THEthe right to count, intense film against race and gender discrimination airs tonight on Rai Uno. Based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterley, tells the true story of the African American mathematician, scientist and physicist Catherine Johnson, who, defying racism, fought to get her rightful place in society. Johnson has actively collaborated with NASA making a great contribution to American space missions. His is an extraordinary story of redemption.
The right to count: the plot
We are in 1961, in the America of racial segregation. African Americans Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) work at the Langley Research Center in Hampton and are sent to assist the spaceflight calculation team. In an environment hostile to blacks (who cannot use the same bathroom as whites) the three scientists do their job well, despite the bad relationship with their colleagues who treat them condescendingly.
Slowly, however, they manage to earn the respect of their white colleagues by solving very complex problems, collaborating in tracing the trajectories for the Mercury Program and the Apollo 11 mission that would have brought the American John Glenn into space. In fact, the astronaut accepted to be sent into orbit only after Katherine Johnson had personally verified the correctness of the calculations entrusted to the computer.
Taraji P. Henson (Katherine Johson), Octavia Spencer (Dorothy Vaughan), Glen Powell (John Glenn, the astronaut) and Janelle Monáe (Mary Jackson) in a scene from the film.
The right to count: why watch it
The film, in addition to being a story of redemption, offers many insights into the condition of black people, and especially black women. The female scientists worked in a segregated office, where African-American employees at NASA were asked to make, redo and check calculations of all kinds, so that other engineers, physicists and mathematicians could do something else.
Kevin Costner (Al Harrison), in the film is an invented character, but inspired by more real subjects.
It is also thanks to them that the Friendship 7 mission is successfully concluded. In life, Dorothy Vaughan became a great expert on a programming language of the time. She retired in 1971 and died in 2008. Jackson worked at NASA until 1985, then she dedicated herself to supporting women and minorities; she died in 2005. Johnson calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions. He retired in 1986 and in 2015 he obtained the Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama (Medal of Freedom), the highest civilian award in the United States. An important NASA research center is named after her.
The cast of the film and the Oscar nominations
In addition to the three African-American actresses, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons are part of the cast of the film. Kevin Costner plays Al Harrison, the head of the math group where Johnson ends up working, and who does everything to avoid it. A character who never existed but who was inspired by three different professional figures who worked in the centre. Actress Kirsten Dunst is Vivian Mitchell, supervisor of Johnson and Vaughan, with whom she will have heated clashes. She is also a fictional character.
The group of African-American female scientists featured in the film.
The right to count earned three Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer). Of the three female scientists, only Katherine Johnson was able to attend the premiere of the film. At the age of 98, she took the stage during the night of the 2017 Oscars with the three actresses (but the film did not win any awards). NASA wanted to supervise the script to make sure there were no inaccuracies in the film.
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