Like the clean shapes of the double-helix DNA spiral, Gattaca concentrates more than unwinding. In a universe not so far from ours, genetic engineering becomes the obligatory passage for procreation, generating a generation of genetically boosted humanoids.
Their selection is based on the richness of their genotype, the inseminated to the best places in society, the naturally conceived to be the new excluded. Andrew Niccol presents a believable and terrifying world in which the smallest sample of blood, hair is subjected to analysis, verification and rechecking until nausea. Read below and find out more about one of the best movie of all time, Gattaca.
Table of Contents
Summary
Gattaca is a space study and research center for young people with impeccable genetic heritage. Jerome (Jude Law), ideal candidate, sees his life destroyed by an accident while Vincent (Ethan Hawke), “natural” child, dreams of leaving for space. Each of the two will allow the other to get what he wants by defeating the laws of Gattaca.
Viewers review
1. While genetic modification is a more or less topical subject, “Welcome to Gattaca” was already talking about it 10 years earlier. First feature film by Andrew Niccol (future director of “Lord of war” and future screenwriter of the “Truman show”), this film exudes a rare beauty. The photography is high class and gives the film a chiaroscuro universe in a world that is both futuristic and very retro. The production is sober but of great skill and the interpretations are excellent, Jude Law, perfect as a handicapped person with rare intellectual and physical potential haunted by his demons, proves once again that he is not just a handsome kid. just the tabloid press, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and the supporting roles doing the same to him. As for the scenario, he is original and of great writing power. The story is remarkable and fascinating from beginning to end which closes the story admirably. Between a science fiction film, a visionary work, a sentimental and moving film and an intense suspenseful production, “Bienvenue à Gattaca” plays on several tables without getting too lost. I who am not usually a big fan of futuristic films, I was won over!
2. It is clear that Andrew Niccol is a man who makes a point of using originality. A very talented screenwriter, he is also the creator of atypical universes. After that of the life-size reality show of The Truman Show, and before that of the arms dealer of Lord of war, Niccol offered us, with Welcome to Gattaca, a new vision of the future. Not very encouraging, it must be admitted. In this world, perfection is an essential criterion, causing a real break in society: geniuses and others. The former are mostly from in vitro fertilization, in which science brings its touch, defying “chance”. That is to say, all predispositions to diseases, deficient character traits. The happy “chosen ones” have the access to the highest spheres. And those having had the misfortune of belonging to the second category, born by natural means therefore, are condemned to be deprived of it.
In this world where eugenics and discrimination are the law, a “normal” man (Vincent) decides to defy it, by assuming the identity of a privileged person. His dream: to go into space. If defying the system is already difficult, maintaining this secrecy while Gattaca is surrounded by the police (investigating a murder) will prove to be even more difficult. Niccol has always known how to find subjects which are furiously envious by their originality and their strange connection with the current world. The eugenic society of Gattaca seems to reflect modern society, which tends towards standardization, or more simply racism in all these forms. One of the other strong points of the film, beyond the script or the direction (classy, never flashy), comes down to the “uniformly” perfect interpretation. Ethan Hawke is very good at Vincent, juggling between the Olympian calm of geniuses and the tension inherent in his status as a criminal. Jude Law is the strong link in the cast, in the role of the genius ceding his identity to Vincent. Neurotic, alcoholic and ironic, Law is just brilliant. Uma Thurman also illuminates, in genius whose certainties are a little shaken by his feelings for Vincent.
3. Hell, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a sci-fi movie of this level. Welcome to Gattaca is a film apart in its kind: no action and special effects which are not necessarily highlighted even if they are excellent. The feature film is perfectly credible because it is set in a plausible future: discrimination, conception of babies in vitro, elimination of all human faults and above all total dehumanization by this elimination of faults. We follow in this world two men: one was conceived naturally and dreams of going into space but cannot because he does not have the requested genome, and the other has this genome. These two men will therefore exchange their places. We have a love story with a detective background, which makes this film fascinating despite the lack of action. The actors are very sober and perfectly appropriate their characters, starting with the trio Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law. The script and the characters are well written and you can feel the depth of the story. Superb staging and magnificent soundtrack are of course also at the rendezvous. A denouncing and moving SF jewel, not to be missed under any circumstances.
4. Here is intelligent cinema, which does not take the spectator for more stupid than we are! We are close to the masterpiece with this futuristic film which however does not make tons. A film that makes you think, because this presentation of a “better world” by NicA work of anticipation that will certainly mark you for a long time. Here is a breathtaking thriller that I can only advise you to discover as soon as possible!
