MovieChat Forums > GATTACA (1997) Discussion > The parents

The parents

posted 4 years ago by juli18807 (71)
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Weren’t great. Knowing full well how society treated people like Ethan Hawke differently than his brother, they should’ve made it a point to instill a strong sense of brotherhood between them from the go. To love each other as equals and not let society get in the way. We see early on, how Anton disrespected Vincent, from the beach scene. He viewed Vincent as inferior, instead of as a brother.

I feel like for it to be in the future, you would think the parents would have better parenting skills.

[–] Fandango (534) 3 years ago

The film—much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Moon, and Ex Machina—envisions the dissolution of humanity with each passing technological evolution. There is a suprahuman element in Gattaca, articulated through the film's fascination with visual perfect. "Visually GATTACA conveys an antiseptic world that has been purged of imperfections... [The sets] show a sterile and blemish-free world filled with smooth stainless steel surfaces" (Kirby 2000, 204). The scene in the gym shows symmetry, balance, and order, leaving no room for creativity or individuality, but more importantly, anything human. The treadmills mimic a manufacturing plant, where mankind is commodified and repurposed for "progress."

When Vincent is shown transforming his body, ridding it of imperfection in order to become more like Jerome and merge with the artificial world, he is symbolically and literally shedding his personhood. In his triumph, he loses his individuality and merges with the same world which he hoped to escape, becoming just another serial number of GATTACA's alleged perfection.