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Author Topic:   Hidden Figures Movie
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


(8)
Message 1 of 53 (809619)
05-19-2017 3:43 PM


Just saw the movie "Hidden Figures" at Amazon, which is a true story, dramatized but not excessively, about three black women who worked at NASA in the sixties, helping to put John Glenn into orbit. I kept wondering how on earth I had never heard of these women before, any of them but especially Katherine Johnson who is the main character, a genius mathematician. She's still living at 98 and I saw some interviews with her on You Tube.
It also made me wonder about my own racism that I would never have imagined a black woman mathematical genius. Let alone a whole department full of them all working at NASA. It's a very "consciousness-raising" movie, and for me thoroughly enjoyable as well as educational and inspiring. I wouldn't have imagined a whole department of white women genius mathematicians either though, and they were there too. In their own department. Segregation was a reality in those days and it's a main part of the story.
I saw it twice. I also watched some interviews at You Tube with the cast as well as with Katherine Johnson, who is probably smarter than Dr. Adequate.
I just wanted to put something up about this movie I think it's so good.;
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by jar, posted 05-19-2017 3:48 PM Faith has replied
 Message 3 by NoNukes, posted 05-19-2017 7:29 PM Faith has replied
 Message 4 by Chiroptera, posted 05-19-2017 7:47 PM Faith has replied
 Message 33 by dwise1, posted 05-21-2017 3:25 PM Faith has replied

  
jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 2 of 53 (809620)
05-19-2017 3:48 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Faith
05-19-2017 3:43 PM


Glad you enjoyed it. Are you familiar with Amazing Grace?

My Sister's Website: Rose Hill Studios My Website: My Website

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 Message 1 by Faith, posted 05-19-2017 3:43 PM Faith has replied

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NoNukes
Inactive Member


Message 3 of 53 (809631)
05-19-2017 7:29 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Faith
05-19-2017 3:43 PM


It also made me wonder about my own racism that I would never have imagined a black woman mathematical genius.
I appreciate your sincere and honest statement where. Admissions of this kind cannot be easy. We all have some racism (and other ism) that we don't like to acknowledge.
I just wanted to put something up about this movie I think it's so good.;
I thought the movie was okay. But my wife raves about it just as you do.
I saw it twice. I also watched some interviews at You Tube with the cast as well as with Katherine Johnson, who is probably smarter than Dr. Adequate.
I take this as high praise of Dr. Adequate.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson
Seems to me if its clear that certain things that require ancient dates couldn't possibly be true, we are on our way to throwing out all those ancient dates on the basis of the actual evidence. -- Faith
Some of us are worried about just how much damage he will do in his last couple of weeks as president, to make it easier for the NY Times and Washington post to try to destroy Trump's presidency. -- marc9000

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Chiroptera
Inactive Member


Message 4 of 53 (809633)
05-19-2017 7:47 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Faith
05-19-2017 3:43 PM


Some of my math oriented magazines had some good reviews of the book upon which the movie is based. I've put it on my acquisition list.

Freedom is merely privilege extended, unless enjoyed by one and all. — Billy Bragg

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Faith, posted 05-19-2017 3:43 PM Faith has replied

Replies to this message:
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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 5 of 53 (809639)
05-19-2017 8:55 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by NoNukes
05-19-2017 7:29 PM


the movie is good-enough, it's the story that's important
The movie is good mainly because the story is new and generally unknown, certainly to me, and because it's such a success story for black women. But it's well enough done too.
Like I said it's a "consciousness-raising" story, you learn from it, for instance it doesn't matter how much you know about segregation you need to get some idea of how it was experienced by the people who lived it. It's taken for granted by Katherine and friends in the movie, it's "just the way things are" and a lot of the time she hardly even notices it she just adapts to whatever the situation calls for. If you watch interviews with the real Katherine you might note that some questions meant to bring out her experience of segregation go over her head and she answers in some other context. She knew her abilities and the social handicap was just there to be gotten around.
But the movie shows the hardship of it in her having to go all the way to the Colored Women's Restroom which is half a mile away so that she's always late back to work. Also her coworkers give her a coffeepot of her own so that she won't have to share theirs, and they don't even bother to make the coffee for her. And there are lots of subtle exchanges between her and her superiors and coworkers in which even her obvious superiority at the work she does gets suppressed. And then there's the scene that made me cringe where a group of white women are standing together to greet the astronauts while the group of black women stand about ten feet away from them. It makes you happy when John Glenn takes the time to go over to them and shake their hands and you hope it's true. From the interviews with the cast I saw and the writer, it WAS true, all the incidents in the movie are true to what really happened, though they were often dramatized to stand out.
I take this as high praise of Dr. Adequate.
Not necessarily. I know he's a mathematician and when he was describing himself, years ago now, he called himself a genius.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Replies to this message:
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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 6 of 53 (809640)
05-19-2017 9:08 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by Chiroptera
05-19-2017 7:47 PM


book and movie
According to one of the interviews I saw at YouTube the book was only a proposal when it was picked up to be a movie, and got written after the movie was already underway.