5. A large hall. Legs crowding in, on the smooth, stiff ground. The footsteps echo, bounce off the glass ceiling where we can perceive the rockets taking off, tracing lines in the azure sky that no one, at least none of these “Valides”, are looking at. Their head, never tilted, remains straight. They follow each other in a line, hands behind their backs, neither looking down. They don’t look at anything, because even if they wanted to, they would only see emptiness. The emptiness of their closed faces, and would hear only the sound of their footsteps, their feet clapping on the ground, the clean ground, which we real humans, the “Invalides”, clean up. That we cleanse, and that we make shine, like the stars and the stars that only the Valid can touch. On this clean floor, this world so dirty, and these pictures of faces and bodies so beautiful, so perfect, something tragic emerges. What wants to be reassuring turns out to be worrying.
6. A science fiction film, ingenious and inventive, which takes us into a cold and sanitized universe. Ethan Hawke, Jude Law and Uma Thurman are very good. An achievement that cannot leave you indifferent!
7. Gattaca is a very good Science-fiction movie. Andrew Niccol serves us excellent staging, his way of filming in this film is even better highlighted thanks to more than convincing actors, in particular Jude Law excellent in his role. The feminine touch is also present with Uma Thurman, one of the only female lead roles in the film. This film is not so attractive either but its script is really original and rather grandiose for the time, the technological methods present in the film are really well done for a film which is more than 15 years old, and suddenly we is caught in the suspense that sets in throughout the film for a rather beautiful finale.
8. A beautiful trio of actors for this pioneering science fiction film that demonstrates the deviations of genetics in an elitist futuristic society that could well become our future.
9. A fictional science UFO whose depth of background is matched only by the subtlety and sobriety with which this frightening anticipation is imaged. All sublimated with an unparalleled writing quality, a sublime soundtrack, and by the brilliant interpretation of the solid cast. We might find the staging a bit too conventional, but this film deserves to be highly rated for its original background which really changes, as well as for the qualities I have listed before. A choice piece in the world of SF which in addition to denouncing the standardization, the dangers of human training, by developing as a bonus a really interesting relationship on blood ties as well as on the subject of the usurpation of ‘identity, happens to’ far from the recurring clichés of the genre as well as the demonstrative overbidding of melodrama or action while showing a lot of it. I have to be a fan.
10. What to say except that Gattaca is the chocolate of the anticipation film and that the actors are excellent: Uma Thurman, class; Ethan Hawke, more than ever; and Jude Law, dark and captivating (from the first appearance, cigarette in his mouth) in what he releases and in his role which he interprets wonderfully. Welcome to Gattaca in addition to having a catchy music (Michael Nyman the composer), true deep dialogues (the voice-over is taken into account) and exceptional futuristic sets where we do not know where to turn: deals with the theme eugenics by placing in the story two characters each having a dream, and thus helping each other clandestinely to achieve it even if it means breaking the laws of nature … human relations between the characters and its intelligent scenario and which is, it must be said, a disturbing painting of a futuristic society where men are selected from the embryonic state to make them “perfect beings” (still a subject of news!). But ultimately, the bottom line of it all is that genetic makeup doesn’t necessarily determine the IQ or the ranks a person can climb: the determination if.
Critics review
The film receives a positive critical reception. It reaches the percentage of 82% of favorable opinions on the site Rotten Tomatoes for 55 reviews. The film only totals 64/100 on Metacritic. For Roger Robert of the Chicago Sun-Times, the film is “one of the most intelligent and provocative science fiction films, a thriller with ideas”. Despite many other rave reviews, the film will not be a box office success but will have the merit of reigniting the debate around human genetics. Certain specialists thus consider certain events of the film 11 very plausible.
Austin Chronicle
A striking debut from British director Niccol, Gattaca posits a not-too-distant future in which, thanks to the wonders of modern science, a person’s genetic makeup is determined before birth. No diseases, no lazy eyes, no mediocrity, just faster, stronger, smarter all across the board — except for the unlucky few whose parents choose to have them via natural births. These unfortunates are the “In-valids” and their lot in this brave new world is to act as the new underclass forced to roam from dead-end job to dead-end job, picking up the refuse left behind by their more perfect brethren. Vincent Freeman (Hawke) is one such person. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a space traveler and taking one of the daily Gattaca Corporation rockets to another world, but due to a congenital heart defect, it’s a dream he will likely never achieve.
