Don't know why Ben assumed Taraji Henson had no idea what the math terms were in the film. She studied electrical engineering before she became famous so she likely knew.
I'm a huge fan of her work since I think she's a complete chameleon on screen and I didn't know that about her--very interesting! I read that they dumbed down the math in the movie in general because they knew audiences would have a hard time with it and that the math itself wasn't the point. I am so terrible at math that the little bit they did show was enough to illustrate just how complicated it was and just how impressive these women were. I thought the movie was fantastic in all ways--acting, music, writing, costumes. It is definitely Oscar-worthy and my only worry on its behalf is that having three strong leads will split the vote. (I'm guessing they'll put Taraji P Henson into contention as the lead and Ocatvia Spencer and Janelle Monae as supporting.) I just loved every aspect of this movie!
Again, another display of who people Intentionally or unintentionally display their ignorance of diversity of knowledge and what people can know on any given subject
Good call on the slide rule. My dad was a engineer during the 60s and 70s; front shirt pocket in a honey-brown leather sheath. The sheath even has a belt clip. That thing is still in his bed side drawer today.
Janelle Monae is an exceptional artist. Her music is so innovative and classy. She can damn sang! And now she seems to be a good actress too. People need to see "Cold War" performances in youtube and witness how good she is. Sadly, to make it to mainstream music nowadays you need to be basic (with a few exceptions), the opposite of how it was 20 years ago.
Well I'll be, schmaltz got some respect on WTF. You're right there is room for schmaltz but that doesn't mean there are no standards, i.e. Collateral Beauty. Cheers to well done schmaltz during the holiday season.
I never understood that they use the tomato meter in comparison to their scores. If they were an aggregate like Rotten Tomatoes their score would be 100% since they all gave it a positive score.
Exactly. They're reinforcing the general public's misunderstanding of RT. They should use the RT median score or Metacritic to be a meaningful comparison.
I saw the first showing of this movie in DC. Watching middle school girls fighting to have their pictures taken with the pop-ups of the characters like the boys do with superhero movies moved me to tears. Hokey? Yes. Worthwhile? Hell, yes!
You hit it on the slide-rules. My dad was a nuclear physicist in the military during the 60's, and he never went anywhere without a sliderule. He LOVED them. He kept trying to show me how they worked (2nd grade!) and I never got the math, but I could tell he was enamoured with the things.
They do a good review, and the movie was good-enough, but it would have been dramatically better if it were more accurate. The movie got several things wrong on purpose, just to embellish the institutional and system racism of society at the time. 1. NASA abolished segregated wings in 1958, and Johnson says she used the unlabelled "white" toilets all along, first by accident, later in defiance. 2. Johnson in the movie is promoted to the Space Task Group in 1961, but in real life she joined the team in 1958. 3. Johnson co-authored a report in 1960 (she is repeatedly denied the chance to do this in the movie). 4. Vaughan was indeed the first black supervisor at NASA, as seen in the film, but took up the role 13 years earlier, in 1948. 5. Jackson was Nasa’s first African-American female engineer, as the film claims, but also achieved this earlier, in 1958. For more information, see this much better review by The National www.thenational.ae/arts-life/film-reviews/film-review-hidden-figures-takes-liberties-with-real-life-facts And please, people. Save the hate speech. I am a black man and autistic. The love of my life was a black woman (who was also part Cherokee. Her name was Carol and she died in 2003.) If you bash on me for just telling the truth here, i'm going to have to take extra meds and then go to sleep for a long time and I'll miss out on all you good people.
I feel like they made the dates later so each woman would have character development within the time frame of the movie and to make the events more dramatic. I know that this is 3 years old but noone has replied defending the movie. I understand how annoying it is for a movie that is based on true events to get dates wrong or to purposely leave out events, but you also have to understand that it is a movie which needs to make money - meaning that the main priority is to provide a satisfying and well made movie that audiences will like, not historical accuracy.
@@rustincohle2135 The problem being that people watching the movie are going to believe it happened that way. It would have been even easier to tell the truth. It's already a good, dramatic tale.
