Hidden Figures is a spectacular film, hidden with much depth throughout the process of the film. The film has so much to be discovered as its title, Hidden Figures, speaks its story loud and clear. The story is set in 1961, during the times of the civil rights movements, at NASA headquarters. It primarily focuses on African American females, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson as they are the first of the segregated, human “computers” to make their way to accomplish what couldn't be done in NASA. It was unseen at that time for an African-American female to be as intelligent as these three women were. Because they were stuck in a dilemma of racism and gender stereotyping, they had to put themselves out there in a risky manner …show more content…
“In the 1960s, the way of life was different for people with different colors of skin. There were separate bathrooms, separate restaurants, drinking fountains, and churches for black people.” (Racism in the 1960s). The film starts out with three African American women outside their car and a white male cop pulls up. Immediately the cop has his baton out ready for trouble and starts talking down to them. He quickly finds out that they work at NASA and his prejudice attitude completely changes. In the plot alone we see that the African American women “computers”, are segregated in a separate building from the white people. Katherine, the main actress, was brought up into the main mathematicians building. Every time katherine would walk to her desk she was stared at, as it was unseen to have a person of color in that room. After she got coffee the first time, none of the white men touched the coffee maker again. The simple difference in her skin color made her co workers have some type of loathe against her. Her job in the building was to help check over the calculations Paul Stafford would get. However she was left with marked out papers and left out of meetings where information was collected. Katherine claimed in one scene to Al Harrison, the head of the NASA program, “I cannot work on what I cannot see.” From Katherine's comment it is clear that she was being segregated even still, because of her skin color. Throughout the movie we also see Dorothy Vaughn wanting to become an engineer at NASA. When she attempts to apply for the position she is immediately shot down and is told she will have to take more classes. At the time the classes that she needed was only for white males, so she was going to have to fight it at court. While she was fighting at court she was able to fight to get what she wanted. She was told she could attend night
The film starts with an uprising after a white storeowner kills a black teenager. This incident Highlights Prejudices. The teenager was labeled a thief because of the color of his skin and the unjustifiable murder causes racial tensions that exist as a result of the integration of the high schools.
Both of the groups had one very main thing in common. They both wanted girls. It seemed as though the girls in this film symbolized power. Girls made them feel better about themselves. Girls made them powerful.
The other ladies in the short film talk about how they thought that she had a “ real problem with [her] ethnicity like [she] had a problem with the fact that [she] was born African-American (Reynolds). This, along with the documentary on Lacey Schwartz, shows that a person’s sense of blackness is very much a product of what others around them define blackness as.
The strikingly accurate portrayal of the life of an African American family in the 1950’s did a great job of keeping the interest up. The director’s mise-en-scene gave the film a believability that is rarely achieved. They did this through the well staged apartment that the film takes place in for the majority of the screen time. The cramped and cluttered home sets the stage for the actors in the film to truly live into their characters. The actors did a brilliant job of portraying the wide breadth of emotions in this film. Their engaging personalities kept the film alive and vibrant the
This demonstrates to us that no matter how much your legal or moral laws are violated, what matters is how you as an individual react to the situation, justly or unjustly. This movie is centered around the notion that if you are a person of ethnic background, that alone is reason for others to forsake your rights, although in the long run justice will prevail
White people and rappers during the late 1970’s and 1980’s seem to be offended when asked about their role in the hip hop community. They think that black people are becoming a part of a cultural movement and they should join in. The heated responses from the white people in the film are typical answers. They symbolize people who are afraid. The white people are joining a movement that is becoming more and more popular. Black communities feel like others are joining in on their fun. They seem to not enjoy people of another race
Two Caucasian police officers come to odds as one uses his authority to unnecessarily pull over a couple who they believe is biracial and therefore wrong. Throughout the entire film race, this is one of the most prominent themes. The film shows that racism is not one sided as the characters themselves are Caucasian, black, Persian, Iranian, and Hispanic. The film shows that race assumptions are not something that is just in existence, but rather society builds up these prejudices and ideas.
One of the biggest issues depicted in the film is the struggle of minority groups and their experience concerning racial prejudice and stereotyping in America. Examples of racism and prejudice are present from the very beginning of the movie when Officer Ryan pulls over black couple, Cameron and Christine for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin. Officer Ryan forces the couple to get out of the car
During that time world war two was just reaching its peak on becoming a full on war. The time period was a real inconvenience on people of color to basically anything to as simple as taking a walk. Due to segregation at the time black women and even white women were discriminated, some more than others. These women only wanted a job that they see themselves fit and they got turned down just due to something they couldn't even change about themselves.
Before we get into the movie specifically, we should first talk about representation and how race is represented in the media in general. Representation is defined as the assigning of meaning through language and in culture. (CITE) Representation isn't reality, but rather a mere construction of reality and the meaning behind it. (CITE) Through representation we are able to shape how people are seen by others. Race is an aspect of people which is often represented in the media in different ways. Race itself is not a category of nature, but rather...
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
One subtle example of discrimination the reader sees is the treatment of Calpurnia, a black woman, the housekeeper/nanny for the Finch family. Although she is treated fairly, it is obvious that she is considered to be on a lower social level than the Finches. She calls Scout ma'am and Jem sir, although these are titles usually reserved for elders.
Despite many progressive changes, racism is still a major issue. No one is born racist, racism is taught and it is taught in popular culture. Younger generations are exposed to racism through popular culture; one of the many mediums in which racial stereotypes are still supported. Matt Seitz, in his article, “The Offensive Movie Cliche That Won’t Die” claims that metaphorically, in popular culture cinema, African-Americans are mentors of a white hero, but beneath the surface, it is racially offensive towards these mentors because they are still considered servants of whites. Michael Omi, in “In Living Color: Race and American Culture” adds to the claim of Seitz that racial issues in our society brought on by the media and popular culture. He
If this movie were to be summarized in one sentence, one may say that no matter who you are, everybody holds preconceptions and stereotypes against other people. For example, in this movie, an upper-class white woman sees two black men so she clings to her husband, showing she is scared of them. Even though this woman had no idea who they were, she still jumped to a conclusion that they were going to harm her because of the color of their skin.
“We fight each other for territory; we kill each other over race, pride, and respect. We fight for what is ours. They think they’re winning by jumping me now, but soon they’re all going down, war has been declared.” Abuse, Pain, Violence, Racism and Hate fill the streets of Long Beach, California. Asians, Blacks, Whites and Hispanics filled Wilson High School; these students from different ethnic backgrounds faced gang problems from day to night. This movie contains five messages: people shouldn’t be judgmental because being open-minded allows people to know others, having compassion for a person can help people change their views in life, being a racist can only create hate, having the power of the human will/goodness to benefit humanity will cause a person to succeed at any cost and becoming educated helps bring out the intelligence of people.