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score 1/10
In 1961, three Black female geniuses ( Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson) work for NASA. We can tell it's 1961 by the ubiquitous pictures of JFK. The three work as human computers doing calculations.
Katherine is a mathematician who is basically Einstein without the crazy hairdo. Mean White people are mean to her. They mistake her for a janitor, make her drink coffee from a separate pot, and worst of all, force her to walk half a mile in the rain while carrying a bunch of folders, just to go pee.
Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory is particularly mean to Katherine. He's always trying to take credit for her work. Katherine is clearly the smartest person in all of NASA.
Kevin Costner is Katherine's boss, who destroys the colored bathroom sign, thus freeing up her genius and enabling her to get John Glenn into orbit. John Glenn was in his forties at that time, but the actor playing him looks like Scut Farkas from A Christmas Story. NASA probably would've had to shut down if it wasn't for Katherine. Sheldon ends up subjugated to Katherine and serving her coffee.
Dorothy is a mechanical genius who can fix cars just by magically touching the engine with a screwdriver. Kirsten Dunst is mean to Dorothy, and won't let her get a promotion. When NASA gets a new computer, (that is too big to fit through the door), the White doofus programmers don't have a clue how to get the thing to work. Dorothy can get the computer functioning just by magically touching a wire. Dorothy gets promoted to supervisor and gets to act sanctimonious towards Kirsten Dunst. Dorothy is clearly the second smartest person at NASA.
Mary is an engineering genius who can't get promoted to engineer because of mean White people. She has to go to court to fight for the right to go to engineering school. The mean White judge really doesn't want to allow her admission into the school, but Mary wins him over with sassy Black girl attitude. I believe she later went on to invent the internet. Mary is clearly the third smartest person at NASA.
Hidden Figures is a plodding, predictable, Howard Zinnesque soap opera of Whites oppressing Blacks, which is mostly fictitious. The three women really existed and really did work at NASA. But all they did was work in groups doing tedious calculations in pre computer times. Katherine Johnson stated that she was treated well and didn't face any discrimination. This film is nothing more than post "Oscar so White" agitprop. It would almost work as an absurdist comedy if it's intentions weren't so deplorable.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. -George Orwell
lianzantoro 27 March 2019
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4746737/ |
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21-11-2019 10:12:52
