Hidden Figures

[Edgy MD]

It's the early sixties. Three female African-American mathematicians are employed at NASA as "colored computers." They push back against the racism and sexism that marginalizes their skills and the Mercury astronauts benefit. The nation benefits.

[fimg=450:2sndkg2o]http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/hidden-figures-poster.jpg[/fimg:2sndkg2o]

[Edgy MD]

I liked it a lot despite myself. It has a lot of Disney wash on it. The three protagonists are represented by three off-the-rack archetypes: the bookish virtuous one, the sexy irrepressible one, the matronly authoritative one. The racism they confront is sometimes cartoonishly overt, and the poise they exhibit in the face of it is almost too too. The music (largely by Pharrell Williams) imitates the modern jazz and soul of the era, but feels more ... -ish. Pretty much all of the white characters are based on composites or pure fiction, which is something of a copout. If you want to indict racists who roadblocked talented women and risked holding back history, well, you oughta name some names. You couldn't get them to sign a release? Well, too bad. You think Bob Dylan got William Zanzinger to sign a release?

But the protagonists' stories are real. And they feel real up there despite the writers playing fast and loose with the timeline and some of the particulars (as noted).

I tell you, I saw this with an audience of folks who had a stake in this story. And it was a great experience of communal filmgoing I hadn't sat in on in years. There's a sweet proposal scene, and I heard and felt a hunnert folks of all ages squee at the same time. I can harangue about details but you get to sit in on a super-squee like that, well, that's money well spent.

[Vic Sage]

Oy... I'd say something about "wild horses" now, if i had the energy on a Monday morning.

[Guest themetfairy]

This is a fine film. It's toned down for a PG rating, so I'm sure the hope is that it will get a lot of views by high school and middle school classes.

One thing that D-Dad noticed was that in Virginia in the early 1960's you didn't see one person smoking within the film. Kevin Costner chews a lot of gum, though, which appears to be a wink and a nod to the cigarettes he's not smoking. Again, for the kids in the audience....

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, we noted the glaring cigarettelessness too.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've learned that if you accidentally refer to this movie as "Hidden Fences" then you may be considered a racist.

[Frayed Knot]

I was considering seeing this, as I wondered how this story went unknown for so long, but then even some of its own ads made it seem a bit too cutesy.
Probably will wait until it hits cable this summer.

[Edgy MD]

The book on which it was based only came out in September. The rights were clearly acquired long before the book was completed and the two were developed was almost in parallel, which makes it something of a mercy that it was as factually accurate as it was.

[Guest themetfairy]

Frayed Knot wrote: I was considering seeing this, as I wondered how this story went unknown for so long, but then even some of its own ads made it seem a bit too cutesy. Probably will wait until it hits cable this summer.

It's a story well told, but it won't suffer from the small screen.

[MFS62]

themetfairy wrote: This is a fine film. It's toned down for a PG rating, so I'm sure the hope is that it will get a lot of views by high school and middle school classes. One thing that D-Dad noticed was that in Virginia in the early 1960's you didn't see one person smoking within the film. Kevin Costner chews a lot of gum, though, which appears to be a wink and a nod to the cigarettes he's not smoking. Again, for the kids in the audience....

MMYF said a lot of the same things. We also talked about the segregated buildings, rest rooms and the Woolworth in town and like there had been in the Southern towns we visited as kids. I liked the music. And the cars, lots of them, all appropriate.
One teensy technical quibble. The main character was asked if she knew Analytic Geometry, yet many of the formulas on the chalk boards were really Calculus.

I didn't notice any discernible Disney-ism (if there is such a word).

It was well done and deserves any award recognition it may receive.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Well, among what can be considered Disney characteristics is the very forced PG-ness you describe.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Well, among what can be considered Disney characteristics is the very forced PG-ness you describe.

I guess it could be considered that, but it didn't feel cloying like other Disney films.

Later

[Guest sharpie]

Pretty much what Edgy said. The main character's kids were way too sweet to be believable but I liked it despite myself (came in thinking it wasn't my thing, which it isn't, but I ended up liking it anyway).

[Frayed Knot]

I always keep in mind that the 'Based on Actual Events' claim doesn't remotely mean you'll be viewing actual events. But in a lot of ways I'm more OK when writers take what I'll call 'macro' liberties with
the facts than I am with many of the more micro liberties that show up in films.
So that when Aaron Sorkin totally conjures up Mark Zuckerberg inventing Facebook as a reaction to getting tossed over by his date it didn't bother me even though I knew it wasn't true because he was
merely setting the basis for a story about creating Facebook. Which brings us to this movie where I accept that the macro story was true but then sat through a bunch of the scenes within it thinking that
many of them just didn't ring true; the cop scene early on; the crowbar to the bathroom sign; John Glenn on the phone minutes before his liftoff asking for her calculations personally. Yeah, not buyin' it.

I mean it certainly wasn't a bad movie. But I did fear it would be a little too cutesy going in and that turned out to be pretty much on target.

[Edgy MD]

Supposedly, though, that Glenn scene is one of the more accurate moments of the film. At least, by some accounts.

[Vic Sage]

i ended up seeing this with Mrs. Sage, and it as i feared.

An obvious, heavy-handed, "issue" movie biopic filled with cliches, stock characters and overall banality. Color-by-numbers version of "history".
That being said, it has some good performances and i didn't hate it.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Supposedly, though, that Glenn scene is one of the more accurate moments of the film. At least, by some accounts.

If it was then they needed to stage it better so that it didn't come off looking like it was a bit too convenient.
And shouldn't Coster have been taking the crowbar to the 'White Only' bathroom sign?

[Edgy MD]

Give him a break. It's not like he was supposed to be some kind of rocket scientist.

[Edgy MD]

Has anybody done a Hidden Figures/Right Stuff mastercut?

[Centerfield]

Just saw this. I thought it was very good, and definitely a story that needed to be told.

Without reading through this thread, I thought that the Glenn moment was a bit much too, and found myself googling immediately to fact check. Turns out the conversation was spot on, and the "Have the girl check it" was nearly word for word. Most accounts say though, that it wasn't moments before liftoff as the film would have you believe.

I agree that the racism/sexism they faced in the movie was cartoonishly overt. I would guess the actual racism/sexism they faced in segregated Virginia was also cartoonishly overt. And in some cases, probably much worse than depicted in the film.

Minorities/women/gays often chuckle when whites/males/straight people are shocked by prejudice. "Does this type of thing really happen?" All the time folks. All the time.

But that's the challenge to a filmmaker. Make the racism subtle and you do minorities a disservice. Make it more blatant and risk scores of people writing it off as unrealistic.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Finally caught this on the small screen. Well told... if a little sanded-down at the edges. Plays like a very well made network TV movie, actually.