VHS : Gattaca [1998]

Rating: - Historical Background
To understand Gattaca, it helps to know a little history.

About a century ago, progressives took up what the New York Times in 1912 called the "wonderful new science" of eugenics. Because of improvements in medicine and public health, eugenists said, the "unfit" were having more children than the "fit." Their solution included both positive eugenics--encouraging the "fit" to have more children, and negative eugenics--preventing the "unfit" from having children.

Forced sterilization laws in some 37 states were their greatest achievement, with California being the most zealous in applying its law. But legislation in more conservative states, particularly in the South, was blocked by claims that forced sterilization was unconstitutional. That barrier was shoved aside in a 1927 Supreme Court decision, Buck v. Bell, which regarded forced sterilization laws as no different from laws requiring vaccination. Regard some children as a blight on society, and sterilization serves the same disease-eliminating function as vaccination.

The feminists of that day had no problem with negative eugenics. They believed that the birthrate of the "unfit" should be lowered by any means possible. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a prominent feminist sociologist, made eugenics a key feature in her 1915 feminist utopia, Herland. What they objected to was "forced motherhood," meaning social pressures on women like themselves to abandon professional careers for children.

Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger took up their cause. She was vehemently opposed to positive eugenics, but zealously championed negative eugenics. Most of those regarded as "unfit" were recent immigrants from Southern Europe (Catholic) and Eastern Europe (Jewish). Because sterilization laws were only effective against people in state institutions, they could do little to lower immigrant birthrates. Her answer was to build birth control clinics in immigrant neighborhoods, starting with the Brownsville neighborhood in NYC. Poverty would be used as a lever to force down immigrant birthrates. You can read her arguments in her still-in-print 1922 bestseller, The Pivot of Civilization. To understand what is going on today, simply substitute blacks and Hispanics for those earlier Catholic and Jewish immigrants. And of course abortion has replaced birth control as the tool of choice.

Gattaca envisions a future world run by people much like those early twentieth century eugenists and birth controllers. If your parents allowed geneticists to manufacture you to the proper specifications, then life will be good, with all the best career paths open. But if, like the Vincent in this movie, your parents conceived you the old fashioned way, then you're consigned to menial jobs. In Vincent's case that meant cleaning the headquarters of Gattaca, an organization tasked with exploring the solar system.

Since he was a child, Vincent has wanted to explore space. Not being a member of the genetically programmed elite, that path seemed forever closed to him. This movie describes how he worked to beat the system. I won't give away details and spoil your fun, but I do suggest you pay attention to the clash between Vincent and his genetically programmed brother in their `who will turn back first' swimming challenge. This film reminds us there are aspects to our personalities, particularly courage, that can't be programmed in. They're the result of the choices we make. Vincent wins because he risks everything for his dream, saving nothing for the swim back.

This an excellent film. You won't regret watching it.

--Michael W. Perry, editor of: The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic and Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

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Rating: - This Is Just ................
i have a seen a lot of films that i think i somehow get into but this is just something that is so personal - it is sort of like tracing yourself onto the main charecter and watch him charimatically take you from start to finish

to come up with something so innovative and just unheard of and to produce a film that carries you through from start to finish is just undescribable - you get so lost imagining yourself here : it dangerous -

Technical Note - i had the film on dvd (know where that went) and had to get on blu ray - best watched with no disturbance - plan a slot out and just get bemused~

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Rating: - I can see the Stars
I give no apologies for this review, it's completely biased. First things first, this review is about the `superbit' circ 1998. If this review is found next to another format version, please ignore. For story breakdown, the science premise etc, please look to other reviews their much better done.
This disc plays well on a number of first generation DVD players. The colours are solid the sound is excellent; please note I did not try out the various sound enhanced systems, i.e. 5.1 Dolby, as I do not have this equipment.
That said, the Superbit DVD was played on HD DVD player, and HD Flat screen TV. The experience is mind blowing; I cannot see the difference between picture quality on this DVD and some of the newer HD DVD releases. OK HD DVD is a defunct format, but it shows that up scaling this DVD gives it 'Angelic wings'. Is it worth buying? The answer is yes. This superbit DVD makes a fantastic film, even more mind blowing.
Some years ago at a film event, I asked Ernest Borgnine, who played the janitor in the film, what he thought of GATTACA. In a rather dismissive way he said he didn't get it? Well that's his flawed genome.Enjoy!

