To the movie's credit, HIDDEN FIGURES puts its three African-American leads front and center. Taraji P. Henson stars as a "human computer" or, as they used to call them before desktop computers were a thing -- computers. She's assigned to a team tasked with getting the Mercury astronauts first safely into space and back, and then into orbit. There's a sense of urgency as the Soviet Union already has Sputnik in orbit and is about to send a man up, too.
Henson's fellow co-workers and car-poolers, as played by Octavia Spenser and Janelle Monae, attempt to climb in their NASA careers via other avenues. Spenser wants to be promoted to supervisor of her team, since she's already doing the work of a supervisor anyway, but can't get by her boss (Kirsten Dunst) who goes strictly by the minority unfriendly rules. Monae wants to be an engineer some day, but finds it impossible to continue her schooling in Virginia, where the only schools that offer the programs she needs refuse to integrate. All three actresses are great in their roles. I already knew Henson and Spenser have what it takes to carry this material, but Monae still manages to steal some scenes.
I went into this movie knowing it was based on a true story but unaware of exactly how fictionalized or true-to-life it would be. Throughout the film I thought it was possible that the three leads were composite characters, standing in as symbolic characters representing hundreds of other women. While that might be partially true, I was pleased to find out at the end of the movie that each of the three main characters were based on specific individuals: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.
If this movie had been made even 20 years ago it probably would have starred a white actor or actress as the main character whose eyes we see the African-American struggle through. The movie wouldn't have been about the struggles primarily, but about how the white main character is changed through becoming aware of these struggles. You might think that sounds pessimistic but just look at films like THE LONG WALK HOME and GLORY.
Kevin Costner is on hand as the supervisor of Henson's team, and he gets his moment to make the white folks in the crowd feel better about themselves. But that's not what most of the rest of the movie is about, and is also not to say that Costner's character or performance is the stuff of easy cliches. The movie may look like a feel good, Hollywood whitewashing of a difficult time in our history, but it's not. It's understated, realistic and pays full service to the personal experiences of these three African-American women, without bothering with seeing through the lenses of privilege.
One of the most memorable examples in the movie involves Henson's repeated races to the colored restroom. The wing of NASA she now works in doesn't have a colored restroom, so she has to run almost a mile across campus just to take a bathroom break, and then run back. All of this while her supervisor, Costner, is wondering why his new computer is always missing when he needs her. At first this serves as an example to the audience of how seemingly petty and minor Jim Crow rules can cause huge problems, but later grows to show just how absurd and fundamentally flawed racism is when it comes to more important things, whether it's big things like the progress of humankind or small things like getting a job done. These repeated runs to the restroom eventually add up to Henson's big scene, and I'm sure you'll see the clip on Oscar night.
Earlier I said this movie wasn't feel good Hollywood whitewashing, and it's not. But it is feel-good. The film is about inspiring women who have the ambition and smarts to accomplish what they want in life, even if it requires them to break ground that hasn't even been heard of before. Spenser's character learns how to program an IBM, and teaches her team the same, not just to keep her job, but to keep herself from becoming obsolete when others might be content to give up. And if you're wondering if Monae gets a judge to integrate a school for her, I'll give you one guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment