The "It's because we wear glasses" scene. It's *extremely* unusual to watch a scene in which a man falls in love with a woman because of her intelligence. (Librarian here. I did several cycles of storytelling. You wouldn't believe how hard is to find stories in which the female character had any quality other than beauty.)
By chance, I watched this movie two days ago. I'm a 65 year old man, and every time one of these women took NASA to the next level, it brought a tear to my eye. It is a great story, and it makes me proud to be an American.
As one wise man once said: The greatness of a person is not on the color of her skin, but in the content of her heart... Diversity makes us special and strong....! Colombia USA WE Are ONe....
I would argue about them being god-given, but not about their talent. Truly amazing minds and I'm so glad they contributed them to our voyages into space, especially with the social obstacles they had to overcome to get there!
@@rhmrr01 it goes the other way around sorry. There is no proof for god, divine intervention, god's plan etc. Please provide some proof that your god exists
I was visiting my mom a few weeks after seeing this movie. My mom was a bookkeeper before marrying my father, and in her last years Alzheimer’s/dementia had played with her mind. I was talking to the nurses and explaining that I worked with computers. My mom perked up and said I was one of those. Without this movie I would have totally discounted this comment. But thank god this movie gave me this magnificent moment with my mom. Her pride at claiming this from her early work experience. Great movie!!!!!
When John Glenn is greeting the people who work on the technical aspects and goes over to greet Catherine and the other 'computers'. Hard to say if this is my favorite (there were so many), but it's the first one that came to mind.
@@unity1016 but we don’t know if that ever happened in real life. But you can’t tell a story about color driven racism that continues to limit and miss geniuses who are NOT white, without making the white heroes good guys! That’s Hollywood and that’s America!
John Glenn was a good man and he was also smart enough to recognize mathematical ability when he saw it. And he knew those abilities would ensure he returned alive from his mission.
In a parallel universe, the not civilian space program, a small group of mathematicians, engineers, technicians, and programmers did much more complicated math to evaluate experiments in physics and chemistry to re-invent Einstein's NOBEL "Photoelectric Effect", enabling the detection technology in the Webb satellite to discover the universe
Is BASED on a true story. The novel is the true story. The film adaptation is a steaming dog turd that just insults basically all of NASA and IBM staff of the time for no reason other than to make it easier for the lazy film makers to tell a very flawed story. The novel Katherine Johnson wrote doesn't support basically most of the treatment she endures in the film while working there. Also the entire section about the bumbling IBM engineers that deliver THEIR OWN FRICKIN COMPUTERS to NASA and seem completely incapable of teaching NASA staff how to use it is just pure invention. Same thing with Octavia Spencer's character finding the FORTRAN book in a library. You'd be hard pressed to even find a book store selling it, let alone a local (non central city) library lending it at that point in time when those computers would cost an insane amount of money that no one using a local library would ever be able to afford or have access to. What puts the cherry on the cake is the fact that IBM invented FORTRAN - the film is trying to sell you on this woman knowing better from what amounts to an instruction manual book how to program IBM computers than their own engineers. All this adds up to the director/writers treating the audience as idiots and just assuming they will get away with it.
@@mnomadvfx 100% this. The movie was simply historical fiction at the mathematical abilities of these women and their importance to the space program. It's a great movie...bit historically it has seriously blurred the actual facts.
@@mnomadvfx The sheer ridiculousness of her walking up to a machine that had just recently been invented and she knew nothing about and somehow she's able to walk up to it and move a wire out of the hundreds of thousands to the right place. For God's sake give me a break. Never mind that she was made supervisor 5 years before Katherine even started at NASA. Katherine stated she never faced any racism at NASA and never used any segregated bathroom. She was not in mission control during the Glenn launch. Why on Earth they would be asking her an engineering question about whether or not the straps would hold is another fantasy. Was she a mathematician or an engineer? Did these ladies contribute? Absolutely. Just like the over 400,000 other people that work to get us into space. Most of whom were white by the way. 😂 I actually had a black fellow tell me that the only reason we went to space was these three women. 😂
It would be even better if it was actually based on the whole book rather than a phantom skeleton of it with a whole bloated Hollywood carcass of race rage bait grown around it to bulk out the story. It's NOT a documentary - it's a typical Hollywood biopic film, and a very flawed one at that. It is basically a defamatory and insulting interpretation of events that doesn't reflect Katherine Johnson's words on the subject in the novel the film is supposedly based on at all. The whole anti coloured/black staff sentiment at NASA implied in the film is a fabrication. The whole thing about IBM engineers being too stupid to teach NASA staff how to use their own computers is a fabrication. The whole thing that basically makes out every white person that isn't Kevin Costner at NASA to be a moron is a fabrication. Everyone working at that office at NASA was a big brain hotshot The film basically tries to tie the events at NASA to the civil rights movement, because the screenwriters were too lazy to actually write a real story without insulting literally hundreds of good people to build up only 3. Even then, only one of those - Katherine Johnson - was actually worth even making a film about in the first place for her unique contributions to the field. They could have literally removed Octavia Spencer's entire plot line, and used it to show the female IBM computer scientist Lois Habt teaching the Octavia's character how to use FORTRAN so that she could teach her computer staff. (Lois Habt actually co invented the programming language FORTRAN at IBM that is still used today) Instead the film basically invalidates all of IBM as some bumbling fools staring into space who couldn't even measure the room before they installed the thing 🤦♂ just so that they could give Octavia something to do so she doesn't seem wasted on screen for most of the film. This was literally IBM's entire business model at the time, if NASA wasn't satisfied then they wouldn't have bought any more computers in the future - so of course they sent NASA everything but the kitchen sink to install the computers and help NASA staff put them to use. The film basically assumes that the audience doesn't have the slightest ability to use critical reasoning to see this - I didn't know jack about computer science history going into the film and I could still see it looked hokey asf.
The cast selection in this movie was superb, i really enjoyed this movie, the interaction between Taraji P. Henson and Kevin Costner was amazing, i highly recommend watching this movie, Bravo.
Shepard, Glenn, Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong. Firsts who couldn’t have accomplished their feat without the outstanding individual efforts behind the scenes. Let alone overcome ignorant racial stereotypes to do this. I’m in awe of their determination and unwavering spirit. Fight onwards
"Let alone overcome ignorant racial stereotypes" The films depictions of racial attitudes at NASA in the time period were almost completely fabricated for dramatic panache. Basically 95% of the film is Hollywood invention to rage bait the audience. There is some reality in there about the 3 subjects, but only one of them was truly worth making a film about, and her story was very crudely drawn underneath all that dramatic race bait fluff in the script. Seriously, just read the novel - it doesn't support the narrative of the film well at all. If anything NASA were pretty progressive for the time even compared to the more progressive northern states - especially with the whole nationalistic attitude toward US space launch advancement trumping any pre existing negative sentiment of the age. I can rant about this films falsehoods till I'm blue in the face, but the main ppint is that the novel is in Katherine Johnson's own words and doesn't paint the film makers in a good light at all - they are basically using race rage bait as a substitute for good screenwriting, a tried and true Hollywood tactic.
It kinda pisses me off that they were NEVER recognized after the missions. Can you imagine how those men returning safely from space because of the SHEER INTELLIGENCE OF ALL THOSE BLACK WOMEN WOULD HAVE IMPROVED RACE RELATIONS.
So did I. I used to work for a big consulting firm, that hired out there programmer to companies like Johnson Control. But I was kept out of the field to troubleshoot other programmers mistakes. They were sent to Bootcamp Schools the get certified in Java Programming. And just pick up an new used Java Programming book and taught myself.
@Winterr62 look who were one of the first movers to remove slavery. The treatment that the planet shown to people of colour is a stain on every nation, as it lasted far too long. However, noone can deny that America gave a stage to remove it (through general society).
@johnbaldock6353 just some perspective... I have a degree in computer science...I've been using the sat math scores as an iq test. A 750 on math is a great score... About 48 whites get this score for every black student... All races have brilliant individuals
@@rleroygordon You're not getting the symbolism = underscores the whose rest of the movie. --Why do you think the director(s) *slowed down* that very exchange?!
It must be so satisfying to be so good at your job and appreciated for it. Especially in the 1960s and not only being a woman but also a minority. Back then it was unusual for a woman even to have a career much less school the men in math! What a truly womderful movie!!
Once in a generation or century, The Good Lord gives us someone who can solve problems and inspire us. People like Catherine cannot be made but is gifted and loaned to mankind.
Respectfully, I believe it's also imperative to acknowledge the role that nurturing brings into the equation. I am always inspired by the quote “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” ― Stephen Jay Gould It's one thing to acknowledge that some people are truly gifted, regardless of if we believe that is divine gift or biological uncertainty. It's another to live by the idea that we must respect and uplift all peoples, firstly for their simple rights as individuals, but also knowing that anyone among us, no matter divided denomination, may make a great impact on our world and society
the good lord seems to come in for an inordinate amount of praise when credit is being handed out but little in the way of criticism when starving millions on the planet succumb.
It brings tears to my eyes and a pain in my heart every tine I watch brilliant Black women and men who have made so much major contributions to the development of society (especially here in the US) and never get rewarded or mentioned or paid honestly for their efforts.
I don't know if that was as much of a big deal as the fact that she was admitted to the meeting despite the fact that she wasn't cleared to be in it. The far bigger issue was that necessity dictated that she was in the meeting despite the fact that she wasn't cleared to be in it and that there was one guy who saw this, realized that, rectified the situation, and somehow still kept his job. She didn't have to actually be in there. And he didn't have to ask her to do that calculation live in front of all that senior staff. That was definitely a movie moment.
Has anyone noticed the chalk in front of Kevin Costner in the conference room scene? In one shot, it's there. In the next shot, it's gone. And then it suddenly reappears again.
I was a bright student, but I always wished I was a genius like Einstein. Unfortunately, you can’t wish brilliance on yourself. Either you are born one or you aren’t.
I was head of a large team in a totally different area of work and whenever I was congratulated for something well done I made sure that he knew whose work it was; MY work was in picking my team, boosting them and helping them progress and for that they needed to feel respect and validation. It took nothing away from me. When I left the job my successor made sure that everything was about him.
@@PapaJuggernaut Thanks , I served in the marine air wing and met the last marine gunner,not gunnery seargent but gunner he was a R.I.O ON OUR F-4 PHANTOMS AND HE WAS OUTSTANDING MAN OF COLOR
This one of the best shows I have ever watched. I am not a fan of space travel, but the understanding by Catherine of God's laws of the universe is amazing. (Job 38: 3-8, 31-33; Job 26: 7,14)
It is an amazing movie. And it should be said that Katherine Johnson was not alone. She was part of a huge team and many of them were Black, American women who did not enjoy the same privilege as their White counterparts, but they helped all of humanity explore the beginnings of space. Truly inspiring. Her mental abilities were part of that success. We achieve our greatest advances when we combine our compassion and curiosity to answer our deepest questions.
But wait a minute .....at what point when you were typing your comment.... did you hope no one would then read it.... and realise you were actually writing such an unbelievably iconic piece,.... or ner I say it.... a world class statement of irrelevant mediocrity?
@@thegrindfather Who set the 'laws" that she and the others were able to come to an understanding so that they could put objects in space accurately? Just because?
I think the critical message in this story is two fold. Respect people for their skills not based on their race or quality of education. Almost more important is that people have to have the proper education to work through problems. You must do due diligence, be trained. In todays world everyone wants to take shortcuts and not go to school or do the training. They simply want a brief overview then ‘give it a try’. These women were up against challenging odds, but they succeeded, despite NASA and the race relations of the 50’s and 60’s. Imagine how much faster it would have been for minorities to get into the best maths or engineering schools.
I have to say grew up in the 60’s and I actually cried in parts of the movie. When you have to realize what blacks had to deal with. The cast was believable and energetic in their parts. It was really an eye opening experience. Kevin Costner was great as Al Harrison. Bravo to everyone involved in this wonderful movie
the audience in the theater that i saw this movie in was mostly math and science nerds. they would NOT shut up about the damn math. 🤣it's good to feel seen i guess.
Did you know another minority a Jewish woman was the primary reason why Apollo 13 astronauts made it back her name was Judith love Cohen she is actor Jack Black's mother
My favorite scene in this movie is when John Glenn calls for Katherine Johnson to check the calculations that were provided by the IBM computer before his launch. This event actually occurred before John Glenns launch. There was a question by NASA Control if the IBM calculations were correct. Imagine this white man placing his life in the hands of this black woman in connection with a Gemini rocket. During this extremely racist era in America. Again. This event actually occurred before John Glenn's launch. As a black American I don't hate white supremacist. Why? Hate begets hate. Many white Americans don't have a clue who black Americans are in relationship to the contributions black Americans have given to our nation. Black history is not taught in our schools. Like you and many other Americans I had to learn about the great Katherine Johnson in a movie. A thought from a black American. You have a nice day.
So wonderful president Obama nominated medal of freedom during his last term as president this was such proud wonderful accomplishment hope African Americans see how barriers over come racism breaking glass ceiling Laying foundation for others to follow in their achievements.
it's a very sad moment in this movie right almost at the beginning, where the "teacher" has the young girl come up and "solve the equation on the board" without explaining what she's doing. That is a huge lost opportunity to bring the rest of the class up to her level. Yes probably many would not have understood the explanation but that effort still should have been made. It would have been a minor effort but had a major effect in helping the rest of the class. It's never a good idea to have one student in a class of many, who can not only solve a problem but understand the solution. So that gets us to her explanation given afterwards, where she says "if the product of two terms is zero, then 'common-sense' says that one of the two terms must be zero to start with. So if you move all of the terms to one side you can put the quadratics into a form that can be factored, allowing that side of the equation to equal zero." ...which is bullshit. Quadratics can always be factored. Regardless of what is on the right side of the equation. She could have just factored either of the two quadratics (the sum terms involving x squared) and solved for x as x has to be the same for both. Which is what she did, using the left product term (quadratic). But that verbal explanation is gibberish. Of course any high-school student should be able to solve that equation. Because they should have completed basic algebra before they graduated from JH school, and this is just a 4th-order algebraic equation consisting of the product of two quadratic terms. If you're reading this and can't solve that problem on your own then you're effectively a social retard when it comes to math. At that level, in that class, she's not showing any evidence of genius. Just a good aptitude for mathematics. And that's a different problem. But you don't get into MIT or CalTech without solving such problems in junior-high. And if there is one thing that NASA certainly had it is PLENTY of grads from top-notch American universities. Ph.D, Masters, even BS level students destined for scientific greatness. They might have an IQ bordering on genius. But probably not actually a genius. Savants are not geniuses. Exceptional mathematicians and physicists are not geniuses as a rule. They're just very good at what they do, and that's all that is required here. The geniuses are above the ones who graduate from MIT, CalTech or any Ivy-league college in their teenage years...that are doing cutting-edge research in their late teens and early 20s. That would still be second-tier from Oxford or Cambridge. A true genius is producing ground-breaking research in their early teens. It's a movie. The actors did a great job. But this is not realistic. Especially not for Huntsville in the 1960s. They probably wouldn't even let people in the complex without the proper clearances, and they would have no need for black mathematicians. There would have been plenty of white kids who could have done the required work in their sleep. Clearing blacks in the 1960s would have been next to impossible as well as unnecessary. In the middle of the 1960s race-riots? After decades of outright race warfare after WW2, between black communities and white segregationists roving the country to kill blacks just for "causing trouble"? No. In