Also, Katherine is using a mechanical calculator. It's where she's punching in numbers on a machine that looks like a typewriter. I used one like that in the summer of 1962. In my experience as a high school student, they were more accurate than a slide rule, because the calculator gave you more decimal places.
"Hidden Figures" is without a doubt a very good movie. However it tells only a small slice of the full story, from approximately 1960 to John Glenn's flight in 1962. Actually NASA (and its predecessor agency NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) had been hiring black female "computers" (That was their actual job title; this was before the age of electronic computers. What they did was data reduction using conversion formulas.) since 1943. If you want to know the full story of the black ladies at NASA (many more than three), you should read the book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race" written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The writting is very well done, and at times even elegant. And naturally the book goes into much more detail than any movie could possibly do.
"it looks like one of those history movies you put on during a rainy day in school" This was ABSOLUTELY my reaction verbatim! And I enjoyed the movie don't get me wrong, but this totally had that quality
Slide rulers were only good for a small number of "significant digits" (And only for multiplication, not addition/subtraction). The larger the physical ruler, the greater the accuracy. You can't use one I've seen to be accurate to the four decimal places shown in a scene in the film - they're good for approximations only. That's why the development of the IBM and FORTRAN had such an impact on engineering (My quibble was the very small stack of punch cards).
I live in Hampton Roads where Pharrell is from. and I appreciated this movie. It was very good. I feel like life was way harder for the women than depicted. Being a single mom and working a full time job at Nasa while being a minority? The film didn't come close to that struggle I'm sure. Love the music!
Joe Smith Unlike The Help, Hidden Figures is about intelligent black women who rose through the ranks through their OWN brilliance and ingenuity. I think it sends a very different message than The Help.
A classic case of white people attempting to interpret the minds and experiences of blacks particularity black women. The film from all aspects is beautifully crafted. I am 65 years old, lived through that period of segregation and very much understand the temperament of well educated black people who had to be three times smarter to be considered equal. Hooky? It would have been more interesting to have a person of color sit in this critique with these folks to add realism and to broaden the minds of all who commented.
"Hidden Figures" is without a doubt a very good movie. However it tells only a small slice of the full story, from approximately 1960 to John Glenn's flight in 1962. Actually NASA (and its predecessor agency NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) had been hiring black female "computers" (That was their actual job title; this was before the age of electronic computers. What they did was data reduction using conversion formulas.) since 1943. If you want to know the full story of the black ladies at NASA (many more than three), you should read the book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race" written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The writting is very well done, and at times even elegant. And naturally the book goes into much more detail than any movie could possibly do.
Feline Fatale Yeah the marketing said it would be released everywhere on Christmas Day. Even though it's by a theater by me, the marketing was still false. Rumor has it that it'll be released in more theaters January 6th.
I enjoyed this movie. I never would have guessed that the soundtrack would be so memorable. My minor peeve was basically my fault. The appearances of Jim Parsons (Sheldon on Big Bang Theory) and Mahershala Ali (Cottonmouth on Luke Cage) took me out of the movie. After about a minute I was able to forget those other roles and enjoy this film.
More often we are told the story of these fine African American women from the point of view of the white man - a most disconcerting detraction to the movie Hidden Figures, dir. Theodore Melfi. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer. It is Kevin Costner (as Al Harrison) who single-handedly hammers away at the “Coloreds Only Bathroom” sign, as another White Man, President Lyndon B. Johnson, single-handedly enacts the first Civil Rights Act of 1964. Point of view is as important if not more so than the story being told. In Hidden Figures the story is viewed with rose-colored glasses as an overweight White State Trooper, in a cartoonish manner, who appears to be menacing at first, but after a miraculous epiphany of sorts, gleefully gives our three Black stars a polite and glamorous escort to their historical destination. Kevin Costner would be a shoe-in for the prestigious and coveted “Liberation of Negro Women Award” if it were offered by the Academy Awards. Sadly, a film where Artifice (not Art) depicts Life. Now, do you want to know how I really feel? -JV. PG Drama. US. ADG: Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film. NAACP Image Awards: Outstanding Motion Picture, Best Actress (Taraji P. Henson) and Song (I See Victory) in a Motion Picture. Heartland Film Award: Truly Moving Award. Abomination Awards: Liberation of Negro Women Award (Kevin Costner).
i really miss these guys...anyway, it’s 25 jun, 2020...and amongst all of the (honesty terrible) things happening now…i am NOT a fan of the ‘feel good’ movie, but, perhaps bcse i am a woman, i watched this-twice.
