My God This Movie Is Great

Yep. Watched it again tonight. Those final scenes get me teary-eyed too--have to make sure I watch it alone, lol. Those little acts of moral rebellion make a world of difference in helping someone achieve his life's dream. This movie speaks to everyone who's ever been held back in life by pettiness, jealousy, stupid rules, and bigotry. (which is probably 99% of us)

Imagine you're on an intercontinental flight and that immediately after takeoff, the cabin manager makes the following announcement:

"Dear passengers, I hope you will join me in celebrating a wonderful achievement of our captain. His name is Vincent. Vincent's childhood dream was to become an airplane navigator but unfortunately he was declared unfit for the job because of his serious heart condition. True, he does occasionally have symptoms of heart disease, like shortness of breath and chest pain, yet he is certainly not the kind of person to be deterred from pursuing his dream so easily. Being quite convinced that he is up to the task and that everything would be fine Vincent decided to falsify his medical records. And indeed, with the clean bill of health readily forged and attached to his application, he smoothly managed to get the plum job and is very proud to take care of your safety today. Can we please get some applause for Vincent's accomplishment and perseverance in the face of adversity? And, by the way, keep your seat belts tightly fastened during the entire flight."

In such situation, you would clap enthusiastically and maybe shed a tear thinking about the greatness of the human spirit?
Or would you be outraged that the guy used deception and irresponsibly put other people's lives at risk to achieve his selfish goal?

(From The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film, 2008)

I felt that the idea with Jude Law's character was that even though he had (theoretically) good genetics, his fate was determined by free will choices, starting with the choice to believe that worth is determined by genetics. As a result of that chosen belief, he makes other self-destructive choices: to throw himself in front of a car, and then to self-immolate at the end. So I thought what the movie was saying was that it isn't your genes but your free will that defines you. Likewise, Ethan Hawke's character is born with genes that are not as good, but he pushes himself.

I don't remember the details of the situation with his heart but I thought his idea with leaving was that once he was off Earth, there would be no point in making him go back. I think his self-worth was determined by outwitting those who believed he was defined by his genes. He wanted to make the statement that his life was worth something even if he didn't fall into the category of "worthwhile" that was defined by those in power. Even if he died during the space flight, I think he would have considered himself to have succeeded.

Yeah that was a really good moment and I think very wise about human nature. You kinda hope if we ever get to a eugenic future that there'll be people like the doctor out there.