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 Message 4 by Chiroptera, posted 05-19-2017 7:47 PM Chiroptera has replied

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 7 of 53 (809642)
05-19-2017 9:15 PM
Reply to: Message 2 by jar
05-19-2017 3:48 PM


Other geniuses
No I hadn't heard of her, good to know.
There are certainly white women geniuses who also deserve recognition. I think of the women of "Bletchley Circle" as geniuses, the English women who worked as codebreakers on Nazi communications during WWII. There's a TV series based on them. Also the story of Alan Turing who broke the Nazi "Enigma Code" includes the woman mathematical genius Joan Clarke who worked with him. (That story involves a primitive computer that Turing designed. "Hidden Figures" is also about the first days of computers as one of the women makes herself a programming expert.)
But it's the racial story of "Hidden Figures" that's the eyeopener.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Replies to this message:
 Message 12 by Huntard, posted 05-20-2017 3:46 PM Faith has replied
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Chiroptera
Inactive Member


Message 8 of 53 (809644)
05-19-2017 10:23 PM
Reply to: Message 6 by Faith
05-19-2017 9:08 PM


Re: book and movie
Thanks, Faith. That's interesting. None of my sources mentioned that.

Freedom is merely privilege extended, unless enjoyed by one and all. — Billy Bragg

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Son Goku
Inactive Member


Message 9 of 53 (809660)
05-20-2017 3:58 AM
Reply to: Message 5 by Faith
05-19-2017 8:55 PM


Re: the movie is good-enough, it's the story that's important
Not necessarily. I know he's a mathematician and when he was describing himself, years ago now, he called himself a genius.
Just reading that link, I can't be the only person who thinks Dr Adequate reads as British.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 5 by Faith, posted 05-19-2017 8:55 PM Faith has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 10 by Faith, posted 05-20-2017 7:10 AM Son Goku has replied

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 10 of 53 (809661)
05-20-2017 7:10 AM
Reply to: Message 9 by Son Goku
05-20-2017 3:58 AM


Re: the movie is good-enough, it's the story that's important
I'm not sure how you got it from that link but somewhere else he said he's British, but lives in the US.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Son Goku
Inactive Member


(3)
Message 11 of 53 (809702)
05-20-2017 11:32 AM
Reply to: Message 10 by Faith
05-20-2017 7:10 AM


Re: the movie is good-enough, it's the story that's important
And here I thought he was just some handsome genius American who wrote like a handsome genius British fella, my worldview has been restored.

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 Message 10 by Faith, posted 05-20-2017 7:10 AM Faith has not replied

  
Huntard
Member (Idle past 2295 days)
Posts: 2870
From: Limburg, The Netherlands
Joined: 09-02-2008


Message 12 of 53 (809736)
05-20-2017 3:46 PM
Reply to: Message 7 by Faith
05-19-2017 9:15 PM


Re: Other geniuses
Faith writes:
There are certainly white women geniuses who also deserve recognition. I think of the women of "Bletchley Circle" as geniuses, the English women who worked as codebreakers on Nazi communications during WWII. There's a TV series based on them. Also the story of Alan Turing who broke the Nazi "Enigma Code" includes the woman mathematical genius Joan Clarke who worked with him. (That story involves a primitive computer that Turing designed. "Hidden Figures" is also about the first days of computers as one of the women makes herself a programming expert.)
Might I recommend the film The Imitation Game, for things concerning Bletchley, and Turing and Joan Clarke in particular?
But it's the racial story of "Hidden Figures" that's the eyeopener.
Perhaps The Imitation Game can be the "gay story eye-opener"?

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 13 of 53 (809737)
05-20-2017 3:55 PM
Reply to: Message 12 by Huntard
05-20-2017 3:46 PM


Re: Other geniuses
I saw the film about Turing and Clarke, couldn't remember the title; yes I remember now that he was gay and went through some horrific treatment for it. It's a sad story for sure but not unfamiliar; to me the story of the black women at NASA was absolutely brand new, and that's what a lot of people say about it, particularly black women.

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jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 14 of 53 (809738)
05-20-2017 4:35 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by Faith
05-20-2017 3:55 PM


Re: Other geniuses
Faith writes:
... to me the story of the black women at NASA was absolutely brand new, and that's what a lot of people say about it, particularly black women.
What is it that was surprising to you?

My Sister's Website: Rose Hill Studios My Website: My Website

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 Message 13 by Faith, posted 05-20-2017 3:55 PM Faith has replied

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 Message 16 by Faith, posted 05-20-2017 9:08 PM jar has replied

  
Chiroptera
Inactive Member


(1)
Message 15 of 53 (809739)
05-20-2017 4:45 PM
Reply to: Message 14 by jar
05-20-2017 4:35 PM


Re: Other geniuses
Well, I can't speak for Faith, but I'm also surprised that, seeing how important computers (the humans ones) were, that either women or African-Americans were allowed such a role at that time. I don't think that their stories were all that well known to most people. Certainly not to me. It's a history that hasn't been told on a wide scale.

Freedom is merely privilege extended, unless enjoyed by one and all. — Billy Bragg

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Replies to this message:
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