It's understandable that Olympic swimmer Jerome Morrow (Jude Law) would be depressed, even suicidal, after he gets hit by a car and crippled for life. What isn't so easy to grasp is why he stepped in front of the car in the first place, as he confesses he did to Vincent (Ethan Hawke), an ambitious "god child" condemned by his genes to a short life as a janitor who has illegally borrowed his genetic profile. ("God child" incidentally refers to someone whose genes weren't tampered with as a zygote.) We only get one hint at the beginning and another at the end. Holding up his silver medal early on, Jerome says it wasn't good enough. Then, when he immolates himself in the incinerator of his apartment, we see the silver medal nestled in the burning remains of his clothes.
The other major character is better off -- but how much, really? His girlfriend's own very slight heart condition prevents her from joining him in space, where he will almost certainly end his life. He must go on pretending to be Jerome because he was told from the beginning of his life he wouldn't live long enough to amount to anything. He must occasionally ditch the contact lenses he needs to get through police checkpoints, and to wear glasses would proclaim his defects to everyone.
"Gattaca" is about a world where the powers that be have decided to use biotechnology to enforce a single standard of not only performance, but appearance and character. You think fat people are discriminated against now? There simply aren't any in the movie because the gene has essentially been eliminated, except for poor old Ernest Borgnine, who is in charge of the janitors. "Thanks to the miracles of science, there are enough of the right kind of people," Vincent's boss (Gore Vidal) tells his brother Anton, a police lieutenant searching for a murderer. Anton is convinced, along with most other people, that Vincent is the guilty party, but at first it seems hard to believe, as no one has heard from Vincent for years and geneticists at his birth gave him only a 10% chance to live as long as he has. After the real murderer (the boss) is captured, Vincent confronts Anton. But like everyone else who discovers Vincent's secret, Anton finds himself unable to expose him, instead admiring his determination. Anton is not a determined sort of person. No one told him he needed to be.
In short, "Gattaca" reminds us that the qualities necessary for success are psychological and moral, not biological. I was a bit miffed that we didn't get to see exactly what Gattaca (the company) was doing on Titan, but I guess if you've seen "Outland" you've seen enough movies set on the moons of gas giants.
Product DetailsOriginal Title:Gattaca (Superbit Collection)Actors: Alan Arkin - Ethan Hawke - Jude Law - Uma ThurmanCondition: NEWFormat: DVDDirector...More at iNetVideo.com
In the 21st century genetic engineering makes possible the creation of biologically superior human specimens "valids" who then grow to positions of po...More at Family Video
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