the middle of the Cold war after the Soviets had just launched Sputnik and 10 years after they had detonated an atomic bomb based on American research? NO. Let me remind the reader of some relevant facts. Sputnik launched in February of 1957. Gagarin launched in April 1961. Glen launched in Feb 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was October of 1962. The Tulsa massacre was in May of 1921. Kennedy was shot in October 1963. MLK was shot in April 1968. Hidden Figures was released in Jan 2017. Half of NASA would have died rather than have blacks working in NASA Huntsville at all, and despite whatever these Black women actually did for the space program it still took Hollywood over 50 years to make and release this movie. I'm surely partly because of Trump and MAGA, and Costner saying "it might actually be now or never". Now admittedly yes someone would have offloaded the calculations once the mathematics had been worked out to that point, but still in the 1960s nobody is flouting security restrictions and continually allowed to work anywhere near a restricted site, especially not for blacks and not for the space program which at that point was in its infancy (as opposed to military rocket programs). THAT part is total bullshit. They would all have had to be cleared just to be in the building...at the very least they would have had to be escorted at all times and wouldn't have been badging themselves in and out of restricted areas with some white guy rushing in saying "this is a restricted area, you're not supposed to be here" and them just flipping a switch and getting data out of the system. They would have been very promptly "escorted off the facilities to an undisclosed location for interrogation", never to return again. But the Manhattan Project had its spies too, that helped the Soviets to develop their own plutonium bomb in 1949, a mere 4 years after the Trinity test. www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1942-1945/espionage.htm The whole problem with science is that many scientists don't think that there should be just one superpower and so there is always one scientist on a program who is eager to share the R&D with some global enemy or another. This is double-trouble when the spy is a trusted government agent. That's aside from the potential cash benefits of espionage, and outright desire to do harm to the target country. So yeah, in the US, in the 1960s, in the middle of the Cold War in the space race? Much of this movie simply would not have happened. And Glenn was just a test pilot, he would not have been in the middle of mission planning. No calls from him to Mission Control while he's suited-up and standing on the gantry with the rocket behind him ready for launch asking about the status of go/no-go calculations. All that work is done and it's either going or not going long before they get that close to launch. The critical number is the re-entry angle. They get that wrong and there's going to be a big problem. I wouldn't care if it comes down in the mountains of Tibet. The big thing is that it comes down safely. We're talking about Americas' first manned spaceflight to orbit here, not a launch of the Shuttle. We killed 14 Shuttle astronauts (which surprisingly has yet to be blamed on AA or DEI). So yeah it's just a movie. But the problem with movies like these is that they undercut the very people who make and view the movie and like what they see. That's just not how the world works. The racism AND the national-security issues play together. We learned the hard way that talent does not supersede national security. We continue to learn that lesson on a regular basis. Smart people make for good spies and terrorists. No country is secure when it allows people to flout the rules. Half of the justification for MAGA is that it is not a good idea to allow untrustworthy people inside a secure environment. Trumps' border policies were not designed just to vet illegal immigrants. They were designed to dissuade potential immigrants from even trying to immigrate by conspiring with Mexican interests to exploit and even kill illegals who even made it to the US and applied for asylum. Not to mention the millions who tried to come here but didn't make it because of various Mexican interests. People like this would have done anything imaginable to keep Blacks from the inner workings of NASA. And there simply was no need for them. The damage that a movie like this does is that it creates and encourages an extremely false narrative. Much like all of these Sci-Fi movies do that talk about FTL drives, time-travel and fires in space...and peaceful cooperation between humans, mutants, androids and alien life-forms. It's all just a crock of bullshit that plays on human fantasy and makes a lot of money for Hollywood in a reality where humans are STILL killing each other over religion, money and power. The left and the right still exploiting idiots for money and power.
In fairness, it isn't intended to be a documentary. It is portraying the essence of the stories. Katherine Johnson and her family have all said it is excellent in that regard.
