The race to space is one that will live on in our American History. Our knowledge of space is constantly changing and the need to know more is always wanted. However, we need to remember the people who helped develop the Space program into what it is today.
Hidden Figures is about the women who helped get the first man into space. But it wasn’t just women, it was African-American women. These intelligent women were able to help solve the major problems NASA was facing trying to beat the Russians on getting a man on the Moon. They faced incredible odds in order to not only be included but to get the respect they deserve.
“I will have you know I was the first negro female student at West Virginia University graduate school. On any given day, I analyze the nominal levels or air displacement friction and velocity, and compute over ten thousand calculations by hand. So, yes, they let women do some things at NASA, Mr. Johnson, and it’s not because we wear skirts. It’s because we wear glasses.” – Katherine Johnson
Katherine Goble Johnson helped work out the math to not only get John Glenn into to orbit but to help safely return him home and where he would land. Dorothy Vaughan help set up and run the IBM computer system at NASA and was named Supervisor. Mary Jackson fought her way through the system in order to be become an Engineer for NASA. These three women helped get John into space. Mary worked with the engineers on the ship that would carry John. Katherine’s mathematical skills were the final testing results and answers in order to get John up into space. Dorothy saved the jobs of the computing women at NASA and helped NASA be able to solve more calculations.
These women did more than probably this movie can even begin to describe. They worked hard each day with little acknowledgement for their work. Yet they kept working. Katherine knew that she couldn’t get her work and calculations correct if she didn’t have all the information. She found a way around what was retracted from the information in order to help solve some major problems NASA was facing with their space program.
This movie is worthy of all the award show buzz. There are some movies that get picked as top favorites for the award shows and I wonder how it’s possible. Hidden Figures is a movie worthy of the awards and more. It tells the incredible story of women who went against all odds to do something great and to help make a pivotal mark in American history. I give it 9 out of 10 stars. There are a couple of points in the movie where their personal lives start to overshadow their work at NASA but that’s a minor thing.
Top row are the talented actresses and bottom row are the real life women.
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Tanya Giaimo 