Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe did an outstanding job in the roles as Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. Three African American women who were the brains behind one of NASA’s (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) greatest missions : launching John Glen into orbit!
Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson is a physicist and mathematician who made contributions to space programs at NASA. Dorothy Vaughan was also a mathematician at NASA who became the first African American woman supervisor for the West Area Computer Center. Mary Jackson was a mathematician and aerospace engineer for NASA as well.
This film couldn’t have been more accurate with the production & details that helped capture and depict perfectly how both racism and sexism affected the lives of these 3 black women in the 1960’s.
These women were relentless. They stayed true to their values and ambition and did not betray their goals for anyone or anything. Even as mothers and wives, they found a way to make their dreams come true. With love as their strong bond in their friendships, each pushed one another to strive forward despite their circumstances.
Each saw beyond themselves on a grander scale. That achieving their goals was not just about themselves but about the black women that would come after them. They knew breaking down these racial barriers set against them would be a light in the tunnel for little black girls to have someone to look to. Someone had to be the first to do it and they did just that.
One thing i did take notice of, was the fact that each time one of them hit a road block because decrimination for being black AND a woman, ….. everyone benefited.
Katherine was the one who dealt with solving the formulas that would give the spaceship coordinators an estimation of coordinates that would get the ship into orbit as well as timing the orbit reentry AND landing. (Not a soul a NASA could do what she could do.) They’d perform tests using Katherine’s results for the perfect take off and landing. After each experiment, a meeting would be held to discuss what went wrong and what needed to be corrected going forward to make this a successful mission. She was not allowed in these meetings, nor was she told what resulted from the discussions about the last test because she didn’t have “authorization” or “clearance” aka she was black and a woman. So instead of them giving her a briefing of the last mission, EACH TEST, she had to start from square one to try and come up with the successful formula to make this mission a success without knowing what went wrong in the last try. I failed to mention that they were on a time frame as well. The guy who worked with her and also attended the meetings with their boss was the one making this process harder than what it should have been for her. (So here’s the part you have been waiting for.) Just before 1 meeting, he pushed her buttons one last time. She had to remind them the clock was ticking and that it’s ridiculous and backwards how they are working. How can she do her part when they give her no answers? She also told her boss HE IS THE BOSS but he needs to start acting like it and call the shots. If he makes the call that she can come into the meeting, she’ll be able to get the answers they’ve been looking for all that time. So after she spoke up, he gave her clearance to come into the meeting. In that meeting, she showcased her abilities and formulated promising coordinates. Everyone was impressed. The coordinates worked.
This is what i mean by everyone benefiting from her fighting racism and sexism. Once she was granted access she was able to make the mission a success.
Overall, i loved this movie. I could watch it over and over and you should go see it.
