NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ADVANCED EDUCATION PROGRAMS

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INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
“HIDDEN FIGURES”
An analysis of American History & Business management style

Name: Nguyen Ha Linh

Student ID: 11213233
Class: Business Analysis

Teacher: Nguyen Thi Thien Huong

Ha Noi, October 2022

 HIDDEN FIGURES
An analysis of American History & Business management style
Released in 2017, the period film “Hidden Figures” has amazed people with its
spectacular cinematography, acting performance, and historical accuracy, allowing it to receive
numerous prestige nominations and awards such as the Best Picture nomination in the 89th
Academy Awards. This biographical drama film uncovers a little-known true story of 3 African
American women working at NASA, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson,
who had made it possible for the US to change its position in the Space Race against Russia. In
the movie, the progress of this trio fighting against discrimination for their gender, race and
striving for a better life is highlighted, with the focus on the life of Kathrine Johnson who had a
significant role in the trajectory calculation for the launching and landing of Friendship 7
spacecraft enabling the first American to orbit the earth. With its historical accuracy, the movie
successfully depicted the intense manifestation of the Cold War in the form of the Space Race
between America and Russia in addition to the Civil Rights Movement between 1961 and 1962.
Besides, the American business management style has also been demonstrated in the film.
With the characteristic of a biographical drama film, “Hidden Figures” has successfully
revealed a truthful picture of the 1961-62 phase of American history. In this period, the Cold
War between the US and Russia intensified and manifested itself in a whole new frontier – space
exploration. Both nations raced to be pioneers in this new field to prove the supremacy of their
ideologies, heightening their influence on the world. Witnessing Russia’s consecutive successes:
the first satellite to be in outer space Sputnik I (1957) or the first person to orbit the earth Vostok
I (1961), the Americans were under pressing pressure to surpass this “national security threat” to
protect their freedom ideology against the spread of “despotism”, reflected in JFK’s vow in the
film: “…that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of
freedom and peace… Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are
first, and, therefore, we intend to be first”. The rivalry can also be seen right at the beginning of
the movie screening a meeting between Jim Webb, the NASA administrator, and the NASA
engineers after JFK calls Jim Webb. NASA is urged to quickly outperform the Russians: “The
Russians have a spy satellite lapping the planet, taking pictures of god knows what. The
president is demanding an immediate response, no more delaying”. JFK’s iconic public speech
about the US space program's goal is also shown in the movie: “We choose to go to the Moon in
this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”.
Winning the Space Race became one of the top prioritized fields with astronauts becoming the
national heroes. In fact, according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the Fed
spending on NASA witnessed a significant increase in the Space Race period reaching its peak in
1966, taking up to 4.41% of the US total spending with inflation adjustment year of 2021.
Furthermore, another historical significance portrayed in the film is the initial stage Civil
Rights Movement against Jim Crow laws in the Southern part of the US. Compiling with the
“separate but equal” doctrine of The Jim Crow laws, racial segregation was a proliferated
phenomenon. “White only” and “Colored” signs were found labeling almost every public facility
and service. Separated, however, equality was far from achieved since most of what the Negroes
received was always of lower quality, perpetuating even further discrimination towards the
colored. Facing this unrest situation, the Civil Rights Movement emerged to achieve the full
equal rights of Negroes. In the 1961-62s, the primary activism forms of this Movement were
nonviolent demonstrations, civil disobedience, and filing lawsuits, which have all been captured
in the film: the subtle background screen of Negroes protesting against segregation, the
disobedient action of Dorothy Vaughan when she takes the book from a white-only public library
and the lawsuit of Mary Jackson when she wants to attend an all-white engineer class. At this
phase, the Movement had received certain victories, however, it also suffered from strong
resistance from the white, for example, the “Southern Manifesto” from Southern Congressmen in
some states denouncing the Supreme Court’s ruling of desegregating schools, which is also been
depicted in the Mary Jackson’s lawsuit scene: "Virginia is still a segregated state. Regardless of
what the Federal Government says, or regardless of what Supreme Court says, our law is the
law”.
Apart from its historical significance, with the main setting being the NASA office,
“Hidden Figures” also features numerous characteristics of American business culture, the most
noticeable one of which is the individualistic management style. The American top positions
tend to hold great sway in the company, accounting for most of the critical decisions. Opinions
of subordinates are still taken into consideration; however, the ultimate decision will rely mainly
on the boss. The film has captured this feature most clearly in the scene in which Katherine
Johnson, the chief engineer, and the director argue to decide whether to let Katherine join the
Pentagon Briefing. The chief engineer strongly disagreed with Katherine’s participation since
she is not only a civilian but also a woman which is completely against the protocol. In response
to this disapproval, the director just asks a simple question: “But within these walls, who makes
the rules?” and takes Katherine to join the meeting with him immediately. Just a simple
question, yet it shows the full power of the top ordinates to the decision-making process. The
boss’s decisions are the ultimate ones regardless of the discontentment of the lower positions.
In conclusion, being a successful period film, “Hidden Figures” has accurately depicted a
slice of American history with 2 primary pressing issues in the early 1960s being the Cold War
and the Civil Rights Movement. Besides, thanks to the setting of the NASA Office, one of the
core American business cultures, the individualistic management style, has also been captured
clearly.
 REFERENCES
1. A&E Television Networks. (2009, October 29). Plessy v. Ferguson. History.com.
Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-
ferguson.
2. Day, J. K. (2014). The Southern Manifesto: Massive resistance and the fight to preserve
segregation. University Press of Mississippi. 
3. Dreier, Casey. "Historical NASA Budget Data". The Planetary Society.
4. Hidden Figures. Directed by Theodore Melfi. 20th Century Studio, 2017.
5. Klarman, M. J. (2007). Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement
abridged edition of from Jim Crow to civil rights: The Supreme Court and the struggle
for racial equality. Oxford University Press. 
6. National Geographic Society. (2022, August 9). May 17, 1954 CE: Brown v. board.
National Geographic Society. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/supreme-court-outlaws-racial-
segregation-us-schools.