An untold story? Does that mean this movie is not based on a book, 'cause I'd rather read an actual historical account than trying to figure out what parts were made up for this movie.
"Hidden Figures" is without a doubt a very good movie. However it tells only a small slice of the full story, from approximately 1960 to John Glenn's flight in 1962. Actually NASA (and its predecessor agency NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) had been hiring black female "computers" (That was their actual job title; this was before the age of electronic computers. What they did was data reduction using conversion formulas.) since 1943. If you want to know the full story of the black ladies at NASA (many more than three), you should read the book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race" written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The writting is very well done, and at times even elegant. And naturally the book goes into much more detail than any movie could possibly do.
Have there been very many reviews of movies or tv shows that featured Ben *and* Bibbs? I almost thought those two didn't like each other. Or it might just have been a very long time, I dunno.
Hana J Honestly believe they should just dump Ben. I like him, but fuck me if he's there less than not (I will admit that I don't know if that sentence was proper english or not).
Gangrel Aussie but he's an OG a Young Turk. Before he left for TMC, he was the co host of the main show. And WTF was started by him. Sorry, but I'm Team Ben all day every day. Ben and Wes Clark Jr
i wonder why they'd recommend seeing the film in the theater if it's mediocre? why not just wait until it's on tv and watch something better in theaters?
Some people have a different perspective on the act of going to the movies. If I lived closer to a theater, I would go more often just to see the movies and not wait for them.
Because this movie is Not mediocre! :-) I saw it yesterday, and plan to purchase once it becomes available. I highly recommend it for the entire family, well worth the trip. -)
The first trailer was such a turn off, the amount of times the "what, didn't expect a BLACK WOMAN to be here?!!" Hits the message over the head a bit much with zero subtlety
Why does that message need to be delivered with subtlety? I doubt it was conveyed to those black women in subtle ways, so why should the audience be treated differently?
The thing is that dialogue like that makes these women look a little less demure than they likely were. That was the way of life, so they were less likely to make a remark like that, especially publicly and to the very same white establishment employing them. It's also a little anachronistic and panders to a modern audience.
You're not understanding the time period, Fong. That kind of thing just wasn't done, but there was a certain level of decorum as well, where these women would have been classier and not have spoken out like that. Furthermore, you're not understanding the place either. This was NASA, not the civilian world of the time. These people were a little more subtle about any prejudices they might have had about black colleagues. The target of this movie is clearly an audience of people who can't place their minds in that different time period.
ian lee well it would have been more relevant at the time of the space launch. that was america then like it or not, black women LITERALLY were only house maids.
Galaxatron And you romanticize NASA and fail to understand the time period. NASA was segregated just like the rest of the South. You seem to have a notion that just because the men and women who worked there were gifted mathematicians and engineers that they were somehow above the prejudice that they were raised with. NASA certainly was not subtle in not allowing women to become engineers or segregating the blacks and whites. I also don't think you are in a position to comment on how a black woman would have responded to this sort of treatment. It is quite easy for you to try and paint them all with a single stroke, but people respond differently and I can tell you from first hand experiences of family members who actually lived through that time that after you have endured too much sometimes your emotions get the better of you. If you actually watched the film you would see how the black characters have to toe that line and try to surprise their emotions. That does not mean that I don't think the movie took liberties and manipulated the story to appeal to audiences. Most Hollywood biopics do this. I just take issues with your claim that NASA was somehow above this sort of behavior. After all NASA is composed of people and as we all know people are capable of anything.
Your ratings are not accurate enough for me when you only go out to one decimal place, I'm going to need at least 4-5 significant figures. I'll be right back with the slide rule.
I've been here since the very beginning but seeing these kinds of movies get praise heaped on no matter how terrible they are is getting to the point I can't trust their other reviews anymore. Unsubbed.
