a self-check on yourself. Definitely a movie that young girls need to see to show them that they can do whatever they dream of, even if it requires more work and dedication than others. 

Katherine Goble (Johnson), who is played by Taraji P. Henson, was a math genius and they found this out at a very early age. While at NASA, she received the new assignment to work in The Space Task Group and help calculate the launch coordinates and trajectory of the rockets that NASA was trying to put into space and orbit the Earth. It details the segregation in the workplace and all she had to endure while trying to stay focused on her goal and wanting to always do her best work. Al Harrison, played by Kevin Costner, is the manager of The Space Task Group and eventually begins to see Katherine’s potential and brilliance before her skin color and gender. His progression and mindset begins to grow, leading to him to set the tone of how NASA will not be limited to the “segregation” because ultimately the goal of getting a man in space is bigger than skin color or gender at that moment.

Dorothy Vaughn, played by Octavia Spencer, was a supervisor of a group of African-American women they called the “computers”. She was doing all of the work of a supervisor but did not have the title or the pay. Despite continuing to bid for the supervisor position and being denied, she did not stop pursuing the position and inquiring about it repeatedly. Dorothy had amazing skills that ranged from being able to fix her Chevy Impala when it broke down on the side of the road to programming the new IBM machines at NASA. No one else could figure out how to get the new machines to work, let alone program it to function correctly. She eventually gets her deserved promotion and title AND she brings the group of women that she was supervising with her. 

Mary Jackson, played by Jonelle Monáe, is the feistier-spirited one. She has the engineering skills and is sought after to help find a solution as to why the cones that the astronauts would be housed in were breaking apart during the wind speed simulation testing area. This area was designed to produce wind speeds that would resemble what the cone would encounter as it returned to Earth from space. She was given the opportunity to be an engineer with NASA but in order to do that she had to take and pass the courses that were only offered to whites at an all white school. She eventually petitioned the city to allow her to attend and after the judge heard what she had to say, she was granted that opportunity which led her to becoming NASA’s first (and possibly only) black female Aeronautical Engineer.

Hidden Figures will pull at your emotional strings. It will make you laugh, get a little upset, be motivated, and even have your eyes water at some of the sad and uplifting moments. You just might say, “Awww…” a few times. The theater even erupted in claps at different points through the movie. Despite the story line being a tad predictable at times, the acting was amazing! I appreciated that the story line was not overly drawn out and the focused stay right where it needed to be while giving glimpses into the personal lives of each character. Hidden Figures, to me, was a breath of fresh air and motivating not just for women of color but to all men and women. It is a must see and much purchase when it is released to DVD. I give it 4.5 out of 5 swirls!

Main Cast:
Taraji P. Henson - Katherine Goble (Johnson)
Octavia Spencer – Dorothy Vaughn
Janelle Monáe – Mary Jackson
Kevin Costner – AL Harrison
Kirsten Dunst – Vivian Michael
Jim Parsons – Paul Stafford
Glen Powell – John Glenn