Gattaca is a science fiction film where the society is portrayed to have their needs and desires of humans met, but not as well as they should be. The story takes place in a society where technology has been drastically progressed in areas of genetics and biology, in which your DNA determines where you belong in life. But with these progressions comes discrimination of those who are not genetically perfect, repressed individuality and loss of personal freedom. The moral of this movie is ‘there is no gene for the human spirit’. Though one can be genetically modified before birth to become perfect as the society expects, that does not apply for the human spirit where modifications are not an option.
This film is a perfect example where perfection stands before happiness, where if you didn’t have the right blood, you would not become successful. Vincent is a ‘normal’ child who later on in his life takes the identity of Jerome, an athlete who has genes that allows him to travel in space, but despite this advantage, he is not satisfied with his life. Reasons being: he was the one least favored by his parents, he was not able to accomplish his dream mainly due to his heart condition, and the only future he could have would be to become a sanitary engineer. Perfection is what society expects, and if you are a ‘defect’, then you are discriminated against. Conformity is also an issue in this movie. It is proved by his parents as they decide to follow the society’s footsteps by attempting to create a genetically enhanced child. Their second child, Anton, is offered more in life because he is more favorable in society. When perfection comes into place, discrimination against those with flaws will always remain. This will cause unhappiness in the society because the families of those who are not bound to be a success are put down. As a result of discrimination and the need to conform, Vincent experiences a terrible life consisting of repressed individuality and loss of personal freedom. In the movie, Vincent would brush off dead cells from his body daily, to prevent his real identity from being discovered. As Vincent hides his real self, by being someone else in order to achieve his ambitions, he displays loss of personal individuality. Through his parent’s discouraging words his dreams of becoming an astronaut are gradually oppressed. Moreover, Vincent lost his personal freedom as a child due to his condition. He was treated as if he would die any moment. An example of this would be when he was younger and fell down, his mom came running, horrified, to make sure he was okay. Putting everything behind and setting aside the fact that he is not meant for what it takes to go into space, he leaves his family trying to achieve his goal. However, by doing so, he loses his identity where as he cannot show who he really is and be approved for what he is. Vincent focused mainly on his goal, and didn’t talk to anyone much, except for Jerome, who provided urine and blood samples, and Irene, whom he pursues a relationship with. But Vincent did not reveal the truth about himself to Irene until he was forced to in a situation where his identity was discovered. Even though Vincent changed his appearance and identity, his DNA remains with him, in which his identity lies in his biological inferiority. Besides Vincent, the society was also devoid of happiness and vitality and fun because the more risks you make the more chances that your success will be at stake especially, because success was the biggest achievement in life in this society. Due to this reason, the people working at Gattaca were put into states where they had to work really hard, and could not take any chances or risks, resulting in a robotic life with no fun. It was almost like their personal freedom is taken away. In the movie Gattaca, the genetic superiority displayed in this film is seen as the desirable trait. Though the majority of the society feels that genetically modifying an unborn is desirable, there are still those who feel that this sort of advancement in technology is immoral. This results in the discrimination of those with flaws and the society that make use of this technology, along with those who do not, experience loss of freedom and cannot show or express who they really are. Vince was a ‘normal’ child, but was much conserved because he was aware that he would not be approved if they found out he was an invalid. But the people that are genetically flawless still go through loss of freedom because they are determined for success, and playing around with this stamina is not an option.