I find it amazing. When it is a movie of three amazing black women who contributed to the NASA program during an extremely racist era in America history. How black American movies are so heavily critique. I wonder why? Black Americans have always been held to a higher standard than the white supremacist of our nation. I wonder why black excellence is question so? This was just a movie for the family and not a historical documentary. I wonder why some Americans are so afraid of black excellence. You have a nice day.
@@stephenmcgraw9466 I don't see that happening here. The issue of inaccuracy comes up for all movies that take creative license with history. One example is Braveheart. Hard to get whiter than that movie, made by a man with a racist past - and its historical lies have been thoroughly revealed and discussed for almost 30 years.
@@PapaJuggernaut In Braveheart I believe Mel Gibson was simply modifying the movie script to fit his needs to sell tickets. In Hidden Figures this was a story of three black women working under difficult circumstances. AKA racism. These three women went on to have extraordinary careers at NASA considering the racism that they had to endure. Exactly what inaccuracies are you referring to? My favorite seen of the movie was the very end. Where John Glenn is notified by NASA control that there is a question of the accuracy of the IBM's calculations in connection with the flight. John Glenn requests the "girl' to check the calculations. First this scene showed that John Glenn was a product of his times. John Glenn was racist. At that time white men would address black men as "boys" and black women as "girls". John Glenn requested Katylynn Johnson to review the calculations in connection with his launch. This event actually occurred during John Glenn's launch. So exactly what inaccuracies are you referring to? White Americans don't want black history taught to our children. So how would there be a reference for the average American viewer to refer to in regard to the accuracy of this movie. Black Americans are held to a much higher standard than white Americans. Black Americans not only have to meet the standard require by white Americans. Black Americans have to exceed the standard to be recognized equally and given credit from white Americans. This is a thought from a black American. You have a nice day.
To answer your question. A proud group of people who are proud of their nation. A proud group of people who descendants were slaves to today were a black man was the President of the United States. Racism exists then and racism in America exist now. Even though black Americans are descendants of slaves. Now black Americans are citizens of this great nation. There is ignorance among many white supremacists in America. Black Americans are dealing with these white supremacists. If black Americans can contribute in any manner to make America a better country. Black Americans always will do anything to make America a better nation. A thought from a black American. Have a nice day.
What a great movie and a greater story. The challenges that were defeated based on race and gender spoke volumes….I don’t understand as a human why similar battles still go on today. Discrimination is a learned trait, we aren’t born that way. Wake up ppl.
In the early scene where their blue Chevy is broke down along side the road with a bad starter. First of all, unless they deliberately stopped for a bit, a faulty starter wouldn't caused the engine to stop running. It would only prevent them from restarting the engine. Though, the starter wasn't the actual problem. It was the solenoid. Back then most starters had a solenoid between the battery and the starter. So, if the solenoid stop working, you'd simply by-pass the solenoid not the starter using a screwdriver to connect or touch either solenoid terminal and the starter would turn over the engine.
I was a lot of years old before I heard about these amazing woman. I walked out of the theater happy and mad at the same time. Mad? Because I had never heard of these woman. Why aren’t we teaching this in school????
Every time I see her working the numbers a large smile appears on my face. It is a like the ladies who made things happen for the U.S. during WW2. They figured out, everything. From the Norden bombsite to variable timed fuses for artillery shells.
You are right, that is why men and women must work together to make the future better. Where one is weak the other is strong and we complement each other.
Why don't we have more movies that show us our best selves? Nest line out of so many: "Do you think we can make it to the moon? "We're already there, sir." And America did make it to the moon.
What I do not like about this story is that it took all the way down to President Obama to award Ms Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Honor. 7 Presidents preceded Obama in the job before he received the honoree at the W. H. What about the other black ladies? Granted that the space program could still have existed without them. But it would have taken way longer to get to those achievements, while speed and results were Kennedy's demands.
@@PapaJuggernaut My point was misunderstood. I am also glad that she got recognized. What I meant is that it shouldn't have taken that long. What if she hadn't survived till Obama came in office.
