Gattaca Film Essay

The movie Gattaca reads: “There Is No Gene for The Human Spirit”. I am going to describe what the context of Vincent’s struggle to overcome his perceived genetic disadvantages. I will explain is nature more important than nurture in determining whether a person will be successful or not, and I will defend my answer and be sure that I include examples from the movie. To begin with, the movie reads: “There is no gene for the human spirit”. While relatively every other part of humanity depends on hereditary qualities in some way, your soul truly comes through experience.

"The expectations put upon the genetically enhanced to live up to their genetics are almost debilitating as the discrimination against the unenhanced", suffering "under a different burden, that of perfection". When Vincent saves Anton from drowning in the swimming game, he realizes that his brother is "not as strong as" the engineering promises which that incident gives him hope to start going for his dream as a "faith child". The burden of perfection is worse for Eugene, when he understands that, based on his genetic profile, he "was never meant to be one step down on the podium". But Eugene comes to see that the invalid Vincent is "better at being" jerome than Eugene himself, showing him hopes to become satisfy with what he got. However Dr. Lamar’s presence stands as a figure who rebuts the societal segregation based on genetic makeup through science.A scene near the end of the film shows despite always knowing Vincent’s true identity,Dr. Lamar lets him board the rocket departing for Titan. This is also because Vincent stands as hope for a son Dr.Lamar has, whom genetic makeup is not like what they promise.

In the movies, Gattaca, director Andrew Niccol portrays a genetically based society in a scientifically advance world that twirls around the main idea and concept about genetic engineering to produce flawless genetics for a parent’s child. This main focus is shown upon Anton and his brother Vincent. Vincent, being the first born between Anton and him, gave the doctors an idea of what is going to happen in the future for Vincent based off of genetics and also gives parents the opportunity to make a flawless child base off of Vincent’s DNA as this society wants only genetically perfect humans to be superior. Children such as Vincent, being the first born, are set up for a life of disaster and of no use in their life other than for the lowest of all jobs this society has for first born. Even though Vincent is the first born, and in this civilization your resume “is in your cells”, Vincent’s identity can be reported after any DNA testing. Vincent’s desire is to go out into space along with the superior humans, but in order to do this he must get bypass all test to save his identity for exposure in order to achieve his dream causing him to go to great lengths. Vincent does this all based off of motivation. Vincent does achieve his goal and goes to space after all his determination even though his identity was a hair from detection; Vincent keeps on going and wasn’t going to stop until he was caught. This goes to prove that even though non-genetically altered humans still have

In conclusion, the film shows many themes of prejudice and discrimination towards Vincent, simply because of his genetic make-up, but this film is about the fight of the underdog and how Vincent rose up and reached his goal despite being put down his whole life and being “inferior” to his brother, friends and co-workers. As Vincent says in the film “there is no gene for fate” simply

The genetically modified characters of “Gattaca” are shown to be callous and uncaring to others but their own kind. The valids were considered to be higher class and the invalids were grouped together into the lower class. The workers at the Gattaca corps were apathetic towards others and blended in with the background, they had no individuality and would move autonomously and silently , repeating the same routine every day. Characters like Irene and Eugene are shown at the beginning to frown on Invalids as they were raised to be that way. Irene was taught to be like the other workers, staying silent and speaking only when necessary. She is indoctrinated to be perfect and to find the perfect match, living the perfect life with him. Eugene

During his time at Gattaca Niccol again further reminds the audience of his inferiority, to establish the power of the human spirit relative to the extent of hindrances Vincent faces. Lighting is used by Niccol during a scene where Vincent’s real identity is threatened to be exposed. Hiding in the corner of the alleyway the shadow cast against Vincent’s face again replicate that of prison bars. This again suggests Vincent remains trapped behind bars due to his genetic inferiority. By constantly reminding us Vincent’s adversity Niccol heightens the theme regarding the power of the human spirit.

Throughout the movie there are lines that hold more meaning then they let on. For example, “It was the one moment in our lives when my brother was not as strong as he believed and I was not as weak.” This is significant because Vincent was not genetically modified whereas his brother was, and people who were genetically modified were supposed to be better than the non-genetically modified. They were supposed to be more superior than people who were not genetically modified.

He acquires the identity of a cripple, but genetically perfect Jerome. Vincent alters his psychical being to perfectly match Jerome. Vincent now Jerome gets employment at Gattaca by simply his DNA. DNA has become amplified as more importance then the “human spirit” in this film. In the end however, human spirit it what we have left after

The story of Vincent shows in Gattaca that there is possibility of beating the genetic engineering system. Vincent is one of the last naturally born babies born into a sterile, genetically enhanced world, where life expectancy and disease likelihood are ascertained at birth. Myopic and due to die at 30, he has no chance of a career in a society that now discriminates against your genes, instead of your gender, race or religion. Vincent an invalid, dreams of working within Gattaca and making it into space. He combines with Jerome who was disabled in an accident to take his identity and live his life to enter the Gattaca Corporation. Vincent is selected for his lifelong desire, a manned mission to Titan.