Still, Vincent works, exercises, and studies day in and day out, and then one day he sees his opportunity in the form of Jerome Morrow (Law), an Olympic swimmer and almost-perfect specimen who’s had to forego his career due to a broken back. Jerome and Vincent trade identities, causing Jerome to contribute the necessary daily samples of his self (hair, urine, dead skin particles, fingernail clippings) to help Vincent pass the rigorous testing. And it all goes swimmingly until Vincent’s boss, the Gattaca flight director, is murdered and the police descend, searching for answers in literally every corner. Led by Detective Hugo (Arkin) and the mysterious Investigator (Dean), the team even searches the dust and discovers Vincent’s eyelash, which places both him and Jerome in jeopardy. As if that weren’t enough, Vincent finds himself falling in love with Irene (Thurman), another Gattaca employee, albeit one with a less-than-perfect constitution.
San Francisco Chronicle
In the futuristic “Gattaca,” conceiving a child is like picking out a new car. The basic equipment is a given, half from mom, half from dad. But the options are a matter of choice. Violent tendencies and a disposition for certain fatal illnesses can be wiped out. So can nuisances like myopia, baldness and obesity. When the smiling doctor tells the prospective parents, “The child is still you, but the best of you,” it’s possible to hear the echo of future conversations around the test tube. In that moment “Gattaca” has the science-fiction chill that audiences want and expect.
That chill is largely absent from the rest of “Gattaca,” and so is another science-fiction kick, visualizing gadgets and machinery of the future. The picture, which takes place in the “near future,” instead tells a sober, quietly tense story about an ambitious young man with a weak genetic profile who becomes one of society’s elite by borrowing someone else’s genes.
Variety by Emanuel Levy
One of the first major Hollywood movies to deal with the effects of genetic engineering on human civilization, “Gattaca,” New Zealander helmer Andrew Niccol’s impressive feature debut, is an intelligent and timely sci-fi thriller that, with the exception of some illogical plot contrivances, is emotionally engaging almost up to the end. Ethan Hawke renders a terrifically sympathetic performance as a flawed Everyman, an outsider who fights a new scientific system to change his preordained fate and achieve his quest of becoming an astronaut. Lacking bankable stars and spectacular special effects, this well-produced, character-driven film should receive solid, if not sensational, response from educated viewers, with potent results overseas and in ancillary venues.
Production
The movie was shot under the working title The Eighth Day, a reference to the Seven Days of Creation in the Bible. However, by the time its release was slated for fall 1997, the Belgian film The Eighth Day had already been released in the United States under the title The Eighth Day. As a result, the film was renamed Gattaca.
Design
The film uses a swimming treadmill in the first few minutes to punctuate the themes of swimming and futurism. The production design makes extensive use of retrofuturism; the futuristic electric cars are based on models of cars from the 1960s like Rover P6, Citroën DS19 and Studebaker Avanti, the futuristic buildings represent the modern architecture of the 1950s, and the clothes and hairstyles also evoke the 1940s and 1950s.
Box office
Gattaca hit theaters on October 24, 1997 and opened at number 5 at the box office; after I know what you did last summer, devil’s advocate, Kiss the girls and Seven Years in Tibet. During the first weekend, the film grossed $ 4.3 million. He ended his theatrical tour with a nationwide total of $ 12.5 million against a reported production budget of $ 36 million.
Home media
Gattaca was released on DVD on July 1, 1998, and was also released on Superbit DVD. Special DVD and Blu-ray versions were released on March 11, 2008. Both editions contain a deleted scene featuring historical figures like Einstein, Lincoln, etc., who are described as having been genetically deficient. The score for Gattaca was composed by Michael Nyman and the soundtrack was released on October 21, 1997.
Influence on time
Writer-director Andrew Niccol has called his 2011 film In Time a “bastard child of Gattaca. ” Both films feature classic cars in a futuristic dystopia; a schism of caste privileges that the protagonist contests; and which prevents the authorities from neglecting a thorough investigation in favor of the conviction of the protagonist.
Policy references
US Senator Rand Paul used quasi-verbatim portions of the plot summary from the English Wikipedia entry on Gattaca in a speech at Liberty University on October 28, 2013 to support the campaign of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for the governor of Virginia. Paul accused pro-choice politicians of advocating eugenics in a manner similar to the events in Gattaca.
Title sequence
The opening title sequence was created by Michael Riley of design studio Shine. It features close-ups of bodily matter (fingernails and hair) hitting the ground accompanied by loud sounds when objects hit the ground. We later learn that these are the result of Vincent’s daily scrubbing. According to Riley, they created oversized nail and hair designs to create the effect.