Film language.

Camera displacements

Cameras do not move very fast in this movie. The film does not try to give us a "fast" impression and due to that, the dynamic impression we can perceive in another kind of films does not appear here. The main reasons for this are that the film is not an action film but a certain kind of science fiction film. It is also a way to give us a feeling of perfection. Fast movements may transmit us an anxious behaviour and the director wants to make us feel like if we where in a perfect place where errors do not exist and where perfection is a normal thing.

Shots

The most used shots are the close-up, the medium shot and the full shot. The less used of both is the close-up. It gives us an impression of the way of thinking of the character. Because of that we constantly know the feelings of the main character and also the feelings of the other characters. That use is the first one in every film, but in this one the director gives it another function: it tells us who is the most important person in the film. We actually feel like Vincent in the film and, at the end, we even feel disappointed when we notice the disappointment of Vincent when the doctor tells him the bad news about the way that right-handers go peeling.

Another shot which is very used is the full. It focuses the upper part of the body, from the waist to the head. The director uses this shot to show us the relation between two or more characters or things. With this we mean that this relation can be between objects and persons. A very good example of this situation is when, at the middle of the film, a spacial rocket is shown. This rocket, which gets all the light, is focused meanwhile Jerome and Vincent just look at it and it is repeated three or more times later..

The most used is the medium shot. It is a mix between full shot and close-up, so we have a light impression about the feelings of the character but we also see his/her relationship with the environment. The usual employment of this shot is proved when the director wants to focus a character along a dialogue, which are abundant, although there are not long speeches using this shot, mostly because it has not got a clear purpose but it tries not to create extreme situations.

Photography

The photography is not a very hard point in this film because there is not much to see, so the photography section its limited to the focus-by-light. With this we mean that, when we look at a scene, the most important parts are the brighter and the darker parts are the less important ones.

Its very important to focus too the fact that the almost total darkness is quite common along the film. As this happens in the moments witch emotional charge, that darkness has to be a way to make us feel that sadness or whatever that the director wants us to think.

Dialogues

Dialogues are essential in Gattaca because they give us the most of the information of the film and they are almost the only method employed to make intrigue and amazement. These elements are transmitted in spoken way because of the formal and soft nature of the film exposed in the critic.

As a result of the the nature of the film too, dialogues communicates politeness, formalness and calm and it is proved in the way the characters speak and their behaviour according to their social class.

There are different types of dialogues: Vincent and Jerome´s, Vincent and his fellow´s, detective´s, etc. But they all coincide in the same aspects before and, in addition, express dailiness and nearness to the viewer because there is not too much suddenness and the characters represent normal people in Gattaca society; it is something that could really happen.

Scenery and costumes.

Scenery in Gattaca consists in modern buildings, stairs, corridors and rooms the most, and the most used colours are soft browns, white, the green of the sea, black and grey.

The reasons of using artificial scenery is because, according to a modern society, actions always develop in cities with strange buildings and cars, but the usual employment of the sea -a natural environment- , could be related to DNA, because the sea in the origin of life. In addition the employment of the mentioned colours transmits a feeling of soberness and order, and the most remarkable one, the green of the sea transmits hope, according to the story.

The costumes often consist in an elegant suit for men and a smart dress for Irene, because the story is developed in a big part at Gattaca, the work station, but it also communicates homogeneity because it indicates that everyone is “pure” and valid people, and it functions as an useful hide for Vincent, who cannot be recognised from the crowd.

Music and sound elements.

Most remarkable sound elements are the soundtrack and the the voices of the characters.

The soundtrack of Gattaca is remarkable because of its expression, everything it can communicate. It uses a very soft harmony without great excitement, so it reflects the character of Science, which is precise and quiet, and remembers us the ambiance of a laboratory because, in fact, the director begins using it when Vincent is preparing his body samples. The soundtrack is also related to the quietness of nature, the cells, the DNA definitively, which shares the qualities of Science of quietness and precision, but in this case, the director establishes a relation between the cells and the universe that is evidenced at the final of the film, when it begins to sound the soundtrack at the end when Vincent is taking off and he is making his reflections.

On the other side, the voices of the characters are important because they have to give emotion to the dialogues and they are responsible of a part of the attraction to the viewer. However, at least in the Spanish version, they are not specially beautiful or expressive because they belong to simple benders and they are not capable to impose to the message and give it strength. We hope that the original version to be better is this aspect because in Gattaca the importance of dialogues to communicate the messages are definitively important, so they have to be involved in a nice-looking wrapping paper.