From the beginning, Eugene was destined for perfection according to his impeccable genetic make-up. Leading up to Vincent’s transformation, Eugene is perceived as arrogant and dismissive which highlights how aware he was of his flawless DNA. When Vincent was preparing to transform into Eugene, Eugene questions Vincent ‘What makes you think you can be me at all?’, in a tone that exuded arrogance, showing the slight disproval in the fact that Vincent is going to be him and the lack of faith he has in Vincent pulling it off. As perfect as he seemed to be, he failed his genes; he came second in a competition. From then on, he suffered from ‘the burden of perfection’ as he did not live up to what his genes said he would be. In the scene where Vincent was talking to Eugene before he was leaving for Titan, Eugene was depicted by the camera to be shorter and somewhat smaller than Vincent, suggesting that Eugene became less great than Vincent despite his genetic make-up saying otherwise. Even though Eugene was destined for great things, he did not achieve them due to the lack of determination he

The movie Gattaca is set in a dystopian society of the future controlled by advanced genetic technologies. In this society, genetic profiling is the essence of one’s identity, and ones role in society is defined entirely by the genes and state of health coded in one’s DNA. DNA samples, from urine and blood and hair and skin, are required as identification to enter various facilities and authenticate one’s “validity” with instant genetic fingerprinting. The protagonist, Vincent, was a naturally conceived baby, and struggles against the discrimination he faces from his genetic health defects. He has been born with an abnormal genetic mutation in his genes leaving him at a high susceptibility for heart failure, and was not expected to live

The film Pleasantville directed by Gary Ross is about two modern teenagers, David and his sister Jennifer, somehow being transported into the television, ending up in Pleasantville, a 1950s black and white sitcom. The two are trapped as Bud and Mary Sue in a radically different dimension and make some huge changes to the bland lives of the citizens of Pleasantville, with the use of the director’s cinematic techniques. Ross cleverly uses cinematic techniques such as colour, mise-en-scene, camera shots, costumes, music and dialogue to effectively tell the story.

Vincent being the invalid he is, is mismatched to the rest of the population. Even though he is different to the majority, he still is contrasting to his “own kind”. Although Vincent is an invalid and has many handicaps like poor health and doesn’t have any outstanding abilities, his persistence is unrivaled. No invalid thinks anything of there disposition in life, they are lower than average, doomed to die an unfulfilled brief life. As seen in the film, invalids amount to nothing, becoming janitors and doing work the is presumed to be brainless labour in such a society. Unlike this, Vincent persists through this and overturns such beliefs set by society. When Vincent takes on Eugene's persona, he has to be nearly perfect to take on this role. He has to be something an invalid could only dream to become. Vincent defies the “laws of nature” in this society that has been made by those on the top of the social pyramid. Through the cinematography, Vincent is shown doing what was believed could not be done for a person such as himself. He pushes himself beyond his limits to achieve that which he should not be able to do on others accord. These moments are repeatedly portrayed through the film, like the times he had to go through stamina and strength tests as Eugene which was difficult for him given his strength but he

Even after being discriminated and marginalised from society by his ‘low’ quality genes, Vincent never gave in. SInce the genetically engineered individuals form the society’s elite, parents wish to select the best versions of their genes to create the ‘perfect’ offspring, this suppresses individuality as the society still ends up conformed to the rules of a striving organisation towards a ‘perfect’ society. This would result in no individuality within a society which would mean that the society could never evolve as there will be no one to oppose or notice the flaws in this ‘perfect’ society. Vincent becomes the exception when he didn’t accept being treated as an inferior the way Irene had. She accepted the fact that she would never accomplish her dream of space travel and so, she accepted her role in Gattaca. This is shown through her obedience to follow any order given to her by the director. VIncent’s achievements showed that invalids can be just as good as valids. He showed Irene that he was here “to show that it’s possible” for those who are marginalised to be just as good. These accomplishments were reached only because Vincent didn’t conform to the society by taking risks that involved being suspected as a murderer and as an infiltrated invalid. Both of which would result in severe punishments. In addition, when he won the final

The movie Gattaca is set in the future, and is a story about a man named Vincent Freeman who dreams of traveling to the stars. In this future, society has developed categories that each person falls in to depending on their genetic makeup. In the film parents have the ability to choose specific genetic composition of their children. Vincent Freeman’s genetics leave him in the less than favorable category making his dreams of space travel at Gattaca Corporation impossible. As one of the last natural born babies in a sterile and genetically enhanced world, Vincent had poor eyesight, heart problems and was not expected to live past the age of 30. Society has determined that people such as Vincent are in an underclass of humans and are only good for menial jobs simply based on their genotype. Vincent’s dreams will not be stifled so he devises a scheme to buy another identity. He finds Jerome Morrow a former athlete with favorable genetics, and a paraplegic as the result of a tragic car accident. The two become skilled at deceiving DNA tests as well as urine and blood testing. With Vincent and Jerome’s plan in place Vincent finds himself in a position to join a crew planning to travel to one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. Unfortunately