Just a few things.... There were dozens of black men and white women who worked for NASA longe before 1961, not to mention segregation was completely abolished at NASA about 4-years befor this film is set to begin. There is not a shred of evidence that any of these women were "friend", they were work associates, so as the film shows how they were all best buddy buddies is wrong. Calling this film "(Hidden Figures)" also kinda meaningless as there were hundreds of people involved in the first Apollo space mission that nobody ever heard of, to highlight only these three women as the "hidden" brains behind this particular mission is false. Let me ask you one question: How many of the scientists/engineers can you name that were a contributing factor in the first Apollo space mission, other than these three women??? ZERO, because nobody cares to learn about the scientists of any mission, only the astronauts. Which is a great sham because the mission would have never occurred if it were not for the hundreds of brilliant minds that worked relentlessly to make it happen. So just because you hadn't known who they were before this film was made, that doesn't prove that they were oppressively "hidden" away from you, YOU JUST DIDNT CARE BEFORE, if you were really that interested than you would have seeked out the knowledge for yourself well before this film was ever put in production. And finally, to say these women were "unheard of" is a complete wrong, two out of the tree of these women were extremely well published with many books, papers, contributing knowledge and plenty of history at NASA that stands true befor and after this film was ever thought to be made. So yeah, I didnt like it.
I lost count on how many clichéd and corny scenes are in this horrible movie. Kevin Costner removing a label which says "colored" from a coffee pot and tearing down a restroom sign for colored people must be the corniest scenes of them all.
err we actually do, these people are real people and they actually exist. Those who study science and like space history like myself know of womens contribution not only to nasa but astronomy and science in general.
Knowing the propensity for Hollywood to take license with historical depictions - I also had some skepticism about the "facts" but everything I've read in my own research indicates the basic story is indeed true.
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Don't know why Ben assumed Taraji Henson had no idea what the math terms were in the film. She studied electrical engineering before she became famous so she likely knew.
Xavier Best Right. It's ignorant to think that because she's an actress she doesn't know math.
I'm a huge fan of her work since I think she's a complete chameleon on screen and I didn't know that about her--very interesting! I read that they dumbed down the math in the movie in general because they knew audiences would have a hard time with it and that the math itself wasn't the point. I am so terrible at math that the little bit they did show was enough to illustrate just how complicated it was and just how impressive these women were. I thought the movie was fantastic in all ways--acting, music, writing, costumes. It is definitely Oscar-worthy and my only worry on its behalf is that having three strong leads will split the vote. (I'm guessing they'll put Taraji P Henson into contention as the lead and Ocatvia Spencer and Janelle Monae as supporting.) I just loved every aspect of this movie!
Again, another display of who people Intentionally or unintentionally display their ignorance of diversity of knowledge and what people can know on any given subject
Why all know why... people of color are rarley believed to be inteligent despite black women being the most educated in America
pretty safe guess
Good call on the slide rule. My dad was a engineer during the 60s and 70s; front shirt pocket in a honey-brown leather sheath. The sheath even has a belt clip. That thing is still in his bed side drawer today.
Janelle Monae is an exceptional artist. Her music is so innovative and classy. She can damn sang! And now she seems to be a good actress too. People need to see "Cold War" performances in youtube and witness how good she is. Sadly, to make it to mainstream music nowadays you need to be basic (with a few exceptions), the opposite of how it was 20 years ago.
sanyrub agreed. And I wanted to fight her in Moonlight because her makeup was amazing
"that's what the reality was." Alonso, that's what reality IS.
Well I'll be, schmaltz got some respect on WTF. You're right there is room for schmaltz but that doesn't mean there are no standards, i.e. Collateral Beauty. Cheers to well done schmaltz during the holiday season.
Alonso always shows compassion and understanding for minorities struggle
I respect that
I never understood that they use the tomato meter in comparison to their scores. If they were an aggregate like Rotten Tomatoes their score would be 100% since they all gave it a positive score.
Exactly. They're reinforcing the general public's misunderstanding of RT. They should use the RT median score or Metacritic to be a meaningful comparison.