Script.

The script is clearly well organized because it shows us in a chronological succession of the years in the life of the protagonist with a simple and practical flash-back and then lineal time.

According to the opinion of one of the authors, it is not really a very complicated script because the writer does not want to show us a strong central story but a concept of progression. What we mean with this, if it has not been understood yet, is that in Gattaca the way Vincent goes to the space is not very important. The connection between Vincent and his family is not important too, and the script writer shows us that when Anton tells him that his fathers died because of him and he does not even ask him about it. Space exploration is not important because, even if at the start of the film we tend to think that we will see some parts of Titan or the spaceship, the film finishes when Vincent gets into one of them.

Other authors of this film review believe that Gattaca is a really centralized film because it is easy to notice the main topic but it is true that some external elements are necessary because although the main idea is really important, it has to be decorated with attractive things, like the space, the family, love, etc.

The story by itself is not believable in a next future but it is in the future. Some mistakes we found are that, even if genetics have the advance of decades, the technology we see everywhere in Gattaca world has normal technology. This could be a way to save money that the director decides to follow but it does not really make sense because, although there is no need on having flying cars or artificial moons, at least, there could be robots and things that are under development now.

Retuning to the chronological disposition of the film, if we do not consider the flashback as a real unity of time, the film's plot lasts about one or two weeks. Considering it, we could say it lasts about thirty or thirty-one years because it begins in the moment when Vincent is born to the moment he goes to the outer space. The childhood of Vincent is told in a quick way and it quickly goes to the matter of the film because interesting troubles begin later. We can see the advance of the time with a main reference system: Vincent. As we see the way he grows we suppose the times continue. Another way to see how the time advances is the day and the night, a common reference in every film.

The bad point of the film is that some parts of the film do not really complement the idea of the improvement. It is proved in, for example, that there is no point in going to the solar power station with Irene. Another mistake in the film is that it mixes the improvement and the science fiction with love. It is possibly an element that the scriptwriter used to take the viewer attention, but it is unnecessary because it only spends time. However, other author claims that the love story is strongly necessary because it gives the viewer some moments of reflection and relax after the storm of conflicts and it is very related to evolution of genes and DNA among the time -as a symbol-.

It is not hard to follow the argument because the director wants to tell it to a young collective.

As it is a science fiction film It is not easy to feel like the main character but it sends us an idea of evolution and improvement, which is probably what the scriptwriter tries to told us because it is a good and practical lesson for everyone and makes the star to be admired. Actually, Vincent's problem is the same problem many people have right now with things like racism and other kind of discrimination. However, if we look deeply to the film we can identify ourselves with this story in an abstract way because we all want to improve ourselves and sometimes we feel like it is impossible for us to do something. Vincent is, in fact, the ideal version of every person, and not because he likes aerospace technology but he really gives everything to do what he dreams.

The director tries to get our attention in many ways. It is proved in, for example, when he puts in the middle of the story a man who was murdered because it is useful for two things: it shows us that even valids can commit mistakes and to make us wonder ourselves who the murderer is; and he also tries to get our attention in the moment we think something is not going to happen and, suddenly, happens, that is what happens in the chapter that the inspector visits Eugene's home in a fast way. In addition, the murder works out as a element to endanger Vincent´s mission.

In conclusion, the film gets our attention in two ways: making us wonder if something can be true and making us to try extracting some information from the film. However, in this aspect the film is quite weak because in some parts we know what is going to happen exactly.

Critique.

Social and historical context.

Gattaca locates its story in a not distant future -according to a subtitle that tells us it at the beginning of the film-.

Humanity has got a developed technological level. Then, they are able to make space trips with freedom and they have made important progresses in genetic engineering, which is applied to humans. These ones are the main evidences of the development of this future society, but other ones, such as modern style buildings, are too.

Genetic engineering advances are clearly the most important point because it is the axis of the movie and its ideas. In this society, these techniques let humans to be made in vitro to choose their physical appearance, avoid possible inherited diseases or delete violence instincts, as we said in the introduction. This way to be born has been so successful that, according to Vincent´s words, it has become the usual one for having children and the better way to reject “in-valid” people in enterprises, companies or every institution which requires a specialized staff, because of their genetic profile which are not accorded to complex jobs. The reason of this last things was that those companies do not consider necessary taking on a low level genetic profile person if there are thousands of high level DNA applicants, even if they have not studied so much or have not so great preparing.