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Rating: - An un-known treasure, and I love it!
Gattaca... The source of yet another old VHS bought from a jumble-sale, to which I'm really getting an eye for these un-found classics. So good was it that I eventually bought this DVD and haven't regretted owning the film that no-one I know has heard about. That part, I find quite unbelievable.

Set in the 'not too distant future', a strong acting Ethan Hawke plays the role of a young man who is said to be a 'degenerate', yet for all the wrong reasons... He is one of the very few people alive that is "God-Born" - someone born without their genes being tampered with to make them perfect. The world around, therefore, is surrounded by people customised to perfection from the moment they were conceived.

He should be special... But not such the case - Perfection is vital in this future world, and to ever full fill his dream of going into Space, he'll need to become "perfect". Or at least 'appear' perfect...

The film cross a mix of genres and emotions, from some classy romantic scenes with the fabulous Uma Thurman, to some detective work with a not too obvious twist. Action is fairly absent, leaving the film to have more of a classic approach and progressive story, which is refreshing these days.

You may also note that Jude Law is casted too - he plays the very man that helps Vincent (Ethan Hawke) to become a perfect specimen through a change of identity. His role as a crippled but cheeky English man is superb and mature.

The film also uses the rather risky, but in this case well done use of "Timeless" ageing. In other words, although the film is set in the 'not too distant future, the contents of the film, the props, the style, the fashion, and the sometimes sepia filter on the camera gives it an ageless appeal with hints of 1950's haircuts, classic cars (though rather well transformed to battery power!) and Art-Deco Modernist style architecture, particularly the housing. Their is also the nice touch that the detectives, even in Forensic situations, replace Tyvek suits with plush Trilby Hats and smart suits! It's a fabulous composition and gives the whole space theme a glamour that was of its time in days gone by.

I could talk alot more, but i've tried to be concise and not ramble on too much about the themes running through. Overall, if you find clever films with that bit of ageless class appealing, and some well-worked emotions that touch you deeply, I can't recommend this highly enough!

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Rating: - Triumph of the human spirit.
In some dystopian future, date unspecified, our descendants are on the cusp of a brave new world in which designer babies become the norm. Shortly before this technological achievement our hero comes upon the scene with all of the normal faults and frailties that mortal flesh is usually heir to. Having forked out for the specs necessary to redress the faults in his vision his parents decide to spend their cash second time around ensuring his brother has no need of such artificial aids. In due course the younger son surpasses his brother in the usual childhood games and is well on the way to fulfilling all of his parents aspirations and repaying their investment when Vincent, the elder and imperfect son, decides that his home life isn't doing his self esteem any favours and leaves to find his imperfect way in the perfect world bequeathed to his favoured sibling. He obtains a job as a cleaner at Gattaca, an institution whose existence depends upon selecting and training only the most ideal human specimens to continue humanity's quest for the stars. Demonstrating that crime is always a corollary of social injustice the movie has Vincent obviously managing to save enough from his cleaner's wage to take advantage of the black market in false identities and we meet Jude Law, the antithesis of Vincent in many ways: the golden boy made bad. They `swap' identities and Vincent becomes the `perfect' Jerome and begins to take pleasure in all the fruits that perfect specimens, or `valids' enjoy as part of their birthright, including those provided by off-screen wife, Uma Thurman in the person of the perfectly lovely Irene. He gets accepted for flight crew training at Gattaca and loses no opportunity to gaze at the stars his soon to be destination if all goes well!

Vincent encounters his brother again, in the form of the senior investigating officer, when a member of Gattaca's senior people gets his perfect cranium clobbered and all of its `employees' become subject to interrogation thereby threatening Vincent's dream.

This is an unusually thoughtful Sci-Fi film that asks all of the usual, who are we, where are we going type questions about human existence but also forces an examination of the current preoccupation with genetic engineering, celebrity, `extreme makeover' shows and the type of air-headed celeb mags such as Hello that push the air-brushed perfection to which we are all supposed to aspire. But it's also a masterpiece of film making with superb art direction, the welcome presence of such Hollywood veterans as Alan Arkin and Ernest Borgnine, an intelligent script by director Andrew Niccol and a hauntingly beautiful Michael Nyman score. As such it ranks alongside Blade Runner and merits an entry into the pantheon of late twentieth century SF movie masterworks.