I saw the first showing of this movie in DC. Watching middle school girls fighting to have their pictures taken with the pop-ups of the characters like the boys do with superhero movies moved me to tears. Hokey? Yes. Worthwhile? Hell, yes!
You hit it on the slide-rules. My dad was a nuclear physicist in the military during the 60's, and he never went anywhere without a sliderule. He LOVED them. He kept trying to show me how they worked (2nd grade!) and I never got the math, but I could tell he was enamoured with the things.
your dad didnt work for nasa though
They do a good review, and the movie was good-enough, but it would have been dramatically better if it were more accurate. The movie got several things wrong on purpose, just to embellish the institutional and system racism of society at the time.
1. NASA abolished segregated wings in 1958, and Johnson says she used the unlabelled "white" toilets all along, first by accident, later in defiance.
2. Johnson in the movie is promoted to the Space Task Group in 1961, but in real life she joined the team in 1958.
3. Johnson co-authored a report in 1960 (she is repeatedly denied the chance to do this in the movie).
4. Vaughan was indeed the first black supervisor at NASA, as seen in the film, but took up the role 13 years earlier, in 1948.
5. Jackson was Nasa’s first African-American female engineer, as the film claims, but also achieved this earlier, in 1958.
For more information, see this much better review by The National www.thenational.ae/arts-life/film-reviews/film-review-hidden-figures-takes-liberties-with-real-life-facts
And please, people. Save the hate speech. I am a black man and autistic. The love of my life was a black woman (who was also part Cherokee. Her name was Carol and she died in 2003.) If you bash on me for just telling the truth here, i'm going to have to take extra meds and then go to sleep for a long time and I'll miss out on all you good people.
It's a movie, not a documentary.
I feel like they made the dates later so each woman would have character development within the time frame of the movie and to make the events more dramatic. I know that this is 3 years old but noone has replied defending the movie. I understand how annoying it is for a movie that is based on true events to get dates wrong or to purposely leave out events, but you also have to understand that it is a movie which needs to make money - meaning that the main priority is to provide a satisfying and well made movie that audiences will like, not historical accuracy.
@@rustincohle2135 The problem being that people watching the movie are going to believe it happened that way. It would have been even easier to tell the truth. It's already a good, dramatic tale.
Also, Katherine is using a mechanical calculator. It's where she's punching in numbers on a machine that looks like a typewriter. I used one like that in the summer of 1962. In my experience as a high school student, they were more accurate than a slide rule, because the calculator gave you more decimal places.
"Hidden Figures" is without a doubt a very good movie. However it tells only a small slice of the full story, from approximately 1960 to John Glenn's flight in 1962. Actually NASA (and its predecessor agency NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) had been hiring black female "computers" (That was their actual job title; this was before the age of electronic computers. What they did was data reduction using conversion formulas.) since 1943.
If you want to know the full story of the black ladies at NASA (many more than three), you should read the book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race" written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The writting is very well done, and at times even elegant. And naturally the book goes into much more detail than any movie could possibly do.
Ben, you need to ask yourself WHY you can't imagine Taraji P. Henson can pronounce mathematical terminology. Why shouldn't she?
"it looks like one of those history movies you put on during a rainy day in school" This was ABSOLUTELY my reaction verbatim! And I enjoyed the movie don't get me wrong, but this totally had that quality
Just got nominated for best picture...
this movie was GREAT! taraji get your oscar (unless they are still sowhite).
Slide rulers were only good for a small number of "significant digits" (And only for multiplication, not addition/subtraction). The larger the physical ruler, the greater the accuracy. You can't use one I've seen to be accurate to the four decimal places shown in a scene in the film - they're good for approximations only. That's why the development of the IBM and FORTRAN had such an impact on engineering (My quibble was the very small stack of punch cards).
I live in Hampton Roads where Pharrell is from. and I appreciated this movie. It was very good. I feel like life was way harder for the women than depicted. Being a single mom and working a full time job at Nasa while being a minority? The film didn't come close to that struggle I'm sure. Love the music!
So it's basically The Help in space.
No
Joe Smith Unlike The Help, Hidden Figures is about intelligent black women who rose through the ranks through their OWN brilliance and ingenuity. I think it sends a very different message than The Help.