The society of Gattaca is divided into “valids” or “in-valids” depending of the quality of people´s DNA. We have already mentioned it but we will describe these better later.

This unjust division makes us thinking about the destiny of humans since their birth and wondering if we like our society to be like that one.

Main characters.

The main characters in Gattaca are Vincent/Jerome, Eugene, Anton (Vincent´s brother), the director of Gattaca, Irene and the doctor of Gattaca. Obviously, because they are who appear in the film the most, speak almost all the dialogues and are responsible of making the film to work out.

Vincent Anton Freeman (Ethan Hawke) is the star of this film obviously because the story issues affect him directly, works as the himself biography narrator and has the qualities of the modern hero (perseverance, desire to get happiness, and intelligence). He is the directly affected person by the society he lives in, because he was born in an natural way, so the rules on this society take him as an “in-valid”. However, despite his evident vision defects, bad genetic profile and low life expectancy, he faces courageously this unjust world to achieve his childhood goal of travelling to space. It is proved in his continuous training, studies and his overcoming desire, that he evidences when he said to his brother “I got it because I never reserved anything for the coming back!” .

Ethan Hawke performance communicates seriousness, order and discipline because the character is not too expressive or moody, so it helps him to achieve his goals always in a direct way and it is proved in Vincent's clear defined actions -he knows what is his goal all the film: going to space- and the reason of that: escaping from his hated world .

Vincent is probably the best character to make us feel identified with him, because all of us have to face an hostile world and spend all our efforts seeing other ones succeeds if we want to achieve our goals too.

To sum up, Vincent/Jerome is the symbol overcoming and other´s; a difficult role to perform because of the outstanding evolution of the character and the impressions he has to cause to the viewer in connection with the curious topic of the film, which Ethan Hawke gets very well.

Eugene (Jude Law), the true Jerome Morrow, is the accurate opposite person to Vincent because he has a superb genetic profile, the best ever made (the person that meet him with Vincent said that he might live forever, has a bull´s heart and could cross a wall with his strength), but he is now disabled. Despite he could be whatever he wants, Jerome is really conformist because he trusts too much his genetic profile and we can see that in his lack of enthusiasm and he contrition of his one silver medal. However, after losing the control of his legs, he decides to spend his last days helping Vincent by changing places to let him getting his goal, and he involves so well in it by spending all the day collecting samples of his body, climbing upstairs to replace Vincent quickly, etc, that there is no doubt that helping Vincent and living his successes makes him a happier person.

The evolution of this character is also interesting. In the meantime Vincent progresses, Jerome realises of his own potential and enjoys Vincent´s successes as they were one. Finally, when Vincent leaves, he kills himself as a result of losing his only motive to stay alive and hoping Vincent to replace him totally. Others think that he suicides because of his silver medal, which he hangs when he goes to kill himself.

Jude Law gives us a realistic performing of an individual with a very moody behaviour as an intelligent and a smart person. Those ideas are evidenced in Jerome´s very expressive nature, his always imposing presence, his astute comments, the way he deal with others (sometimes politely, such as the policeman who visits him at home and, sometimes, angry, like in the a detective´s inquiring at night or the phone call with the person he buys the hair dye).

Anton Freeman (Loren Dean), younger Vincent´s brother, is the “favourite” child of Vincent´s parents -you can see it in, for example, when Vincent´s father decides not to name Vincent as “Anton”, but then, with his second son, he gives him this beautiful name- and he is an important element in the evolution of his brother because he gives him the first presage of his succeed during their childhood, and recognises Vincent´s efforts many years later.

Although Anton role is obviously necessary in the film, it would have been better extending Vincent and himself´s childhood passage with more competition moments against themselves to praise Vincent´s efforts later in a more evident way, giving Vincent an strong reason to fight later.

The director Josef of Gattaca (Gore Vidal) is the main supporter of Vincent´s trip to Titan. He is an old man, respectful, polite and hard-working, but he spoils his image after being discovered to be the murderer of his partner, to ensure Vincent´s travel (the definitive evidence of his support). It is interesting to say that the director told the researcher of the murder that there was no violence in his genes, before we knew his is guilty and the first person believed to be the murderer was Vincent with his in-valid identity -although he is not discovered- and, after an analysis of substances of the dead body, the director is finally caught. It was because not everything is in the genes as he does not claims.

Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman) is a special partner of Vincent in the space agency Gattaca. She fancies Vincent and he too, but this close relation becomes a problem that disturbs Vincent´s daily work to be another person because she is too near from him, so it causes many troubles to hide Vincent´s identity .

Uma Thurman performs as Irene, a formal high genetic profile person. This role has some difficulties, as simulating not to know really Vincent´s identity and the later discovering of it, so there is an important change, which has to be accepted in a civilized way -not becoming hysterical or violent- that the actress achieves as a professional.

Finally, the doctor of Gattaca, the doctor Lamar (Xander Berkeley) whose most remarkable input in the film is hiding real Vincent´s identity, despite he had known it for a long time. It is possible that he did it because of his own son, who is said not to have been created so well as the doctor wanted, so the father is generous with Vincent, who is identified as his child.

Analysis of essential elements.

It appears that the main idea and the most general one is destiny of people since they are born, but it is expressed in a different society which is a result of the actual world the viewer could suppose if he keeps in mind that the development of genetic engineering is happening now.

As we have said, this future society is based on genetic profile status system, with valid people and in-valid people. As the reader should remember, the situation described presents Vincent, the star, as an in-valid person that denies this system. These ideas are crucial to make a substantial story, because there would no be interest in looking at a wealthy valid person´s life.

The first cause of the conflict, the motor of the film as well, is the application of engineering techniques in humans and, in this case, Niccol makes an fictional experiment in Gattaca whose results are a modern and organised society with a great default: the discrimination caused by Science.

The social structure of Gattaca consists in a great number of people born and modified genetically, who are normal people, and a minority formed by natural born ones, who are discriminated by companies and turned away to access to the same jobs as valid people. Gattaca makes contrast between Jerome and Vincent as complete opposite examples of members of this society.

Some ethical conflicts show up. On the one hand, the viewer wonders if genetic manipulating and determining in humans are correct or not, and the film says it is not at all, because it is clear that, as Vincent proves, humans are not determined only by their genes; they are a result of their own actions, ambitions, environment, relatives, etc. However, on the other hand, there is no doubt that this advanced society is really successful because people in Gattaca (as space agency), at least, are really polite and hard-working (they shows a civilized behaviour). In addition, technology advances evidence these progresses in genetic engineering in their citizens.

Then, despite some disadvantages, this future world looks really convenient and productive.

Synthesis.

As we have just study, Andrew Niccol has taken many tricky concepts and very creative ideas that are not usual to think about. Then, he has organised them into the next way.

The main cause of the conflict is genetic discrimination, which should have been presented with more dramatic elements of “apartheid” to Vincent and to in-valids because we have already mentioned, although the director preferred showing in it in a softer way, which is evidenced in the secrecy of Vincent, using the trick of the “lent-step”, silenced acts, and the lack of revolution interest of the rest of the in-valids that appear in the film, even Vincent, because he only wants to leave.

As a result of that discrimination a new social structure appears.

It is fine remembering Jerome´s evolution in the film, explained before. But, on the other hand, Vincent, who is not so well equipped as Eugene because he is a natural born guy, is rejected everywhere he goes, but learns that he is able to do something in his life despite his bad genes. He trains and study to get the conditions required to be a space pilot, but he notices that there are no possibilities for him unless he had the right genetic profile.

They both are hopeless because of their destiny because they need something to achieve their objectives, but they meet and, in an illegal way, Vincent begins to use Jerome´s identity, so he achieves his goal of working in Gattaca to travel to space some day; and Jerome works as well giving Vincent the necessary to replace him and he is influenced as well, realising of his partner´s dreams. As a result of that, they get a “complementary” situation.

After overcoming many troubles, the two characters reach their highest achievement at the final part of the film, when Vincent finally goes to space and Jerome leaves him a card for saying him goodbye and Vincent reflects in the rocket about it. The film concludes in an absolutely fantastic reflective way, telling us that they are no differences between humans with different DNA or anything, because as Vincent says, “all of us are made of the same atoms the stars are made of too”.

General meaning.

After the previous analysis and the reflections done, we now understand why the main topic of Gattaca is the destiny of humans since they have born -keep in mind that it is the cause of Vincent problems, it has created all the new society, etc-. Although Andrew Niccol does not communicate only that; he believes that Humanity is not determined by their genes at all, absolutely no, and the clear proof is Vincent.

