Hidden Emotions

I finally saw Hidden Figures yesterday. Katie is home for Spring Break and even though she had already seen it, she went with me so I didn’t have to go alone. Because I was prepared to go to the movies all by myself. I don’t remember the last time I wanted to see a movie this much.

Knowing the gist of the storyline, there were no surprises. At least not where the movie itself was concerned. I knew I would be mad and I knew I would laugh and I knew I would be in awe of the brainpower portrayed. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was how much it made me miss my dad. I wanted to discuss just about every scene with him. I wanted to chat about the space program and computers and women in the engineering field back in the early 60’s and the Civil Rights movement and race issues in the workplace and, and, and. Even though he didn’t work for NASA or the space program, he was an engineer working as a civilian with the Defense Department on big computers just like in the movie, using the same programming language (Fortran) just like in the movie. And he wore the same glasses as a lot of the men in the movie, so there’s that.

Apparently the movie had a very similar effect on Katie when she saw it the first time. As sorry as I was that it made her cry (apparently buckets), it made my heart sing just a little that she thinks of her Papa in the same way I do.

Nostalgias aside, it is truly one of the best movies I’ve seen. What amazingly smart women! Witnessing what these brilliant minds had to endure simply because of the color of their skin and, to a lesser extent, because of their gender, was appalling! There were a lot of slanderous comments from the small audience, myself included. I’m not usually given to violence, but I did have the strong desire to cause bodily harm to some of those ignoramuses on the screen. By the end of the movie we were clapping and, if the tiny crowd had been in closer proximity, I’m pretty sure there would have been high-fives all around.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I can’t recommend it enough. I look forward to watching it again when it comes out on DVD. Next time I’ll be a little more prepared for those tugs on my heart, though.