Movie Review: ****^Hidden Figures (2016)

This is a fabulous movie which shows the plight of the African American women working for NASA.  The were involved at many levels, including being ready to use computers, and advanced engineering.  There is a particular series of scenes in which one African American woman, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) who is working on advanced calculations, but restroom were segregated.  There are no African American restrooms in that area.  She had to walk across campus to use the restroom.  The other staff were upset at her long breaks, not realizing why she was gone for so long.  However, when the cause was discovered, her boss, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) ended segregated restrooms.  It shows how at times, we can discriminate without realizing it.  Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) had enough foresight to study computer languages, and to have her staff also trained.  This gave them a jump up when typewriters were replaced by computers.  Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) fights discrimination in university classes, as she needs more education to become a NASA engineer, but the school is limited to Whites.  Her case goes to court and she prevails. 

Movie Review: ***^42 (2013)

This film is the story of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) as the first Black player to play major league baseball.  42 is the number Robinson wore throughout his career.  The owner of the Dodgers, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) was looking for a Black player to join the Dodger's organization.  A sports writer suggested Jackie Robinson.  Rickey, according to the film, did this because he was tired of the racism of major league baseball.  Of course there were economic issues as well.  Bringing the black community to the ball park would be good for revenues.  His first year Robinson played with the Toronto Royals, the Dodger's triple A ball club.  This film tells of his success that year, and then the subsequent year with the Dodgers as a rookie.  Robinson had to face serious racial discrimination, at first form his own teammates, who signed a petition not to play if Robinson played, and then from coaches and players on other teams.  This racist vitriol was most poignant from the Philadelphia manager.  Robinson for his part had to learn to keep his place, until he won people over.  Then we could better influence others, and others would sometimes defend him, and he could defend himself.  Robinson proved himself with his bat, base stealing, base running and play in the field.  The Dodgers made it to the World Series his rookie year.
The next year, more teams had black players.  After the ice had been broken, a team was foolish not to draw from this talent pool for his team.  Check out my review of a book about Jackie Robinson with this link.  And here is a blog looking at the veracity of this storytelling of this movie.

Harrison Ford does a good job.  I could hardly recognize him in this character of a baseball owner.

Movie Review: ****^In the Heat of the Night (1967)

This is the movie with the famous lie of Sidney Portier, "The call me Mr. Tibbs."  Also in his roll as the police of chief, Rod Steiger, won the Oscar for best actor.  The lead was shared by Porter and Steiger.  Steiger was a southern chief of police, in a town with Jim Crow laws and with rampant racism including violence.  Potier's character just happens to be visiting when there is a murder.  He is a homicide detective from Philadelphia.  The chief on several occasions arrests the wrong man.  Potier has to keep digging.  Even he was intent on looking for the murderer in the wrong place.  However in he end, while be just by a mob after him, he is able to get to the right man, by following who is paying for the abortion.

Movie Review: **** Glory Road

This movie is significant an important.  It is important to remember where we come from, and those moments that were really ground breaking in terms of civil right.  There is Jackie Robinson breaking into Major League Baseball and in basketball, there is the 1965-66 NCAA championship of the Texas Western Miner under Don Haskins.  Texas is in the south, and fielding a team with seven black players was unheard of.  The movie displays very well some of the racial tension at the time.  The events in the movie predate the assasination of Martin Luther King by a couple of years.
This is a movie about dreams.  The dreams of Don Haskins as the coach, and the dreams of the players.  Those dreams took these players into uncharted territory.  It would have been easy to have given up the dream.  I am glad they didn't.  Josh Lucas stars as Don Haskins.  This is an important movie for parents to watch with their children.