Miracles in Hidden Figures

Although I still have to own a balanced checkbook and will only attempt to solve a complex math problem if my life depended on it, I have long been aware of the importance of mathematics in daily life. I know that math was there when they were building the pyramids of Egypt, when they put together the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower and when the Wright Brothers first got an airplane moving off the ground.

So there was definitely a lot of math involved when man first decided to fly off to space. People made those calculations, solved problems and computed the numbers that would make everything right from the way the wind was blowing to the amount of power required. And because it was the job of these human beings to compute, their job descriptions rightly referred to them as computers.

Computers are now machines and even when there are still instances wherein humans do the counting, they are not called computers anymore. Unless numbers excite you there is not much drama to be found in computers, human or not. But put these computers at the forefront of the space race in the U.S. of A. during the ‘60s, make them the unlikely sex, female, and unlikelier still, black, and you have the elements of a first rate, suspenseful, heartwarming tale.

Three black female computers are the lead characters in the movie Hidden Figures. I’d say that Katherine Goble-Johnson played by Taraji Henson, Dorothy Vaughan by Octavia Spencer and Mary Jackson by Janelle Monae were indeed hidden figures. This is the first time that we were made aware of their important contribution to when America sent John Glenn off to space and in orbit around the Earth for the very first time. The mathematical prowess of those females helped make that trip possible.

Save for the preachy and most of the time expository dialogue, director Theodore Melfi got everything right about the film. Brilliant script that showed black females as spunky and intelligent although discriminated against. Incredible portrayals from the three actresses, plus Kevin Costner, still looking and sounding like the quintessential American leading man. So was the photography, which I read was done on old-fashioned celluloid, the sets, costumes and most unbelievably, the music.

 Hidden Figures is set in 1962. That was the time when Chubby Checker conquered the world with The Twist. Elvis Presley was around. So were The Four Seasons, The Supremes and so many pop stars who produced innovative pop music. A director could have just chosen songs from the period and produced a memorable soundtrack that would have been perfect for the movie. But not Melfi. Of course, he had the reliable Hans Zimmer working on the score and then in a surprise move, he brought in Pharrell Williams.

Pharrell for Hidden Figures! I bet that everybody thought the choice quite a stretch. I know he did the huge-selling Happy from Despicable Me 2 that was nominated for the Academy Awards. But Pharrell is the Neptunes and the N.E.R.D. and hip-hop and not 1962 at all. But then, Pharrell is a great musician. I’d say Pharrell is a great artist. It was his music that gave Hidden Figures this contrary texture that made what would have been just a nice, clear-cut story, exciting. Why he even had the cast twisting to his music. Too bad Chubby. Pharrell has taken twist music and made it his own. Not only that he has transported it to the new millennium.

I now feel bad that the music for Hidden Figures was not nominated at the Oscars. How Pharrell used his new style original works in a period setting is just incredible. And take a look at the star power he brought in for the soundtrack album, Mary J. Blige singing Mirage; Lalah Hathaway for Surrender; Alicia Keys for Apple and one of the stars of the movie, Janelle for Jalapeno and Isn’t This The World.

Just in case you have forgotten, Janelle was the girl in the big-selling song We Are Young by fun. A singer and model, she has now also branched out into acting. I must say, she is doing very well, with enthusiastic reactions to her work in two important films, Hidden Figures and Moonlight. She is also a very pretty sight and should be seen in more movies in the future.

For now though, check her out in Hidden Figures. Monae, Spencer and Henson make mathematics by human computers such a thrill.