The story Gattaca is also linked with present time, when Science is often doing new genetic manipulating progresses. Then, there is also a cause-effect relation between recent time and nearby future of Gattaca: We are not really conscious, but Human Genome Project, for example, or genetic modified food which are so common today are probably the precursors a genetically designed humans.

To sum up, the author wants to tell us that, despite possible genetic determining in the future -or nowadays simple discriminations, if we understand the film in a close way-, humans will not be humans only by their genes because they have an overcoming spirit, are nonconformist and are always ready to face the troubles of life with their efforts. A tricky exposed, but extremely valious lesson because of his possible real applications and moral contain, that is as great as the quality of Gattaca. We are not only biological machines; we are humans is the definitive lesson because “there is no gen for human spirit”.

Film background.

Gattaca was directed by Andrew Niccol. He is a director without much experience. Until now, he has directed just four films, and they all are similar in one thing: they criticize society.

In Gattaca he explains us the way the society wants to feel sure about the progress and, due to that, it discriminates the small parts of the society which may be, in some way, harmful to them. That is why they do not believe in the capabilities of an “in-valid” even if he, Jerome or Vincent, is able to do even more than a “valid”.

In other films, as S1m0ne, Niccol shows us the way the society wants to see whatever it wants. When a man wants to reveal a secret but everybody wants to believe the opposite thing nobody believes him, even if saying it would make him less wealthy.

In Lord of War, he criticizes in a very strong way the capitalism in general. With a weird mastery he shows us the way the money is related to wars and global problems. He also shows us a protagonist who makes excuses for himself so he thinks he does good things, another way to masterstroke our society.

In In time he extremes his critical opinion to the society. He makes a big separation between people with powers and people without powers and, as happens in Gattaca, he completely deletes the possibility of progression, destroying in that way the men dreams. However, as usual in films, the protagonist is able to scape from that problems.

The genre of this film is, clearly, the science fiction, but in a sub genre called Bio-punk. This sub genre is all about the science fiction which focus on the consequences of the increasing knowledge in biotechnology. This is actually easy to see in this film where humans know everything about the human genome and are able to know everything about a person in a few seconds and working with them like biological machines.

This film is mostly directed to a young part of the population, and most reasons to think so are :

• The protagonist is a young man.
• It is about the desire to improve, something common in this part of the population.
• It has some elements from the future, and most of the science fiction fans are young people who wants to know more about the future, which is their future.

If we try to establish a comparison with some movies of the same genre, we see a clear difference between these ones and Gattaca. Gattaca has got an almost total absence of special effects. In science fiction film special effects are very important, because they state the difference between a film and a book. However, this may be justified because the film is not really modern (1997) and the plot has got the most of the importance on its own.

Film sheet.

• Original title: Gattaca.
• Running time: 106 minutes.
• Country: United States from America.
• Director: Andrew Niccol, New Zealander screenwriter, producer and director born in 1964. He grew up in Auckland and early moved to UK for directing TV shows. He has directed some successful films as The Truman Show, S1m0ne, The Terminal, the Lord of War and In Time.
• Scriptwriter: Andrew Niccol.
• Music: Michael Nyman.
• Cast:
  • Ethan Hawke: American actor, writer and director born in 1985. He has participated in other science-fiction films as Explorers and has usually performed in some theatre plays.
  • Jude Law: English film director, producer and actor born in 1972. He is a recognised actor who has won some prizes as BAFTA Award and has been nominated for his roles in other films.
  • Uma Thurman: American film actress and model who has performed in many romantic comedies and dramas, and also action films. She has been given the Academy Award nomination.
  • Gore Vidal: American scriptwriter, actor, playwright and activist born in 1925. The most of his career has been focused in writing, not acting.
  • Loren Dean.
• Producer: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Gayl Lyon.
• Genre: science-fiction.
• Website: there is no official website.
• Synopsis: in a nearby future when humans are designed genetically, Vincent is one of the last children born in a natural way. His condition forces him to develop the worst jobs, but with his perseverance and overcoming spirit he fights to enter in Gattaca, a prestigious aerospace industry through which he could achieve his goal of travelling to space.

Introduction.

There is always an amazing film that plays an important role in our lives.


We usually feel identified with them, they sometimes make us understand hidden aspects of the world, make us reflect or simply has an special meaning.


The authors or the blog has found in GATTACA, a extremely backgrounded movie of Andrew Niccol,  not answers, but a new possible evolution the actual society could or might follow according to genetic engineering advances.

We reccomend everybody to watch it  and read our critical commentay to notice its deep meanings.