Ali Khn
But like The Help, it's about civil rights and black women in 1961, with Octavia Spencer.
Joe Smith The Help has a completely different story
Nick Peek
So? ;-)
you guys should watch and review the uk television series black mirror
that's a good show. I am still messed up over the White Bear episode!!
Although the script was contrived, the entire cast were fantastic! The acting was beyond top notch!
Bens hair is on fleek!
Everything Ben said at about seven minutes is accurate about a lot of people and their double standards.
you are very correct
A classic case of white people attempting to interpret the minds and experiences of blacks particularity black women. The film from all aspects is beautifully crafted. I am 65 years old, lived through that period of segregation and very much understand the temperament of well educated black people who had to be three times smarter to be considered equal. Hooky? It would have been more interesting to have a person of color sit in this critique with these folks to add realism and to broaden the minds of all who commented.
I'm black as well and watched the film. I felt the very important story deserved a better cinematic experience. It felt like a made-for-tv film.
Yep
Ebun Ladipo you are absolutely right. It was very disneyfied/safe film (remember the Help?!)
"Hidden Figures" is without a doubt a very good movie. However it tells only a small slice of the full story, from approximately 1960 to John Glenn's flight in 1962. Actually NASA (and its predecessor agency NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) had been hiring black female "computers" (That was their actual job title; this was before the age of electronic computers. What they did was data reduction using conversion formulas.) since 1943.
If you want to know the full story of the black ladies at NASA (many more than three), you should read the book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race" written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The writting is very well done, and at times even elegant. And naturally the book goes into much more detail than any movie could possibly do.
My brother worked for NASA Over 20 yrs. In the training department. Lost his job when the space shuttle was shutdown.
OMG
What Alonso says in the beginning is very true. I'm still patiently waiting for "La La Land" to be released here. probably February at this rate.
Feline Fatale Yeah the marketing said it would be released everywhere on Christmas Day. Even though it's by a theater by me, the marketing was still false. Rumor has it that it'll be released in more theaters January 6th.
I enjoyed this movie. I never would have guessed that the soundtrack would be so memorable. My minor peeve was basically my fault. The appearances of Jim Parsons (Sheldon on Big Bang Theory) and Mahershala Ali (Cottonmouth on Luke Cage) took me out of the movie. After about a minute I was able to forget those other roles and enjoy this film.
"Why would History class be impacted by the rain?" - Ben Mankiewicz, 2016
Strange that this subject and one of those characters should be covered in an episode of Timeless only the other week.
More often we are told the story of these fine African American women from the point of view of the white man - a most disconcerting detraction to the movie Hidden Figures, dir. Theodore Melfi. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer. It is Kevin Costner (as Al Harrison) who single-handedly hammers away at the “Coloreds Only Bathroom” sign, as another White Man, President Lyndon B. Johnson, single-handedly enacts the first Civil Rights Act of 1964. Point of view is as important if not more so than the story being told. In Hidden Figures the story is viewed with rose-colored glasses as an overweight White State Trooper, in a cartoonish manner, who appears to be menacing at first, but after a miraculous epiphany of sorts, gleefully gives our three Black stars a polite and glamorous escort to their historical destination. Kevin Costner would be a shoe-in for the prestigious and coveted “Liberation of Negro Women Award” if it were offered by the Academy Awards. Sadly, a film where Artifice (not Art) depicts Life. Now, do you want to know how I really feel? -JV. PG Drama. US. ADG: Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film. NAACP Image Awards: Outstanding Motion Picture, Best Actress (Taraji P. Henson) and Song (I See Victory) in a Motion Picture. Heartland Film Award: Truly Moving Award. Abomination Awards: Liberation of Negro Women Award (Kevin Costner).
If you're going for schmaltz, this is how you do it. It gets everything right that Collateral Beauty gets so very wrong.
i really miss these guys...anyway, it’s 25 jun, 2020...and amongst all of the (honesty terrible) things happening now…i am NOT a fan of the ‘feel good’ movie, but, perhaps bcse i am a woman, i watched this-twice.
she was handed trash and told it wasn't taken out
a story like this deserves something more cinematic than this cheap looking, after school special cornfest.
