Here
is the largely unknown 1961 true story of how three African American women played a
major part in the NASA space programme which led to John Glenn safely taking
the first American trip to orbit.
The three women
were mathematicians working in a segregated area of the NASA complex, and they
lived a life of using ‘coloured’ bathrooms, and sitting on the ‘coloured’ side of
buses and having ‘coloured’ coffee and tea pots, writes David Flynn.
These women Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn were
called “computers,” by other NASA personnel, and they were segregated to work
on figures for the space programme.
The life of these women is touching to watch, and the movie is
told in a sentimental style, but it also shows the impossible and frustrations of these NASA employees.
‘Hidden Figures’ is told with humour and as the movie went on,
it showed the ambition of these women, and also the awareness in them of being
pioneers for their race.
Octavia Spencer is deservedly nominated for an Oscar for the
role of Dorothy, yet it’s a huge surprise that Taraji P. Henson was not
nominated for the substantial role of Katherine.
Kevin Costner plays a supporting role as NASA boss, Al Harrison,
and brings personality and humanity to the part of the chief who helped to
break down the borders of race. Kirsten
Dunst plays the part of the women’s boss, Vivian Mitchell, and it’s pity she
wasn’t given more to do in her role.
None of the supporting characters were overtly racist, but the movie
portrayed many of them as being racist in a way in which they weren’t aware.
Also it’s fascinating to watch, on a different level, the early
days of the space programme. The dramatic elements of John Glenn’s trip to orbit is shown in
an action-packed way that can only be enjoyed.
It’s a very important movie to be seen, and it probably gives a
message for today, fifty-six years later.
Here
we have truly one of the most violent and realistic war movies that has ever
come out of Hollywood. However despite
the severe war scenery in WW2 in the Japanese islands, the movie is beyond gripping.
The movie starts off as an All-American story of a
boy with a difficult father and sympathetic mother and close younger brother. The boy, Desmond Doss, played in adulthood by
Andrew Garfield, falls in love with a local girl Dorothy, played by Teresa
Palmer.
Violence was anathema to Desmond due to all he had
seen at home, so after the US enters WW2 he enlists as a conscientious objector
in the army. A conscientious objector is
an individual who wishes not to take up arms in a war conflict.
The story begins with parents, Tom and Bertha Doss
played by Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths, bringing up two boys in Depression
America. The father had demons from his
own WW1 days, but unfortunately he takes out those feelings on his wife and
children, and his influence breeds violence among the boys. However Desmond rebels and vows to relinquish
violence at a young age.
In the army, Desmond has to battle to keep his ‘objector’
status, and he is tested constantly by his commanding officer, Sgt. Howell, who
was played well by Vince Vaughn, taking a break from comic roles.
The sheer violence in ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ takes away any
image of glamour or romanticism about war, which is unusual even in modern film,
writes David Flynn.
It deserves its six Oscar nominations. It
should do better at the Oscars than it did at the Golden Globes or the British Film
Awards where it only picked up an award for Best Editing, which of course it
deserves.
Desmond’s true worth, through Andrew Garfield comes
through at the Battle of Okinawa scenes.
