I’ve seen two movies this week. Its pre-Oscar time so all the good films come out together. What are you gonna do? So in the week we saw Lion and last night, Hidden Numbers. Both are ‘true stories’. Ish. Both are great films, good to watch, well acted. The main difference is that Lion is, so you believe (and its a movie; its all about what the watcher believes, not what the reality was. You watch Terminator, you have to ‘believe’), pretty much the story of what happened to a little Indian kid who gets lost, and Hidden Numbers is the ‘based on true story’ of the group of previously unheralded black women who were scientists actively involved in the NASA space race (no pun) in the early ’60s.

But really the main difference was that Lion was a British film, or maybe an Aussie one, I’m not sure, and thus let’s the story speak for itself. Because it is a remarkable story of remarkable people and (so I ‘believe’) needs no additional or extra drama or distortion or ‘alternative truths’ to embellish it. Whereas Hidden Treasures is Hollywood. Its their tribute to these quite amazing women who stuck two fingers up to the prevailing sexism and massive racism (NASA was in Virginia where segregation didn’t end til the post-Kennedy years) inherent in their society, to firstly achieve academic excellence and then to actually get employed in such a white (in all senses) collared world. Its a heart-warming and wonderful tale of, here, three brilliant and wonderful women. But Hollywood is never content with mere facts, even when they often bring tears to your eyes or a flutter down your spine. Hollywood wants schmaltz. And it wants to spread it on really thick.

And thus creates certain scenes that you just know are embellishments to some degree. Bits that as well as making you go ‘oh wow!’ also make you think ‘oh, really??’

What’s even more interesting is that throughout the 50s and 60s a lot of America practised ‘segregation’, in which blacks and whites had different schools, different buses and, as they made a point so great about in the movie; different toilets. Enforced by law. Different restaurants and, the inevitable consequence, way different opportunities in education and employment. Yet I remember nothing much spoken against this in Britain. Whereas South Africa, who employed exactly the same system but called it Apartheit instead of segregation, were banned from international sports, boycotted by all trade partners, made a pariah state. As well they deserved to be. But the Americans we overlooked.

Go see both movies. They’re good. Really good.

Happy Sunday. Spurs just beat Fulham 3-0 in the Cup and I’m happy as Larry. Whoever he is.

A xxxx