Nicky Thompson-Quartey i agree. Looks way too conventional
It's kind of like "Red Tails" and several other movies. They have to be made better.
Galaxatron To be fair, Red Tails wasn't very good. Great story, but the script was something that could pass on Lifetime Network
Have you even seen it?
Tyler Grimes it's pretty easy to make judgments regarding quality based on trailers
Ben's hair make him like anorexic wolverine, what happened ?
He's got hair. I don't.
Ben is the most compelling critic on the show
And a 7.5 is a 75..it's out of 10
An untold story? Does that mean this movie is not based on a book, 'cause I'd rather read an actual historical account than trying to figure out what parts were made up for this movie.
+Kevin D - Yes, the book is Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. You can usually find out if a movie is based on a book by going to IMDB.com
"Hidden Figures" is without a doubt a very good movie. However it tells only a small slice of the full story, from approximately 1960 to John Glenn's flight in 1962. Actually NASA (and its predecessor agency NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) had been hiring black female "computers" (That was their actual job title; this was before the age of electronic computers. What they did was data reduction using conversion formulas.) since 1943.
If you want to know the full story of the black ladies at NASA (many more than three), you should read the book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race" written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The writting is very well done, and at times even elegant. And naturally the book goes into much more detail than any movie could possibly do.
There where 0 cigarrettes in a movie taking place in the 1960s. Not one ciggie. That's all I'm gonna say.
Fantastic movie. Unbelievable that segregation was once considered normal. Still, this is not an angry movie but an inspiritional one. Thumbs up.
And where would they get that many slide rules?
woah, good call! They really have disappeared, haven't they?
Science is sexy and interesting and vital.
it's a 9.8 guys seariosIy
Ben looks like a mad scientist
Thumbs up for the movie. Thumbs down for Bens 6.8
Have there been very many reviews of movies or tv shows that featured Ben *and* Bibbs? I almost thought those two didn't like each other. Or it might just have been a very long time, I dunno.
Gangrel Aussie no because Bibbs is a fill-in for Matt (or another absent host). And Ben works a lot out of town for Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
Hana J Honestly believe they should just dump Ben. I like him, but fuck me if he's there less than not (I will admit that I don't know if that sentence was proper english or not).
Gangrel Aussie but he's an OG a Young Turk. Before he left for TMC, he was the co host of the main show. And WTF was started by him. Sorry, but I'm Team Ben all day every day. Ben and Wes Clark Jr
Hana J I know, but I reserve the rigut to be petty and more. Nice call on the 'OG,' by the way ;)
i wonder why they'd recommend seeing the film in the theater if it's mediocre? why not just wait until it's on tv and watch something better in theaters?
Some people have a different perspective on the act of going to the movies. If I lived closer to a theater, I would go more often just to see the movies and not wait for them.
Because this movie is Not mediocre! :-) I saw it yesterday, and plan to purchase once it becomes available. I highly recommend it for the entire family, well worth the trip. -)
San47di thanks, but I'll pass
+underwaterlady They have so much money that dropping $30 a movie multiple times a week isn't a big deal.
PubliusAfricanus good. they should spend it just as fast as they get it
The first trailer was such a turn off, the amount of times the "what, didn't expect a BLACK WOMAN to be here?!!" Hits the message over the head a bit much with zero subtlety
Why does that message need to be delivered with subtlety? I doubt it was conveyed to those black women in subtle ways, so why should the audience be treated differently?
The thing is that dialogue like that makes these women look a little less demure than they likely were. That was the way of life, so they were less likely to make a remark like that, especially publicly and to the very same white establishment employing them. It's also a little anachronistic and panders to a modern audience.
You're not understanding the time period, Fong. That kind of thing just wasn't done, but there was a certain level of decorum as well, where these women would have been classier and not have spoken out like that. Furthermore, you're not understanding the place either. This was NASA, not the civilian world of the time. These people were a little more subtle about any prejudices they might have had about black colleagues. The target of this movie is
clearly an audience of people who can't place their minds in that different time period.
ian lee well it would have been more relevant at the time of the space launch. that was america then like it or not, black women LITERALLY were only house maids.
Galaxatron And you romanticize NASA and fail to understand the time period. NASA was segregated just like the rest of the South. You seem to have a notion that just because the men and women who worked there were gifted mathematicians and engineers that they were somehow above the prejudice that they were raised with. NASA certainly was not subtle in not allowing women to become engineers or segregating the blacks and whites.
I also don't think you are in a position to comment on how a black woman would have responded to this sort of treatment. It is quite easy for you to try and paint them all with a single stroke, but people respond differently and I can tell you from first hand experiences of family members who actually lived through that time that after you have endured too much sometimes your emotions get the better of you. If you actually watched the film you would see how the black characters have to toe that line and try to surprise their emotions.
That does not mean that I don't think the movie took liberties and manipulated the story to appeal to audiences. Most Hollywood biopics do this. I just take issues with your claim that NASA was somehow above this sort of behavior. After all NASA is composed of people and as we all know people are capable of anything.
Love the movie but very very sad of this untold stories
Your ratings are not accurate enough for me when you only go out to one decimal place, I'm going to need at least 4-5 significant figures. I'll be right back with the slide rule.
I've been here since the very beginning but seeing these kinds of movies get praise heaped on no matter how terrible they are is getting to the point I can't trust their other reviews anymore. Unsubbed.
Driving major tom.
I was forced to watch Pearl Harbor in history class, painful. Obviously not Hidden Figures level bad, just thought I'd add on to what Gibbs said.
it's funny how the bearded guy keeps saying that's how it "was"
The title sounds like it's a horror movie
Just a few things....
There were dozens of black men and white women who worked for NASA longe before 1961, not to mention segregation was completely abolished at NASA about 4-years befor this film is set to begin.
There is not a shred of evidence that any of these women were "friend", they were work associates, so as the film shows how they were all best buddy buddies is wrong.
Calling this film "(Hidden Figures)" also kinda meaningless as there were hundreds of people involved in the first Apollo space mission that nobody ever heard of, to highlight only these three women as the "hidden" brains behind this particular mission is false. Let me ask you one question: How many of the scientists/engineers can you name that were a contributing factor in the first Apollo space mission, other than these three women??? ZERO, because nobody cares to learn about the scientists of any mission, only the astronauts. Which is a great sham because the mission would have never occurred if it were not for the hundreds of brilliant minds that worked relentlessly to make it happen. So just because you hadn't known who they were before this film was made, that doesn't prove that they were oppressively "hidden" away from you, YOU JUST DIDNT CARE BEFORE, if you were really that interested than you would have seeked out the knowledge for yourself well before this film was ever put in production.
And finally, to say these women were "unheard of" is a complete wrong, two out of the tree of these women were extremely well published with many books, papers, contributing knowledge and plenty of history at NASA that stands true befor and after this film was ever thought to be made.
So yeah, I didnt like it.
Benjamin,... you need a haircut, mama.
Is Ben gonna keep coming his hair back when his hairline's touching the back of his neck?
Ben looks like a bewhiskered Harry Potter.
I lost count on how many clichéd and corny scenes are in this horrible movie. Kevin Costner removing a label which says "colored" from a coffee pot and tearing down a restroom sign for colored people must be the corniest scenes of them all.
BEN BEN BEN BEN
we have no proof these things happened. its only a movie.
govcalif it happened and is well researched. These brilliant women were real and contributed to NASA
err we actually do, these people are real people and they actually exist. Those who study science and like space history like myself know of womens contribution not only to nasa but astronomy and science in general.
It's great movie
They were terrible people!
As pretty as it was corny. 6.
this movie is a lie!!!
wtf?
wtf?
Knowing the propensity for Hollywood to take license with historical depictions - I also had some skepticism about the "facts" but everything I've read in my own research indicates the basic story is indeed true.
+Gregory Mccray The women existed and worked at a NASA facility, but that's about it.
90% Vegan Nobody at NASA even remembers them. Their "accomplishments" are inventions of a politically correct era, therefore lies.
Ben looks like a mad scientist